John John or Andy???

Tough call.

Andy was a beautiful surfer to watch and so is JJ.

I'll have to give the nod to Parko.

i reckon it will all depend on whether his little Bro , keeps getting better . And then he may feel a little ( non acknowledged ) sibling rivalry .

I think AI was at his best in Freesurfs with BI .

A certain session at a pumping rarely surfed right on Reunion , comes to mind .
According to those that witnessed it firsthand , it was considered as important a session as the MR - Shaun Tomson Duels at Backdoor/ Off The Wall ........

Got any footage/imagery southey?

Good call on the little bros Southey. It's easy to forget that Andy struggled during his early years on tour. In fact, he only qualified for the '99 tour via 'QS points as he finished outside the WT cut-off. Around that time Derek Hynd wrote in one of his Surfer magazine Top 44 assessments, (paraphrasing) "Andy won't find his wings until his real foe also makes the grade - younger brother Bruce."

It didn't quite work out that way, Andy won his first title two years before Bruce hit the WT but the younger Irons had a huge profile courtesy of his free surfing. Perhaps that was enough to really motivate AI to dig in? At any rate it would be hard to argue against the effect Bruce's talent had on AI's drive to succeed and you'll find exactly the same thing with Kelly Slater and the relationship with his brother, Stephen.

How it works with John John and his brothers, Nathan and Ivan, is yet to be seen. One thing though, John John has hit the tour seemingly fully formed and battle hardened. There'll be no humiliating relegation such as Andy Irons went through. If Nathan and Ivan can start competing for the familial spotlight then the sky is the limit for John John.

Craig ,

Lets just say that the wave in question , may not or not at that size been ridden before .
And from what i heard / read [ don't know which Mag ] , the two were pushing the limits to the point that they were starting to put themselves in Serious Danger trying to outdo each other .

It's funny how an Artistic sport like Surfing can mirror familial ( stu's words not mine ) rivalry , extremely prevalent in sporting families ( esp. brothers ) involved in top end athletic sports like AFL .
I spose Human nature takes over as the youngin's would have to compete for a feed .....

The psycho analysts love this shit , parents have amplified or encouraged it some circumstances to my knowledge .

For mine i always think back to the Movie " Gatica "? , when the lesser Brother? always won , due to the Fact [ in their "chicken" swim ] that he didn't conserve any energy for the return trip ....

Anyway , Usually unless the younger brothers are lazy or not in the Realm of Talent of the Older siblings . You'll find that an older Bro will work that much harder to stay ahead of the Game ..... So in some cases the Wisdom of the older sibling will overide the younger siblings learnt earlier talents ( of which are usually gleaned or influenced by the older one in the first place ) . Either way that competitiveness from Birth amplifies the learning process . Both ways ....

I personally can't see the fuss over John John, compared to many other pro's on tour. Sure, very impressive at Pipe and impressive in general, but I don't see that he's doing anything more or less than Taj (for example) has been doing for the last 17 years in either comp or free-surfing (including Taj's junior years). However, the way the surf media fawn over the "next messiah" (one in a long line of many), I thought he would have been handed the world title this year by the fourth event. In saying that though, I would love to have .001 percent of the talent that John John, and indeed all pro's, have.

I think JJ is the complete package, big or small that kid has it all. And very humble unlike some of his contempories.

Don't put yourself down young fella, I can assure you, you have at least that.

Now get your arse over here and come surfing or snowboarding with me.

Hmmm, asharper001, think you musta missed seeing JJ in the final of the Volcom Pipe Pro against JOB. Watch the last 3 minutes and then see if you still think he's just a naughty boy.

G'day whaaaat and brother zen, saw the Volcom comp, as well as the rest of the comps shown on line and admit JJ rips and does "have it all". No dispute there. Just saying that on their day, every one of the pro's can (and do) put in performances equal to or better than one of their contemporaries. JJ is equal to Taj is equal to Parko is equal to Dane and so on. Within the surf media however, there seems in my humble opinion, that there is a chosen one every year. JJ seemed be be annointed as this years chosen one the moment he qualified last year. Surf journalists and contest compere's all went nuts over him. King Kelly was dead, long live the king. Not JJ's fault. As pointed out, he is a very humble bloke. Same thing happened with Dane, same with Jordy, same with (showing my age) Cheyne Horan, and Pottz.

Zen, looks like Fiji again this coming year so Japan is unlikely. Sorry brother.

JJF is just warming up.

Really? Makes you laugh

I reckon it comes down to the frame of mind in a comp, they are all capable of having amazing surfs and doing mind blowing shit in comps but you can see the guys are either on fire or not there at all. Jadson Andre did some of the best surfing in the France leg, and he otherwise wouldn't get a mention as 'one of the best'

If I had to put a number to it, to me competitive surfing goes something like this with the current level of skill:
- Focus & mindset 80%
- heat strategy aptitude 15%
- skill 5%

Then separately the variable of the ocean playing in your favour or not

Have to give the nod to JJF - both surf the big stuff like it's a 2ft beachie but I think JJF has a better air game than AI had. Hard to compare era's - aerials weren't the go to move when AI won his titles. JJF can carve as well as anyone I've seen - check his five 9 point rides in one heat in the Hurley Pro. Parko is the smoothest for sure - like Curran.