Patrick Cantlay found Dr. Mark Kozuki in 2016 after having unsuccessfully sought treatment from around the world to relieve him of persistent back pain. Mark was able to identify a key component in Patrick’s condition that many previous practitioners had overlooked. He used Specific Scar Tissue Release (SSTR) in combination with other methods to assist Patrick with his return to the PGA Tour.

He was the world’s top amateur in 2011.

He won a PGA Tour event in Las Vegas on Nov. 5.

Somehow Patrick Cantlay made it through the in-between, .

One swing, in May of 2013, robbed him of golf. A hit-and-run driver, in February of 2016, removed his best friend.

The days stretched on in slow-motion cruelty, with visits to therapists and doctors around the U.S. and the world, with card games at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, where teacher Jamie Mulligan resides and where his dad Steve was club champion.

“You don’t want to play gin with him,” Mulligan said. “He’s at a different level.”

Cantlay’s cards have always been tight to the vest. But when he steered a 4-iron shot around two trees and over the green on the second playoff hole, and made par when Whee Kim and Andrew Cejka couldn’t, he had finished a comeback that had been brewing, in golf’s underbrush, for months.

Or maybe he just began one.

“I feel like somebody hit a pause button,” Cantlay said. ‘It’s been so long, a lot of hard work, a lot of low points.”

Now Cantlay can plot his own schedule. He returns to the Masters, but then he had already qualified by making the 30-man Tour Championship last year, a towering accomplishment in itself.

Cantley played 2017 under a Major Medical Exemption. He needed to earn $627,000 in 10 starts to keep his PGA Tour card. He took care of it in two starts, with a runner-up finish in Tampa, to Adam Hadwin, and a $680K check. As others congratulated Cantlay, he shrugged and said he didn’t finish the deal. To those in Cantlay’s life, that was pitch-perfect.

He had three other top-10 finishes and made all 13 cuts. In the 2017-18 season he finished 15th in the World Golf Championships event in Shanghai and then won in Vegas. He is ranked fourth in driving distance.

“He beat all those other guys before,” said Dane Jako, Cantlay’s coach at Servite High. “There’s no reason he won’t do it again.”

“He’s a man now,” Mulligan said. “He still has the same game, but when he was the top-ranked amateur he looked like a kid. With him it’s still about the process, and even during the tough times I didn’t see any doubt that he was coming back.”

He has a lot to come back to. Cantlay was the No. 1 amateur for a record 55 weeks. Hideki Matsuyama was No. 4 on that list in 2011, and when Cantlay turned pro, Jordan Spieth succeeded him.

That was the year Cantlay made the top 25 in four pro events, was 21st at the U.S. Open and shot a 60 at Hartford.

Paul Goydos, another of Mulligan’s clients, was told by a GolfChannel.com reporter that Cantlay was pondering another year at UCLA. “I hope he gets his master’s,” Goydos joked.

But in May of 2013 Cantlay was visited by the golfer’s nightmare. His back popped on a drive at Colonial, on Thursday, and he bogeyed three of the first seven holes and walked in.

He played three more times that year, finishing second, somehow, in a Web.com event. He played six times in 2014 and made two cuts. He played once in 2015, did not play in 2016. By that time Spieth was PGA Player of the Year and a Masters and U.S. Open champion.

Cantlay had suffered a stress fracture. The prescription was rest. He couldn’t even bowl or shoot baskets. He would occasionally swing a club but the pain always caught up. He went to Germany and tried regenokine, the blood extraction therapy that Kobe Bryant also tried.

In February of 2016 he and Chris Roth were visiting some late-night haunts in Newport Beach, on foot. Roth was a valued friend, Cantlay’s caddie on his first Masters trip, when Cantley went eagle-birdie-birdie on 15-16-17 on Sunday and shot 72.

A speeding driver hit Roth and knocked him skyward, and Cantlay rushed over and held him, oblivious to the blood. The driver disappeared and Cantlay receded, admitting later to Damian Dottore of The Register that “nothing felt like it mattered.”

