jonjon-florence-stance-port  

 

靈魂人物誌#1

JJF profile

 

參考翻譯

The Surfer Profile : John John Florence

 

文中人物

主角 : John John Florence

母親 : Alex Florence

兄弟 : Nathan Florence(二弟), Ivan Florence(三弟)

朋友 : Jamie O'Brien (JOB)

鄰居 : Pete Johnson

削板師 : John Pyzel

 

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JJF-bros

 

The tree groans as the boys climb. For years they’ve scampered up its branches for a view of the surf, snowy little monkey heads emerging from the canopy as each set rolls through. The kids even built a crow’s nest from some old timber to improve the vista. But the kids aren’t kids anymore. They’re all spidery limbs and teenage beef, and the tree is struggling to hold them. The branches no longer grow toward the sun, they’ve been trained Earthward by a million pounds of grommet. The crow’s nest has developed a distinct lean. Alex Florence sees her three sons standing in its branches, staring down the beach straight into the barrel at Pipeline. She shakes her head. “That poor tree.” 

 

大樹搖晃地嘎滋作響, 孩子們活蹦亂跳地爬上樹頭 , 只為了找到最棒的遠方視野. 甚至還在樹上用枯木枝蓋起了鳥巢, 調整巢穴的方向, 讓牠們也可以一起看著海上的大人們衝浪. 時間過得飛快, 轉眼間, 這些孩子已經長大了. 就像一般的青少年一樣, 好奇囉嗦的童言童語, 活動力更足地像蜘豬人一樣到處亂爬. 樹枝已經快要承受不住們的重量, 在這樣下去, 總有一天樹會倒的. 三個孩子的媽 - Alex Florence (艾力克斯 彿羅倫斯), 看著他們站在樹上, 一邊也盯著 Pipeline 海上浪管, 突然間想清楚了 : "你們快點給我離開那棵樹 ".

 

The Florences are going snowboarding in Mammoth. It’s almost Christmas, and they’re in the process of packing up their tiny, whitewashed beach house at Ehukai to vacation rent while they’re in the snow. John John, Nathan, and Ivan Florence roam the house, cell phones in hand. Their friends wander in and out. The house feels communal. Up until recently all three boys shared the one bedroom, but John John, now 18, has recently moved out onto the guest bed in the sunroom. The house appears to be shrinking. The timbers creak in protest as the boys walk around. The Florences could always move somewhere bigger, but where they live is who they are. They moved in here seven years ago from the house two doors up and are unlikely to move again.

 

鏡頭移到當時 Florences 與小鬼頭們準備到 Mammoth 滑雪的時間點, 還正打掃著當時在Ehukai海邊租的房子, 準備在聖誕節前夕去山上旅行. 外頭白雪皚皚, John John﹑Nethan與Ivan拿著手機在家裡閒晃, 朋友們也是在屋子裡進出自如, 這邊就像一個交誼廳的自由自在. 後來John John到了18歲的年紀, 沒辦法擠下原本房間裡的床, 於是他移到了原本西曬的客房自己睡. 地板木頭被男孩們踩的發出吱吱聲響, 經過七年, 他們長大了, 房裡空間也隨著時間變化的窄小.

 

“We just walked our stuff down the little dirt road here which was pretty cool,” recalls Alex. Amid the chaos the kitchen table is the eye of the storm, and Alex Florence sits, nursing a cup of tea. “You definitely caught us on a mellower morning.”

 

當時候家裡那小小的廚房, 還有餐桌上雜亂的情境, 簡直就是個風暴. Alex 回憶著, "如果能夠在那群混亂中走出一條小路, 是一件厲害的事". 她一邊招待著咖啡一邊接受訪問.

 

"往事歷歷在目, 一個早上故事說不完的".

 

Alex Florence moved from the Mainland to Hawaii on a whim at 16. “I saw this movie Beyond Blazing Boards. I used to watch it all the time when I was a teenager and I was like, ‘I’m going there! I’m going to be one of those girls on the beach.’” She married early, had boys, three. The marriage soured. “I’d just go to the beach with my boys all day to escape it. Surfing was an escape for me and it made me happy, and I brought the boys with me into the water because I just wanted their lives to be happy. My kids are close to me; we’ve been through a lot together.” The inevitable divorce followed—John John was 5 at the time—and the split remains raw. Alex cocooned herself around her boys. Team Florence was born. “My kids have always been my best friends. We have all kind of grown up together in our own little world here on the beach.”

 

那年她16歲, 還在懵懂少年迷惘的時期 , Alex 就從歐胡島搬到夏威夷. "我曾經把那部電影 Beyond Blazing Board 反覆看了幾百遍, 我想要跟那些女孩一樣, 到他們去過的浪點".

