FLORES Jeremy

Preferred stance
Regular (worldsurfleague.com, 01 Dec 2019)

General
FATHERHOOD AND FINDING BALANCE
He says the birth of his daughter in 2018 changed his outlook on surfing, in conjunction with the amount of years he has spent on tour. "After my daughter was born, she became my first priority. Now sport is secondary. I've been surfing about half the amount I usually do. I want to enjoy her childhood. I've been on tour like, 12-years now [2018]. It just takes its toll. It's energy. You end up putting so much pressure on yourself and it's not healthy. So I just have fun, breathe. Go to the event and have a good time. I won't go and freesurf every morning at 6am [thinking I] gotta be in the water. I'm just trying to get on my own programme and enjoy it. I feel that's way more healthy and I feel so much happier doing that. At one point, you look back and you realise you've been so selfish for so many years, that you end up unhappy. And, if I'm honest, I've been feeling like that. That's why the last few years I've been trying to find balance." (magicseaweed.com, 19 Sep 2018; bros-stories.com, 20 Nov 2019)

OLYMPIC DREAM
He says that competing at the Olympic Games is a long-awaited dream that he hoped to achieve before retiring from competitive surfing. "I had set the objective to compete at the Games before the end of my career. I have always been proud of representing my country and my island [Reunion], my family and all the people who support me. I have always been a great fan of the Games. I've watched them since I was young. Even if I don't understand anything about the sport I'm watching, I've always enjoyed supporting the French athletes." (leparisien.fr, 17 Nov 2019)

EARLY DAYS
Born in Reunion, he began surfing at age three before his family relocated to Ifaty, Madagascar, when he was age six. "My life was surfing, fishing, surfing. I didn't go to school. That was how I grew up." At age nine he won a competition in Capbreton, France, which drew the attention of French businessman Pierre Agnes, then CEO of Quiksilver, who began sponsoring him. "At age 11, I went from being a little kid who came from a 500-person village who fished his own food, to travelling all around the world alongside [US surfer] Kelly Slater and [Australian surfer] Tom Carroll, competing in Indonesia, Hawaii and Australia. It was amazing. It was a dream come true." But by age 24 he had grown frustrated with the competitive and commercial aspects of the sport, and lost his motivation. "I was so focused on winning and success that nothing else existed. The smiling and warming boy from Ifaty had become an ice cube." A trip to his childhood homes of Reunion and Madagascar helped him rediscover the pleasure for surfing. (bros-stories.com, 20 Nov 2019)

SHARK DEBATE
In 2016 he made a short documentary on the presence of sharks around the French overseas department of Reunion. The following year, he launched a defamation case against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in response to the organisation's claim that his comments on how to deal with sharks were contributing to the rise in the number of attacks in the region. His claim was unsuccessful and was dismissed by a French court. "The problem is really serious. Sharks are a nightmare in Reunion. I got involved in this issue because I have lost friends in those attacks. We don't know why this is happening, if it's due to climate change or what." (ouest-france.fr, 11 Nov 2019; surf-me.com, 05 Oct 2017; worldsurfleague.com, 01 Dec 2019)

RESIDENCE
He divides his time between Hossegor, France, and Tahiti. (ouest-france.fr, 11 Nov 2019)

In 2019 he became the first French surfer to win the Quiksilver Pro France event on the Championship Tour. (sport.francetvinfo.fr, 11 Oct 2019)

In 2006 at age 18 he became the youngest surfer at the time to qualify for the Championship Tour. (worldsurfleague.com, 01 Dec 2019; bros-stories.com, 20 Nov 2019)