But he kept searching. He went to Mark Kozuki, owner of Elite Performance PT in Costa Mesa, and there the answer emerged, not in Cantlay’s back but his abdomen.

When Cantlay was two months old doctors performed kidney surgery that left a scar. Through the years the scar tissue hardened and deepened. Kozuki saw it and sensed the answer.

“This was probably the toughest scar tissue I’d had to deal with,” Kozuki said. “But it’s not uncommon. You can fracture your ankle, then pick something up and throw out your back. It’s because the scar tissue is blocking the pathways.

“The key was Patrick saying that if something had a one percent chance of working, he would try it. He was on a mission.”

Kozuki used his hands to break down the scar tissue. He does it regularly today. Cantlay regained his range of motion. In February he made the cut at Pebble Beach. In March came Tampa.

“Now he can move his body better and probably doesn’t have to swing as hard,” Kozuki said.

Cantlay played 56 competitive rounds in 2017 without a significant twinge. When he walked off the winning green in Vegas, his parents were waiting, and so were Chris Roth’s.

Time and space and friends can’t be replaced. But order can return, and a survivor can advance.

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/11/22/whicker-patrick-cantlay-back-from-the-wilderness/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

She's barely had time to celebrate winning back-to-back world surfing titles, but Tyler Wright has already started planning for next year.

Wright clinched her second title in Hawaii last Friday despite winning just one event compared to the five she took out in a dominant 2016 campaign.

The 23-year-old, from Culburra on the NSW south coast, is spending just a couple of days in Australia. She's heading back to Hawaii to watch her brother Owen, who has inspired her with his successful comeback to competition after suffering a brain injury in heavy surf.

Wright is adamant she can improve in all areas of her surfing under Glenn "Micro" Hall, who recently won the coach of the year at the inaugural NSW Champions of Sport Awards. "I've already started having conversations about next year," Wright told AAP.

"'We will go and pull apart everything that needs to be pulled apart and then put it back together better than it was before. That's not because I'm going to try and fix something that's broken, I'm just trying to evolve it."

The hasn't given any thought to establishing the dynastic dominance enjoyed by compatriots Layne Beachley and Stephanie Gilmore, who won seven and six world titles respectively.

She was excited about the future of the sport, with the 2018 tour including an event at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa and one at multiple world champion Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch in California.

"Our sport is changing, it's evolving and I think that's fantastic because I feel like it's needed," Wright said. "The opportunity we have to progress our sport in the next couple of years is going to be incredible."

Wright will continue to work on the knee she injured during the season. She refused to use tablets or any type of painkillers, praising the the work of Californian physiotherapist Mark Kozuki for allowing her to return to competition after others suggested she could be sidelined for two to three months.

"His theories and concepts in things are a touch different from everybody else's and I think that's why he was able to produce such results from something that nobody else really thought possible," Wright said.

AAP

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/evolution-the-key-to-world-title-defence-tyler-wright-20171205-gzz4bd.html

Words by Elliot Struck

Beyond the cost of that new Fred Rubble and Cypher 3/2, there’s also a physical tax. Maybe it’s your spine, maybe your shoulder, and if you get above the lip, then perhaps it’s your ankle (thanks, gravity). Now, take all those little injuries, and turn ‘em up to 11: That’s regular reality for those who surf pro. That sprained ankle becomes a proper tear. And those aren’t easy to bounce back from. What’s required is a good rehab specialist: And Mark Kozuki is one of the best.

“Yeah, I guess somehow that’s happened,” replies Mark to Stab’s suggestion that he’s become the choice of physio for the world’s most high-performance (Mark’s on speed dial in the phones of guys like Jordy Smith and John John Florence). “Over the years I’ve been working with more and more of the guys, and they’ve been referring their friends. I’ve been doing some work with John for a while now, and doing some work with Jordy this year. And some of the other guys on tour, doing some work with the Hurley team. It’s been a growing process.”

