"My whole life has been going towards this, everything I've done," Florence said after claiming his first World Title at Supertubos in 2016. "This year especially, learning so much about competitive surfing and focusing so hard on it. And with the all support I've had, it's been the best year of my life."
Florence had been in the surfing spotlight since the five-year-old kid with the shock of blonde hair had started surfing Pipeline. He had progressed serenely to the CT ranks by 2011, a World Title often posited as inevitable. Yet, even up to 2016, it wasn't certain his once-in-generational skills were entirely transferable to the competitive realm.
Yet even in a year in which he had progressively added heat strategy and confidence to his dynamic surfing, perhaps no event showcased the then 24-year-old's shiny, new bulletproof competitive armor than here in Portugal.
The Final became a Florence expression-session slash freesurf edit, as he iced the cake by surfing at warp speed and to his awe-inspiring full potential. It was a performance that, at the time, signaled the future domination of the sport.