 

早婚的她, 雖然扶養擁有三個可愛的孩子, 但婚姻關係並不是很順利. 衝浪是一個僅存讓她發洩舒發壓力的管道. "那是唯一可以讓我開心的理由, 也是一個心靈的出口, 於是我每天都帶著孩子們往海邊跑, 因為我只想給他們- 單純的快樂 ", 她說.

 

"在那海灘上, 我們有著小小的天地與愉快的回憶, 孩子們總是我最好的朋友".

 

離婚是無法挽回的結果, 但 Alex仍緊緊的保護著他們, 讓孩子能夠留在自己身邊, 於是單親家庭的生活重擔就靠在母親身上. 那年, John John Florence 年紀5歲.

 

“They’ve been through these hardships. They haven’t had an easy ride,” said family friend and the Florence’s old neighbor, Pete Johnson. “Looking in from the outside it might seem like this perfect life here on the beach at Pipeline, but it’s been hard for them. They’ve had to struggle to make ends meet and get bills paid. That black truck in the driveway now is the first big shiny thing they’ve ever bought, and there’s been a lot of old beaters in that driveway before it. She’s been a great mother, Alex, a loving mother. Raising three boys on the North Shore as a single mother is not easy. There is a lot of trouble kids can find here.”

 

"他們撐過來那段時間了, 那不是一件容易的事", 一個之前的老鄰居-Peter Johnson說. "雖然住在海灘對大部分的人來說是一件夢想, 但事實上, 在 Pipeline 生活對彿羅倫斯家庭並不是那麼容易. 一個母親的單親家庭來說, 為了生計痛苦地掙扎, 每個月都要面臨著家庭支出的壓力, 靠著一台黑色的小貨車維生. 在三個小朋友懂事之前, Alex 她必須一個人承擔, 勇敢的駛向光明.

 

Alex rides a longboard. She rides it well. John John followed her into the ocean when he was two and paddled out at Pipe when he was five. “I just remember seeing him out there at Pipe thinking, ‘God, he’s f–king young, he’s going to get drilled,’” recalls the previous tenant of the Florence’s beach house, Jamie O’Brien. “His mom was on the beach yelling, ‘Get out there! Get out there!’ And I remember surfing Pupukea and Petey Johnson pushed John John into this wave, and he air-dropped from top to bottom and got so lit up. I paddled straight over there to rescue his ass. His board was tombstoning and I thought I was going to have to pull him up by his leash. This kid was 6 years old taking off on a 6-footer. I was like, holy shit.” He laughs. “That was funny though, when he was younger I’m not sure he knew what he wanted, but I’m pretty sure everyone else did, you know.”

 

Alex 是一位優秀的長板選手, John John 2歲的時候, 她就帶著他出海. 5歲的時候 JJF 就已經可以划出 Pipe 的outside. "記得當時, 我看著他跟著我划出來, 天阿, 他才幾歲, 這個小屁孩鑽著鑽著還真的成功了, 我想是 Florence 家庭與生俱來的水性與天賦", Jamie O'Brien敘述著當時的情景. "快點, 趕快划出去, 當時他們在Pupukea, Peter Johnson 指導著 John John 趕快離開衝擊區, 但來不及, 我看到他被浪捲到騰空, 板子也立起來像墓碑一樣, 我得趕快去拯救他的屁股, 而且可能要拉著腳繩把他帶回來. 他才6歲, 挑戰六呎高的浪, 我的媽呀", JOB 笑著說. “那真是太有趣了. 不確定他知不知道自己要什麼, 但我確定的是, 他的天賦與別人不同".

 

I tell Alex I’d heard a rumor she wouldn’t let John John surf Waimea until he was at least 12 years old. “That’s not true,” she clarifies, “I probably encouraged him to surf it before then. I was probably like, ‘C’mon, let’s go!’ He was surfing Pinballs inside Waimea when he was 7. When he was little, we went everywhere together. I was their Mom and they were my little buddies and we’d just pull up somewhere and go, ‘It looks pretty good, let’s get out there.’ I didn’t really ever put any limitations on him because he was young. I was like, I think he’s strong enough to handle it.”

Alex does, however, admit to freaking out a bunch of times when he paddled out as a kid. “Mainly at big Pipe and Phantoms where you can’t see him. But the Bay, I never really freaked out about him being out there. Kids grow up quick here on the North Shore.”

 

聽說妳原本是規定 John John 要滿12歲才可以去 Waimea 衝浪, 是吧? 不, 才不是那樣, 她接著澄清. 其實在他12歲之前, 我就鼓勵他在那邊衝浪 . 走吧, 我們去試試, 就像是這麼自然的語氣.