Which all sounds nice. But, here’s how important Mark really has become to some careers: “Mark’s one of the best people I’ve ever had a chance to work with,” says Jordy. “He’s taught me so much about how my body works. I’ve been pretty unlucky with injuries of late, but having Mark in my corner speeds up the recovery time so much. I wasn’t going to go to Brazil because my knee was still hurting but when Mark told me he was going, I thought, I’d rather be in Brazil working with him and try to surf the comp, than sitting at home not being able to work with him.”

Garth Tarlow, who linked Jordy up with Mark, thinks that the most interesting thing about Mark’s approach to treatment is hisappreciation for functional movement: “Mark has a special way of analysing a person’s movement, then making a subtle change that enhances overall function,” says Garth. “His style of therapy is game changer for most who meet him. He’s so committed to helping people move more functionally.”

Mark, who’s a surfer himself (mostly at Huntington, with an office in Costa Mesa), just digs returning athletes to their sport. But finding his way into surfing on the professional side has meant some other bonuses: “I went over the Hawaii to work with John last year, and I was in Australia for the Gold Coast event,” he says. “Then Hurley flew me over to Rio. I certainly haven’t been flown around the world for any other sports.”

Mark tells Stab that the most common surf injuries are a mix of overuse (from things like stance repetition) mixed with trauma (like getting slammed into a reef and bent backwards). “There’s also the repetitive strain from the torque that the pro guys put on their bodies.”

But, what about someone like John John, famous for his dislike for training; Can a professional tell the diff between him and someone who clocks hours in the gym? “There is a difference, yes, but by the same token, doing things with John… his body awareness is really, really high level. He’s just naturally wired. And, the same with Filipe (Toledo). Super, ultra co-ordinated. They’re really high up there.”

So, what’s that mean exactly in layman’s terms? “They have the ability to learn a new task or co-ordination in seconds. It’d take a normal human much longer to learn a new movement or to control their body in the same fashion. Say for example, a balancing exercise: If I said, “Ok, I want you to balance on this disk, and catch this ball at the same time,” John or Filipe would be so much quicker to figure out how to do it. Jordy’s up there too, don’t get me wrong, but Jordy has another set of skills. He has more power than they have, way more raw strength.”

So, where does the future of pro surfer injuries lie? It isn’t hard to guess: Ankles. “Since I started seven years ago, there’s definitely been a shift in the stuff guys are complaining about,” says Mark. “And now, it’s definitely ankles. Ankle injuries are highly prevalent, because of the airs that guys are doing. Like, Julian (Wilson)’s hurt his ankle, and Filipe, John, Kolohe… it’s almost unusual now for them not to have an ankle injury.”

Read more at http://stabmag.com/meet-john-john-florence-and-jordy-smiths-physiotherapist/#i1Cael9s2Ycpfz5I.99

Brad Drew

Monday, July 24, 2017

Whether you're a weekend warrior or top-ranked pro, chances are you've already been hobbled by a surfing injury, or soon will be. At the Championship Tour level injuries are on the rise as athletes push harder into acrobatic realms. Desperate to get back to 100%, many turn to Dr. Mark Kozuki, DPT, who runs the Elite Performance physical therapy center in Costa Mesa, California.

John John Florence has spent countless hours in physical therapy with Dr. Mark Kozuki. From back and knee issues, to high ankle sprains Florence has fought through them all. - WSL

Raised in Southern California, Kozuki is both a surfer and an avid ice hockey player. After earning his PT degree in Minnesota, where he played hockey in college, Kozuki returned home to launch his practice. His entry into the world of sports medicine came via Dr. Tim Brown, a leading expert and innovator in sports medicine who has worked with elite professional athletes for more than 30 years. Kozuki is quick to credit Brown with shaping and influencing his philosophies and techniques.

Kozuki was first introduced to John John Florence and Jordy Smith by O'Neill Marketing and Team Manager Garth Tarlow back when they were teammates. After Florence moved to Hurley, Kozuki started working with their team, which led to an invite from the WSL's medical staff to work with its surfers at selected events. Since then, Kozuki's client base has expanded to include a who's-who of elite pros. Along with Florence and Smith, he works with Owen Wright, Filipe Toledo, Kolohe Andino, Tyler Wright, Courtney Conlogue, Lakey Peterson, Mason Ho, and more.

