John John Exculsive Interview !
Over at our mates stable at StabMag.com you can read the full story !
It used to be that rookies would kinda take a while to feel things out, but you and Gabriel Medina don’t seem to have that mental structure. Me, Gabriel, Miguel and Kolohe, we’ve all watched the Danes, the Jordys, the Kellys. You learn a lot from watching those guys. Then, everyone starts doing QS’s a lot younger nowadays. So I think it’s watching Jordy, Dane and Kelly on the WT, and then trying to go and do that in a QS basically. Then by the time you get to the WT, you’ve learnt a lot. But then, when I got on the WT halfway through last year, I feel like I had to learn everything all over again. It’s a whole different ball park.
The beauty of what you do is that you look to have no rules. You’ve rewritten em. Every heat is with one of the best surfers in the world. It’s full of surprises.
Gimme a play-by-play, after winning a contest, from podium to bed? I went back to my hotel room and my phone had a bunch of texts from home, from friends and family, so I called them first, my mum and my brothers. When I got back to my room I was really tired, y’know, I was overwhelmed from everything. So I rested, I took a nap and hung out in my room for a coupla hours. We had a pool downstairs so afterwards, I went down and did a bunch of interviews by the pool, with lots of local media. After that… it was funny, y’know, I thought everyone was leaving Brazil early, so I was gonna get outta there. Then when I got down to the pool, Yadin (Nicol), Kerrzy (Josh), Occy and all those boys were down there having cold beers. They were like “Nope, you’re not leaving.” I was like, fuck… (laughs). So I changed my plans and we ended up having a really fun time. We went out to dinner at a Churrascaria with the sickest crew, maybe 20 of us. It was all the guys I said just before, plus the Hobgoods, Freddy P(atacchia), (Brett) Simpo, the Gudangs and more. We got all the tables in the restaurant and put them into a big U shape, so everyone was facing everyone. Then we went out to a bar, everyone was drinking, it was really fun. Such a great night. – Elliot Struck