 

我記得那時候他才7歲, 就在 inside 裡面像顆彈珠一樣跑來跑去. 在海上, 我沒有規定他不能出去到outside多遠, 他到哪邊我就會陪著一起, 因為John John 與孩子們都是我的衝浪好夥伴, 我們也常對彼此互相打氣. 即使那時候他划出outside的時候我擔心得要死, 但總是相信著, 他已經夠強應付這些大浪. 不訝異,在北岸 Pipe 與 Phantoms 那些大浪浪點打滾久了, 他最後還是可以出去outside, 在這邊他們成長的速度比想像中的快.

 

Alex Florence is the mother every surfing teenager wishes they had, although they’re unlikely to admit the fact till a few years later. At 18, your Mom can never be truly cool, even when she is. Alex surfs, she skates. She jokingly refers to herself as Mom-John. She is still the beach girl she dreamt of being at 16; lithe, tanned, long blond hair. She’s walked the line between fun-loving big sister and hardass mom for years. She’s a little Bohemian, a dreamer, an idealist. “Alex never let them have a TV, and the three brothers begged me their whole young lives to get them one,” recalls Pete Johnson. “One Christmas me and John John overrode Alex and went out and bought a 26-inch TV. She freaked out on us…but the TV stayed.” The Florences have always done things a little differently. The television would sit gathering dust for long periods of time when Alex took the all-surfing, all-skating Florences on the road.

 

Alex Florence 肯定是每個愛衝浪的青少年心中, 最理想的媽媽, 雖然三個小男孩當時候還未感受到, 只感覺到母親很cool, 冷酷的"酷", 直到過了幾年之後才發現母親的用心良苦. Alex 喜愛衝浪, 也玩滑板, 她總是稱自己叫 Mom-John. 他仍是當年那位16歲愛海灘的女孩, 留著一襲棕色長髮, 身體柔軟靈活地在浪上的表現. 隨著小朋友長大, 越來越懂事, 某些時刻他必須扮演一個嚴厲的母親, 有時候也想回到鄰家大姊的輕鬆. 不過也是個理想家﹑白日夢冒險王, “她甚至規定小孩子完全不能夠看電視, JJF他們最後跑來求我", Pete Johnson回憶說著.

 

“I think it was May, and I had just finished my classes at UH,” recalls Alex, “so I packed the family up and went to Bali. John was 8, Nathan 5, and Ivan was only 3 and had a broken leg. Seriously, I showed up in Bali with three little kids, one with a broken leg, hardly any money, and I was just like, ‘I think we’ll go to Bingin.’ I’d gone there as a teenager and knew a local family there. So we headed to Bingin and stayed at the warung right on the beach for four months at two bucks a night. I’d carried Ivan down all those stairs with a broken leg and I looked back up the cliff and I was like, ‘Well, I guess we’re staying a while.’ When we got there it was really funny, because at the time John was starring on this little video game where you could make him surf the wave. Well, we get there and the local guys are all like, ‘John John! John John!’ He’s climbing down the cliffs at Uluwatu and the locals are just screaming at him. He was kind of well known over there. He was already big in Bali.”

 

"某年的五月, 記得才剛結束了在UH的課程", Alex繼續回憶著. "我帶著他們三個去峇里島玩, 那年John John 8歲, Nathan 5歲, Ivan 只有3歲. 其實那次經驗帶得很辛苦, Ivan那時候腿還骨折受傷, 加上出遊任何花費都是要四個人份. 不過在年輕的時候有去過Bingin海灘, 當時有認識當地的一戶人家, 我們就這樣在海灘旁邊住了四個月, 每天住宿費是2塊美元. 雖然有些時候辛苦, 每天要揹著Ivan爬上爬下, 但大部分時光很開心, 我們可以待在這個浪點long stay, 讓John John練習衝浪, 只不過他超愛的一部分原因可能是可以狂玩電腦遊戲機. 當地local非常熱情好相處, 在JJF準備要下Uluwatu浪點的時候, 常常叫著 “John John! John John!”. 短短時間, JJF已經成為大家關注的一個焦點了.

 

John John Florence was the original prepubescent superstar, the most famous surfer in the world under 4 feet tall. His career trajectory was steep. At age 13, he made his debut in the Triple Crown, his first heat at maxing Haleiwa; a blond smurf on a big red board, the waves six times overhead. He stood 4’11″ and weighed 85 pounds. He surfed in the Pipe Masters the same year. John John soon became the chief breadwinner of the Florence house, the breadwinner still boarding the school bus every day.

“Kahuku High School has seen a lot of surfers before,” says Alex, and they were pretty cool with John missing a little bit of school and taking work on the road with us.” Alex would chaperone John John on all his surf trips overseas. The Florence family’s wanderings continued.

 

John John 是青少年組4呎身高以下, 當地前景最看好的超級新星, 他的職涯發展快速拉升. 在13歲時, 他在Triple Crown 首次亮相, 於Haleiwa 進行第一場的賽次. 當時他騎乘一張紅色板子, 那時候的浪大概是他6倍身高. 他的登錄身高為4呎11", 體重85磅. 同年, 他也在Pipe Masters開始比賽. 很快的, 他已經變成家裡主要經濟的支柱, 但其實他跟一般小朋友一樣, 還在學校坐校車上課的年紀.