We sat down with Kozuki recently to get his insights on the most common problem areas for surfers, the root causes, and some tips on what the pros can teach us about prevention. Here's a rundown.

The Common Problem Zones for Surfers

The most common surfing injuries usually fall into one of two categories, the first being necks and spines, and the second being knees and ankles. With necks and spines, a huge source of the problem stems from paddling, which is an atypical position to be in. The arching of your back, the flare of your ribs, your arm movements, and even your head and neck position all add stress.

For knees, surfers tend to stress the inside part, the meniscus or the MCL, similar to what John John Florence did at Teahupo'o last year. A lot of times that inner part of the leg is either getting hurt from a foot slipping off the board or it getting knocked inwards in some fashion. Another root cause of knee problems is stiffness in the ankle or hip area, because the knee is the one thing that's going to move more between those two parts. So a huge part of knee health is making sure you're moving well at your hips, and next moving well at your ankles.

And at the elite level we see a lot more high ankle sprains due to today's acrobatic surfing. These are when when the foot's forced up, and the toes are forced towards the kneecap. In that position, usually the knee's bent, so the actual stopping force is the actual joint and not the muscle. The joint is the first point of injury. Sometimes the Achilles is a part of it, but it's not common.

Keep Tabs on Your Core Score

One of the best ways to prevent injuries to the spine and neck area is maintaining your core trunk muscles. A stronger and more flexible core will help you maintain better posture while you paddle, mitigating the stress. It will also help prevent the rotational core issues surfers get from only rotating one direction. For example, if you're a regularfooter, you're always rotating left. Over time your core develops in a certain way, as do muscles in the hips, legs and elsewhere. When this goes unchecked for extended periods of overuse, it can become a problem.

You're Not As Balanced as You Think

To that last point, pretty much any rotational athlete is always on the cusp of an injury, depending on how aggravated their body gets. Surfing, at its core, is a rotational-based sport, similar to how baseball and golf are. It's very common for surfers, over time, to be less flexible turning one way vs. the other. So keeping tabs on your rotational flexibility is key. Many people don't realize this until they test the issue. When athletes come to us our goal is to return them better than they were before they got injured. We do that through identifying areas that need to improve flexibility or improve strength throughout the body, and by identifying weak links so that the whole body works better together.

Symptoms vs. Problems

Often times the source of pain that gets people in the door isn't the primary problem, it's just a symptom. A perfect example is somebody will come in asking for treatment to their neck. While their neck is the symptom, upon a deeper analysis we'll discover the big problem is that the person's right hip is crazy tight -- it's only functioning at 70% -- and that's actually the big contributing factor to their new neck injury. So, in addition to calming your neck down and getting it to move properly and getting the flexibility back, we're actually going to start working on the right hip issue. By getting that body part back on track, you can actually speed the recovery of the new injury, because, again, now the body's functioning better as a whole.

Avoid Self Diagnosing

This is directly related to the last point. Most injuries, while common, are very specific to the individual. When people self diagnose the most common thing to go wrong is they address the wrong problem. In many cases the real source of the injury is not where you feel the pain. People come in and they'll say, "Someone told me it's my meniscus or my joint." By trying to get ahead of it, they'll google 'meniscus exercises' and start working out. But all too often, after I do an analysis, I'll discover it's not their knee that's the problem at all. I'll find out it's an old ankle injury that's causing the knee issue. That's when I have to tell them, "Listen, you don't need to do anything with your knee. Your knee is fine."

Put Money In Your Account

Unfortunately, a lot of us don't really pay attention to how our bodies work until we're injured. Once we learn about how our body works, however, we're more apt to stick with a program. The analogy I always use is this: Think of your body as maintaining a bank account. You always want to make sure you're putting money in the bank, right? So, money in the bank is like doing some foam rolling, doing a little core exercise, making sure you're warmed up. Things like that. So then, when you go to write the checks, you don't write any checks your body can't handle.

