“It’s impossible to ride big waves without being in peak physical condition, so I do a lot more weight and cardio training than a lot of people realize. I added cbdMD tinctures and topicals to my training routine, and I really am at my best right now.”
Nathan Florence
Pro Surfer- Haleiwa, Hawaii
- June 10, 1994
- N/A
Superlatives:
- Winner: 2015 Surfer Magazine Poll – Best Barrel
- Winner: 2018 O’Neill’s Wave of the Winter
- Winner: 2019 Red Bull Cape Fear Big Wave
It isn’t easy to imagine Nathan Florence becoming anything but a professional surfer. He and his two brothers (John John and Ivan) grew up in an oceanside house on Oahu’s North Shore and were taken out on their mom’s board before they could walk.
His style is described as spontaneous, bordering on insane. He’s known for pulling off seemingly impossible drops into waves from which most surfers, professional or otherwise, would pass or bail. There’s no better example than his astonishing 2015 ride at Teahupo'o, Tahiti – often referred to as the greatest paddled wave ever at that location. The wave won him the award for Best Barrel in Surfer’s annual poll. The ride also snatched a nomination for Billabong’s Ride of the Year award.
He shocked the action sports world again in 2018 with a mind-boggling deep-barrel ride during historic swells in Nias, Indonesia. The same year, he won O’Neill’s Wave of the Winter and filmed his first short film, There and Back Again. Released in 2019 and showcasing his time in Tahiti, Mexico, Panama, and Nias, the film is generally seen as a true breakthrough for Florence and surf films in general.
In 2019, he scored his first competitive win at what most observers view as the most dangerous big wave contest on earth, Red Bull’s Cape Fear at Shipstern Bluff.
Florence is also known as a voracious reader, claiming to have read the entire Game of Thrones series in a month.