 

“The trip to Puerto was a nightmare,” remembers Alex. “John broke his ankle and the other two contracted this flesh-eating bacteria on their legs playing in stormwater. We stayed in Puerto for four months. John was pretty bummed with his ankle. We weren’t sure whether it was broken or not so we took him to this sketchy doctor in Puerto and the guy looks at his ankle and says, ‘I think we have to amputate.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God! I think I’ll go and get a second opinion on that.’ We ended up at this local faith healer, a witchdoctor. John John’s ankle was all purple and swollen, and the Indian healer started chanting and then took the ankle and just cracked it. We stayed another three weeks. I was towing John John around behind me in a little toy wagon the whole time.”

 

"那趟旅程 Puerto 真是場噩夢", Alex 回憶著. "我們在Puerto待了四個月, John 扭斷他的腳踝, 另外兩個弟弟調皮的還在旁邊不停逗弄他的腳. John John看起來非常疼痛, 我趕緊帶他去看當地的醫生, 回想起來真的不是那麼專業, 誇張的醫生竟然說John的腳需要截肢, Oh my God!太扯了. 我們馬上逃離現場去找第二個選擇, 當時John 的腳踝已經腫到發紫. 後來找到當地具有公信力的治療師, 原來也是一個巫師, 他看到受傷的腳踝後開始唱起了歌, 並用力橋了幾下. 記得那次旅行我們多待了三個禮拜, 整天的移動我都必須拖著小推車拉著John John跟在後面.

 

At this point John John sits down at the kitchen table and joins the conversation. He yawns. It’s the middle of the Hawaiian winter and he’s been surfing a lot, even for him. He’s a quiet kid, but few 18-year-olds are too candid with their mom sitting opposite. Alex has seen a lot with her kids, but realizes there’s a lot more she probably hasn’t seen. The pair has been through so much together—Alex having devoted her past 10 years to John’s career—but the relationship seems no different than that of any mother and her teenage son. John doesn’t say a whole lot when asked about his upbringing, his surfing as a kid, his mom. He’s been through it all a million times. He is very keen, however, to talk about The Now. About Pipeline. Dane. Busted jet skis. The Tour. Fighting with his brothers.

 

說到這邊, John John 坐在餐桌上參與我們的談話, 打了個呵欠懶得繼續這個話題.

 

移地訓練的幫助, 相對於夏威夷人的冬天, John John 那年衝的訓練量高出許多. 這一切都在Alex的計畫當中, 10年的用心栽培, 他以一個不到18歲的年紀, 累積的經驗早已超出一般青少年. 從他們的互動看得出來, JJF與Alex之間的就像一般的母子沒兩樣, 就這麼嚴格的訓練來說, 他不敢有太多的抱怨, 但也沒太多感謝的話語. 畢竟還在我們懂事之前那個單純的成長階段, 只對於衝浪與滑板有絕對的熱情, 還有兄弟之間的打打鬧鬧的情感.

 

“Yeah, me and my brothers used to fight all the time,” laughs John John, “but not so much these days. Me and Ivan used to get in a lot of fights. One time in Indo we were flying to Padang and I was messing around with his magazine. I kept slapping it in his face, and he goes, ‘If you do that again I’m going to hit you.’ I did it again and he hit me, just opened me up.”

“Yeah, like, boom! Just nailed him,” says Alex. “We were on a plane on the way to Jakarta.”

“It was Padang,” snaps John John with a hint of irritation.

“Okay, so it was Padang. It’s like a plane full of Indonesians and John has got blood on him yelling, ‘I’m going to kill him!’ It was horrible.”

I ask John if he got payback.

“Not then…later.” A demonic chuckle escapes. In glorious detail he recounts stories of sibling punch-ups in Australia, South Africa, on the slopes of Mammoth. The Florences on the road. “Ivan and Nathan had a gnarly one in South Africa. And I filmed it! I have the footage somewhere. It was so cool.”

Alex disapproves. “John, it was not cool.”

 

"沒錯, 我和兄弟們曾經有段時間每天都在打架", John John 笑著說. "但也沒有很久拉, 不過我好像跟Ivan比較常打架. 記得有一次我們去印度尼西亞 Padang, 旅途中我們一邊討論起他的雜誌, 不過我就是調皮的用它一直去打他的臉. 然後他終於受不了說, '你再打一次試看看, 我會揍你'. 結果我還是繼續賞他, 他最後就爆衝了".

 

"是的, 他理智線斷了, 瘋狂抓著John John", Alex 她說. "那時我們在往 Jakarta 班機上".