Mr. Kozuki says a lot of rotational athletes—surfers, golfers, tennis players—tend to twist one particular way, which leads to muscle imbalances and overuse injuries. Surfers have either the left or right foot forward on the board and due to the position of their feet, when they face forward, their body is relatively twisted in the same direction as their stance. 

Mr. Kozuki uses Redcord, a suspension exercise system similar to a TRX that was developed in Norway to help detect musculoskeletal imbalances. The system uses body weight for resistance. Mr. Kozuki has Mr. Florence perform a side plank, with his hip and legs suspended in the Redcord straps. “Sometimes in side plank, the glute muscle on the outer edge of the hip, the glute medius, is prone to being weak,” explains Mr. Kozuki. “Performing the pose while suspended isolates the glute medius and stimulates the muscle.”

Mr. Florence’s other core strengthening exercises include holding a bridge pose until his muscles start shaking, then lowering slowly back down and repeating. He performs squats with both legs and with one leg on Dyna Discs, which are circular inflated pads that create an unstable surface. He then balances on the Dyna Discs while Mr. Kozuki throws a medicine ball back and forth with him.

Mr. Kozuki said many exercises focus on “deep core” muscles. Mr. Florence will lie on his back with his knees bent and bring one leg up to tabletop position and then slowly lower it down to the ground, then bring the other leg up to tabletop position and back down. Then he’ll bring both legs up to tabletop position and back down to the ground. The idea is to isolate the core muscles so they do the work, not the lower back.

For the whole story visit the Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-surfers-guide-to-avoiding-ankle-injuries-1447698385?tesla=y

Athletes aren’t the only ones at risk for sprained and twisted ankles. Whether you’re dashing to the subway in high heels or out for a weekend game of basketball, it’s easy to take a wrong step and twist an ankle.

Mark Kozuki, physical therapist and owner of Elite Performance Physical Therapy, says developing a strong core and muscular balance can help prevent this common injury. “Nearly 98% of the people who come to see me have a balance deficiency,” he says. “A more symmetrical body moves better and is also less likely to get injured.”

“If you have a strong core, you have better balance and better body awareness in space,” he adds.

Mr. Kozuki often develops a home version of the exercises he shows patients in his office. For example, rather than do a side plank suspended in a Redcord strap, he’ll have a patient do a side plank with a forearm on the ground and hold the pose until their muscles start shaking. To improve balance, he suggests using unstable surfaces, such as Dyna Discs or even simply a folded up yoga mat, to help fire stabilizing muscles. “When you stand on even a mildly unstable surface, it causes all of the stabilizing muscles around the ankle to fire and stabilize the ankle joint to keep balance. It also forces you to engage your core muscles,” he says.

Mr. Kozuki suggests starting by simply standing on an unstable surface, then balancing on one leg. “Balancing on one leg often reveals which side is your dominant or stronger side,” he says.

Once you feel stable on one leg, try what he calls the asterisk exercise. Stand on your right leg and reach your left foot straight out in front of you so your toe hovers just above the ground, then slowly bring it back to hover in the center next to the right. Next bring the foot out to one o’clock, then return it. Continue until you touch each number on the imaginary clock, drawing an asterisk; then switch legs.

“The key is to keep your core engaged and pelvis neutral the entire time,” Mr. Kozuki says. Once you’ve mastered the asterisk on a flat surface, try it on an unstable surface. The attempt it with your eyes closed for an added challenge. 

For the whole story visit the Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-physical-balance-can-prevent-injury-1447698435?tesla=y

John John sits folded into a leather chair in a middle class Newport Beach, California home. The rain outside is thick and slanted. Angry black clouds have filled a sky normally bright and scented with coconut suntan lotion and reduced tar cigarette smoke. Inside it is dark because lamps have not been properly adjusted to the failing light. They have not been turned

He sits folded and sluggish. Sluggish in the way professional athletes often are during downtime. His curly blonde hair hides underneath a green stocking cap. Black jeans, a touch too baggy for he is Hawaiian, hide his legs. A black hooded sweatshirt keeps him warm. John John Florence.