 

"是要去Padang 拉", John John 馬上糾正她. "喔, 對拉, 是Padang, 那飛機上載滿了印尼人, 而你們兩個在上面鬼吼鬼叫的, 我記得Ivan還說 '我要殺了John John那小子', 那真是一趟很尷尬的飛行經驗", Alex 敘述著.

 

John John 你有沒有被你弟打回來, "後來沒有耶, 我溜掉了", 接著John John 又繼續說在澳洲、南非以及Mammoth, 他與弟弟 Ivan 和 Nethan 到處打架的豐功偉業. "我們一家人都是這樣的, 有一次Ivan 跟 Nethan也打得很激烈, 我還有錄下來, 超酷的".

 

"那並不酷", Alex 反對著.

 

The Florence boys’ brawling tendencies don’t spill outside the brotherhood, however.

“Growing up on the North Shore usually breeds a real tough guy,” says Pete Johnson, “but I really like how John and his brothers haven’t bought into that. I’ve never seen John John get mad at anybody in the water. All three of them rely on their talent to get by and don’t rely on playing the localism card. They get by on a smile and obeying the rules. I think they’ve been traveling so much since they were really young that it’s leveled a lot of that out. John John’s a good kid—a nice, polite, likeable kid. He’s not stuck up or cocky. He’s almost the opposite of that.”

 

雖然Florence家族兄弟之間愛打架愛吵鬧, 但對於外人可是大不同. "在北岸成長的孩子海上每個都是硬漢, 大浪造就出的好水手,"Pete Johnson自豪地說, "但我真正喜歡他們兄弟的原因, 除了技術以外, 還有待人謙遜的教養, 我從未看過JJF在海上對任何人發過脾氣. 或許是天賦和反應可以讓他們避開一切阻礙, 而不是下浪就開local掃蕩令. 旅行與各地衝浪訓練讓他們的程度與態度超乎高手之上, 可以微笑瞬間融入所有海域. 在我眼中的John John就是個人見人愛, 有禮貌的好孩子.

 

This past Hawaiian winter saw John John Florence become simply John. Every mention of him in the media was qualified with the fact that the superfluous John was now gone. Little John John was all grown up. At 18 years of age and 6 feet tall, it hardly seemed right for him to be sporting a kid’s name. A kid named John John doesn’t surf Pipeline the way he does. A kid named John John, it turns out, didn’t really care. “It’s no big deal to me. It’s a bigger deal for everyone else by the sounds of it. All my friends still call me John John.” The semantics of one John or two might not mean a whole lot to John (John) himself, but for those who’ve followed the career of this child prodigy it signals a coming of age. He’s been a kid forever. He’s not a kid anymore.

 

以前夏威夷人看到John John Florence可能會直接叫 John, 部分原因可能是贏得比賽帶來的知名度, 成熟的表現令人早就忘了他的年紀, 疊字不適合, JJF早就長大了. 18歲6呎身高, 稱John John似乎與別人不同, 小時候的小名在Pipeline搭配這樣的實力, 可能是外界無法解讀的. "對我不是太大問題, 只是其他人聽到的感覺不同, 我的朋友都還是叫我John John", JJF提到. 不管是一個稱John或是John John, 差異還不足以代表他的全部, 不過如果有追到他整段職涯發整的衝浪迷們, 肯定可以感受到時間的變化, 他有奇蹟式崛起的童年, 但此時此刻 John John已不再是小孩子了.

 

The scene: The SURFER Magazine house, Pupukea, 2 a.m. A mildly torched gathering of pro surfers and wheezy mag hacks enter into a spirited hour-long debate, the proposition being that John Florence might just be the best surfer in the world right now. A career Kiss of Death, surely, but John has lived with expectation all his short life. However bold as the call might be, there is little doubt that John’s surfing has gone to new and astounding places recently; in small waves, big waves, at Pipeline. He looked odds-on favorite to win the Sunset contest this year.

 

凌晨2a.m, SURFER雜誌小編正在位於夏威夷 Pupukea 的編輯室, 收集整理許多JJF的相關資料, 加上長時間的討論, 準備一步步透析一衝浪高手的背後的故事. 想必大家看到這篇文章的時候, John John Florence 也許已經, 參加巡迴賽衝過世界各地最知名的大小浪點, 成為世界上最好的衝浪手之一. 在這個挑戰恐懼邊界的極限運動界中, 他膽識過人, 所有的期待都將點燃JJF的未來, 準備發光發熱.

 

“It was Sunset Point as long as I’ve seen it,” recalls John, who used a quarter-mile of it as his own personal half pipe. Three air-reverses on one wave, each one melting into the next. He’s had the chops for years, but now has the meat on his bones to make them count. The blond avatar of a kid has been test-driving this new, bigger body of his for the past couple of years, and now the thing works fluidly, doing exactly what it’s told. He only lost at Sunset when his leash snagged fast on the reef at Boneyards during his semifinal, forcing him to swim. His surfing screamed snow and skate, the cross-pollination having begun up the road skating Cholo’s Bowl and continuing now at the skate park opposite Rockpiles.

 

"Sunset浪點我熟的很,那種感覺我衝過一次就不曾忘記",John說著,平常他在pipe衝到一半往北再走1/4英里就可以到達,就像他家廚房一樣。一道浪連續3次空中旋轉air, 串接的毫無瑕疵. 雖然之前每個階段都有中斷了幾個時期, 但現在他勢在必行, 準備實現成為一流選手的夢想. 這個金髮阿凡達準備搭上他新的日益茁壯的身體, 可以更流暢的運用每個部位的肌力去完成各個衝浪動作的細節. 這次Sunset比賽晉級到四強止步, 中途腳繩還被Boneyards的珊瑚礁弄斷了, 逼得他還必須游一段, 稍為可惜了一點. 另外, 他平常也常利用滑雪和滑板來瘋狂練習, 或是利用極限運動場來模擬衝浪.

 

“Yeah, the park has a lot of big hips in it and they’re so good for doing airs off,” he says. “It’s almost the same thing as surfing; you do an air off it and you’re looking down at where you’re going to land. Just trying to stay over your board really helps out a lot. You can’t do throwaway airs on concrete.”

 

"這個練習場有很多高手, 他們可以做出超棒的air動作", 他說. "在極限運動場練習滑板與衝浪很像, 主要可以練習你的反應以及你的眼睛, 該看哪裡著地. 盡量想辦法完全控制你的滑板, 你應該也不想再水泥地上噴板吧?

 

John surfed the biggest day of the season at Mavericks last year. “That place is gnarly. It’s like big, brown water, huge barrels, and full suits.” He’s incredibly comfortable in big surf. Pete Johnson recounts a story of John at Phantoms, taking off on a 20-footer and laughing as he spots his shaper, John Pyzel, in the flats about to cop said wave on the head. “I’ve never seen anyone laughing themselves to tears on a 20-foot wave before,” recalls Pete.

 

John去年趁Mavericks最大浪的時候去挑戰. "那個浪點真是令人咋舌, 是世界上數一數二的大浪點, 那又高又大的褐色能量, 捲起完整又具毀滅性的浪." 但他在巨浪之中完全毫不緊張. Pete Johnson提到有一次, JJF在同樣也是大浪點的Phantoms下了一道浪高20呎, 那時與他同行的削板師John Pyzel 看他追到浪起乘的瞬間, John在浪頭上竟然露出那一絲絲滿意的笑. Pete回憶著說 "沒看過有人衝這種浪還笑得出來" .

 

John’s got a ski that had been read its last rites by the mechanic the day before we talk. “Him and Kiron Jabor,” laughs Pete, “you could have made a classic documentary following those two and their ski. No one took them under their wing and said, ‘This is how you tow,’ they just kind of went for it and made every possible mistake in the book. The highlight of the documentary would be them driving home from one of their first tow-sessions, going 40 miles an hour, and their ski comes off the trailer and passes them. They looked at each other and went, ‘Was that our ski?’ It went flying into the bush. And the first person to drive by was Derrick Doerner, who was the last guy you want to see you in a situation like that. He’s going to give it to you.”

 

John在我們訪問之前才剛滑雪完, 他每次出擊都當做最後一次. "他和Kiron Jabor默契不錯", Pete笑著說, "你可以用錄影來記錄他們兩個滑雪. 沒有人可以看得住他們, 他們會盡其所能做出所有的教科書上的動作, 撞來撞去甚麼都不怕. 紀錄片的內容應該就是他們以40英哩的速度出發做出第一個動作之後, 經過他們車旁並互相看了一下問, "我們就只能做到這樣嗎?". 然後繼續在樹林中穿越. 而這個運鏡的第一人選一定是Derrick Doerner, 也一定是影片最後想看到的人, 他一定能拍出激情的影片".

 

 

But it’s at Pipeline, unsurprisingly, where John looks most at home. “When I’m here, I surf it every day. It’s like anything else: you do it often enough, you’re going to get it down.” He spends the next 15 minutes talking fluent Pipeline—classic days and horrid drubbings, the nuances of swell direction and tube philosophy. He talks about how he’s gone from being a novelty out there as a pup to being accepted in his own right today by the older Pipe guys. “They definitely don’t help me out too much anymore,” he laughs, “but I’ve had way more waves in the past couple of years than I ever have before.” Last year, he scored a perfect 10 in the Pipe Masters and made the top 16 in the event. This year he was barely defeated by Kelly Slater, who said later it’s only a matter of time before John wins out there. “Pipe would be a dream to win,” says John from the end of the kitchen table. “Jamie’s won, like, five events out there, and then there’s Andy and Kelly. The winner’s board at Pipe goes Andy, Kelly, Andy, Kelly.”