He is tired of the second John, just wants the first, but I am older than he and have seen more life and know that monikers like John John are bestowed only on the very worthy. John John Kennedy. John John Williams III on Sesame Street (just the cutest black child ever). John Boy on the Waltons (basically John John). He should never lose the second John. It is an honour.

Sluggish. Folded. Uncomfortable maybe because his back is broken. Not metaphorically. Not from carrying the weight of expectations since he could first stand on a surfboard. Not from the heavy crown placed on his curly blonde following a North Shore season for the ages. No. Broken literally. A vertebrae in his lower spine fractured. A broken back.

“Did you bounce off the reef?”

“Nah, I didn’t even touch the reef. The lip broke my back.”

John John Florence, broken by the wave, the very water, that made him famous. Makes him famous. He could not see what happened, only feel, so we steal the external details from photographer Daniel Russo who watches most of the North Shore’s best waves and captured this particular one on his camera.

“It was a wave they usually call a runner. It runs all the way across the reef so you can take off really deep, like almost backdoor. So he took off deep but on a real mellow wave that looked like the kind that usually spits perfectly. He drops in, grabs his rail and it was almost flawless. That day the swell was building and it was this long interval sort of swell with lots of energy. That is when you get waves that look eight feet but have the energy of 15 footers. There is just so much energy in the water. And, sometimes these big energy waves hit sections of the reef and mutate. They are not normal. And sometimes it’s section and it looks great. So with this wave, John (John) is deep in the barrel and it hits the end section, the sandbar end section, right in front of the Volcom house. Sand had built up a lot on the reef there and it just jacked the wave. It tripled in size. Stood straight up in the air. Just flared. And then instead of barrelling over or crumbling it came straight down like a waterfall. Instead of peeling it just dropped. Now John (John) is in the barrel crouched super low. He doesn’t see it jacking up but he was expecting to get spit or bucked so he was as low as he could get and glued to his board. The lip dropped directly onto his lower back. The whole wave, all that energy just landed on his back and compressed him through his board.”

The Pipeline giveth and the Pipeline taketh. John John has been giveth many many barrels. He has been giveth titles and fame and sponsorships. And now, under the water, as he was pushed deeper, he felt something wrong. He felt something taketh from his body.

“I didn’t even really get worked that hard. I’ve been worked way worse out there but something didn’t feel right. I came up and there was another set and I couldn’t even grab my board. I had no strength. So I went under again, popped up and flopped on my board. I couldn’t even paddle or anything and there was a bodyboarder and a bodysurfer there who saw I was struggling so they helped me to the channel. I lay there for a minute with my face on my deck and then started coming in very slowly. I didn’t want to make a scene.”

Daniel Russo could see something wasn’t right. He could see that John John didn’t grab his board and scratch directly back into the lineup. And then he saw something very disconcerting. The lifeguards were going crazy with the ski. Getting it into the water just as fast as their North Shore hardened sinew could. Not a good sign. Not even kind of good. And there they raced to the lineup… and past the lineup. Past everything. A fisherman had become distressed out to sea. Unrelated to anything cool.

John John had, meanwhile, reached the sand. He stumbled up, taking a circuitous route because, in his very words, he didn’t want to make a scene. And he made it to his house. Unnoticed. With a broken back. With a broken back. Broken. How many soldiers, firemen, fighters, blue-collared toughs would have done the same? Would have sucked up the pain and the racing mental pictures of worse-case scenario and shuffled to a quiet corner? I would think less than a handful. And here, an 18-year-old boy had enough Hemingway sense to man up and not cry publicly. Amazing.

He lay on his couch feeling mostly wrong and eventually was taken to a Honolulu hospital for x-rays. “I went to the hospital for x-rays but they didn’t see anything so I went home. But one of my friends is a surgeon and he looked at my x-rays and could see something wrong, so I went back to the hospital and got a CAT scan and I had a fracture in my lower back.”