 

“For years,” says John, “Kelly would try and wrestle me and my brothers and pretty much just ragdoll us. But this year we’ve gotten a lot bigger, so I think we can finally take him. I actually saw him out in the lineup a few days ago and asked him about it. He said that his shoulder was sore and came up with a few excuses.”

 

不訝異, 在Pipeline John John可以找到最真實的自我."當我在這邊的時候, 我每天都衝浪. 早已變成了一種習慣. 任何一件事只要你做的頻率超過一定程度, 到最後你每天肯定得完成它才能罷休". 他會再花15分鐘討論每日Pipeline的心得, 那些在浪管裡面翻滾整天的結論, 與湧浪方向, 浪管的捲度曲度的各項變化.

 

2011年, 為JJF進入WCT第一年, 在Pipe masters分站闖進了Round3, 雖然被Kelly Slater擊敗, 但K神也說, John John要贏得這個分站冠軍是遲早的事.

 

"贏得Pipe冠軍就是我的夢想", John John 在廚房的餐桌那一頭說著. "如果講到pipe的英雄榜一定會提到Jamie O’Brien, 還有 Andy 與 Kelly, 或者是Kelly & Andy…". "我的老天, 他們拿了好多年冠軍", JJF接著說, "Kelly 每次都在浪上電我和老哥JOB". 不過今年我們又更強壯了, 總有一天我們可以擊敗他的. 幾天前我還在等浪區看到Kelly, 我便跟他說了這件事. 他只回我說, 反正我一下浪就會有好分數, 而且還有一些你不懂的眉角."

 

“It was funny,” says Jamie O’Brien, “yesterday there was just me, Kelly, and John John in the lineup at Pipe, and we were all out there calling each other into waves. I took a good one off John John, snaked him, and I come out of the barrel and turn around and he’d gotten a better one. I was like, ‘You little shithead!’ It’s been classic—ever since he found his place at Pipe it’s always been like me and John John hassling each other at Backdoor, like, ‘Brah, I’m going right!’ He’s even faded me a couple of times out there. But every morning he’s out there. It’s pretty cool, you know.” He laughs. “I even give him some waves now. He was charging out there when he was younger, but there comes a point where you can charge but you don’t have the muscle to control it. He’s got some muscle, and it takes some muscle to surf Pipe. You can’t be 13 years old and slaying Pipe. You’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to be a man.” The extra pounds are proving a confidence pill against the best.

 

"有一次很有趣", JOB想起, "昨天我跟Kelly還有John John 一起在pipe等浪區, 中間我們一直互相叫對方下浪. 我下了一道不錯的浪, 並且從John的旁邊呼嘯而過, 等我從浪管出來準備回頭的時候, 又看到他逮到更好的大浪. 心裡想著”OOXX咧, 這個王八蛋, 硬是要跟我拼. 這就是我們一直上演的追逐戲碼, 就像是在說 : 我才是對的!! 每一天都衝到我筋疲力盡, 然後隔天又看到JJF在活繃亂跳, 他對衝浪總是那麼熱情, "JOB笑著說. "所以我現在都會先讓他先下浪. 他從小時候就可以在pipe衝隨心所欲. 重點就是, 雖然你能下的了大浪, 但要能控制在中間是需要協調與肌力, 但這些能力JJF都有. 你不可能在13歲的時候可以克服pipeline的浪況, 即使你很強壯, 你也是個男人".

 

自信, 我想是他能戰勝強對手的關鍵.

 

“He’s helped me out a lot over the years out there,” says John of Jamie, the parallels between their surfing becoming more obvious daily. “Telling me to stand up more in the barrel, telling me to stall more. If you watch him, he wants to stay in the barrel; he doesn’t want to come out. He’s able to control his speed and stay in there when he wants and come out when he wants. That’s the ultimate goal out there at Pipe. If you can do that in a barrel, you can win anything at Pipe.”

 

"他幫助我想通很多事", 身為好友後輩的John說, 他們每天都有可以互相學習進步的地方. "他告訴我可以在浪管中站越久越好, 或是下浪速度可以拼快一點甚至有點失速. 假使你有看過他衝浪, 你就知道他是真心想要待在浪管裡面, 根本不想出來. 他可以控制在管中的速度, 直到他覺得該出來的時候, 隨心所欲. 這就是鑽管的終級技巧, 若你真的可以做到這些, 你一定可以在Pipe拿到勝利.

 

Three weeks after we talk at the kitchen table, John paddles out at Pipe on the final day of the Backdoor Shootout. He’s sick. He’d been running a fever of 105 the previous night, and his Mom is pouring Gatorade and Tylenol down his throat. His head and stomach are warzones. He grabs his contest shirt and sprints into the water with a Code Brown emergency. He paddles out. It’s 10- to 12-foot Pipe, and he’s facing all the best Hawaiian Pipe guys, all the guys he’s grown up idolizing. With everyone else surfing Pipe, John paddles over to Backdoor and scores an 11. The prophecy is fulfilled. His win at Pipeline has come sooner than even he expected.

 

那天我們在餐桌聊完, 過了三天後, John John 抱病在Pipe比賽划出Shootout Backdoor. 前幾天晚上還發燒到40度, 他媽餵他吃了不少退燒藥和運動飲料, 身體還在頭暈和胃痛中, 便抓了賽衣衝刺上場. 那天Pipe浪高大約10~12英呎(3~4公尺), 他面對都是最強的夏威夷選手, 全部都是他的偶像, 結果後來還得了11分. 能夠在Pipeline贏得大型賽事的速度, 超出自己想像.

 

John’s going to travel the world next year. Mom’s going to stay at home. She’s apprehensive. She let him fly without her to Indonesia last year only for him to land in Padang two hours after an earthquake had flattened the hotel he was booked into. John wants to make the Tour. John wants to make movies, even buying a remote control helicopter to mount a camera on. “I think he’s going to be at the top of the roster on the Tour,” predicts Jamie. “Give him a couple of years to get some meat on his bones and he’s going to be killing it. And if he gets frustrated on the Tour, he can always come and join me…then shit’s really going to hit the fan!”

 

JJF明年即將展開新的世界巡回旅程, 這次老媽可不會隨身跟著走, 她難免擔心了起來. 不過去年她就有讓John自己坐飛機到印尼旅行, 有順利抵達, 只是那次住宿的旅舍被兩個小時前的大地震, 震垮而已. 他開始會想要自己規劃旅行, 也想要拍紀錄的短片或電影, 甚至還想買搖控直升機來拍攝. JOB猜想著, "我想他已經把自己當作世界排名的固定班底, 相信再給他個幾年磨練, 很快他就可以出師了. 如果不順利或是失敗了也沒關係, 回來老家我讓他靠, 不過那是不太可能的事, 說說而已". 

 

What John Florence might become is anyone’s guess. He might yet become the best surfer in the world, but the prospect isn’t keeping him awake at night. “I try not think about it,” he says of the expectation heaped upon him. “I just go surfing and live my life.” His star will get bigger and Mom will have her work cut out for her. “You know, it’s just so country out here,” says Alex. “The fame doesn’t even seem like anything out here. The girls are a little out of control though.”

 

成為世界第一的衝浪選手, 這是每個人對John John的期望. 但這個壓力不小, 有時讓他也會輾轉難眠. "我試著不要想太多", 他說. "我只要專心衝浪, 認真過好每一天". Alex說, 當他的名氣越來越響亮, 還是會影響一些我平常的工作, 那些熱情女孩會有點失控.

 

"這樣也還好吧?", John反對著說. "那又沒什麼".

"老實說搞得我神經兮兮的", Alex笑著說. "那真的有時會讓人緊張, 常常一群女粉絲撲上來, 撲向一個18歲的年輕人".

 

我提說, 你們不討論一下讓John搬出去阿, 雖然他變公眾人物了, 但總有一天他還是要有自己的空間吧?

 

"每次我們講到這話題就會吵架!" John趁機會說, "我要搬出去住啦!".

"他總是想跑出去開趴替, 我就說不準! 然後他就會說, 好阿那我要搬出去住. 我也說好阿, 那我跟你一起搬出去".

 

“I don’t think so,” counters John. “I don’t mind it.”

“I’m kind of weirded out by it actually,” laughs Alex. “It’s just weird when there are women approaching him. It’s like, whoa, he’s 18 and you’re in your 30s. Beat it!”

I ask John and Alex whether they’ve talked about him moving out. That sunroom doesn’t afford much privacy.

“Every time when we get into a fight!” cackles John. “‘I’m moving out!’”

“He wants to go party and I’m like, ‘No!’ and he’s like, ‘That’s it, I’m out of here!’ I’m like, ‘Okay, well I’m moving out with you!”

 

“I think about it occasionally,” says John, “but I don’t want to leave this spot we’ve got here. When Pipe is on, I’m out in the tree in the backyard looking straight into the barrel. It doesn’t get much better than that. And I kind of imagine when the waves are good, having to drive down here and trying to find a parking spot. I think I might just stay here.”

 

"不過那些都是跟媽媽耍耍嘴皮子而已", John John說, "其實我根本不想自己搬出去, 這個家我離不開. 我只要爬上後院的樹就可以將Pipe浪況一眼望盡, 看到好浪的時候可以想一下怎麼衝, 然後開下去停好車就可以衝浪, 還有什麼比這個重要? 我想, 還是留在這裡好了".

(翻譯 : 咻咻)

 

 

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