Hemingway sense. Understated masculinity. And even as he sits folded into a leather chair in a middle class Newport Beach, California home he does not over dramatise his broken back. He merely chuckles, good-naturedly, about his rehab. “I didn’t even know what a squat was the other day.” Amazing. And, again, I am older than he and have seen more life and know that this right here, this broken back and laissez-faire attitude is the stuff of legend. Not just the broken back but the sense not to whine about it. Selling an injury is cheap. Men should go to their graves with countless untold injury to both body and heart. Unspoken trauma.

Yet, how does a potentially life-altering injury, a possibly career-ending blow, change an 18-year-old on the very brink of major success? Does he worry? Next time he paddles out at the Pipeline will he shy away from those waves that have defined him? When I ask he looks at me, eyes amused.

“Every wave you can get hurt out there.”

Not one drop of over-dramatisation. Not one speck of it. Simple as that. He will be out there this coming winter with a healed back the same as he was before. Dialled in. Making his art.

And, beyond any doubt, surfing the Pipeline is an art. Knowing where to sit, finding the boils, lining up with the right tree, knowing which wave will do what. And then and then paddling, fighting off the pack, dropping down, holding on, searching out the proper line, holding on, riding through, holding on but looking steezey, proper, perfect. Not dying.

The artists young John John has watched, learned from, are Kalani Chapman, Bruce, Andy (he speaks of Andy in the present tense) and Jamie. Jamie O’Brien. The same Jamie he stole the heavy crown from this season. What does he like about the way Jamie paints?

“Everything. Jamie surfs it different than anyone else.”

Will there be an angry back and forth this coming winter between the two? Jamie does not like to lose in his backyard. John John does not like to lose in his backyard. Will there be blood curling glares and internet rage and sabotage? John John says no. He says that he loves Jamie and that Jamie was not at his best this last winter because he had had a broken arm and had just got back into the water when he beat him. He had only been surfing the Pipeline for a few days, in fact. But, still, I am older than he and have seen more life and know that what makes almost everything in the life I have seen more of twice as beautiful is rivalry. True rivalry. Batman would be a dull rich and ageing homosexual without his Joker. Superman a strange eccentric without his Lex Luther. And there must be hatred to capture the imagination. I tell John John the sport of surfing needs this. He looks at me, eyes amused.

His amused eyes will not detour. It will be pure pleasure watching the two blond Hawaiian-bred haoles attack the wave they love most. With so much on the line. Jamie has broken both his legs, on separate occasions, at the Pipeline. Now John John has broken his back. The two will sit in the water and they might be speaking about what pre-packaged sushi at Foodland is best or how it is awesome they can share a beautiful moment but I will say they are speaking about how much they loathe each other. Jamie shit talking John John’s mother. John John shit talking Jamie’s father. This will be our rivalry.

The rain outside is thicker and even more slanted. John John must begin his physical therapy for the day. Yoga, stretching etc. And, when done mending, John John will leave to travel to Australia for competition at Margaret’s and then other primes and six stars. If all goes well he could qualify for the tour this year, mid-way. Amazing. Fresh off a broken back.

He has grown into his body and is surfing better than he ever has and is ready. It will be exciting when he is on tour. There is so much exciting young blood coming up the ranks. Exciting.

But, what everyone will really be waiting for is this coming winter when John John Florence and Jamie O’Brien bob next to each other in a cleared-out Pipeline lineup. Each wearing a coloured singlet. Each burning holes through the other with blue blue eyes. What everyone will be waiting for is John John to say, “I own this fucking wave JOB. You are a tool and a has-been. Nobody ever liked you and I am the new king.” And Jamie to respond, “Go to hell, child. I will finish the job this Pipeline started. I will motherfucking break you in half.”

Read more at http://stabmag.com/john-john-breaks-his-back/#hutTEEuHRam5YdhK.99