After 15 years on the Championship Tour, Jeremy Flores has announced today that he will be stepping away from full-time competition on the Championship Tour at the conclusion of the 2021 regular season.
Now living in Tahiti with his partner Hinarani de Longeau and young daughter, Hinahei, the 33-year-old Tour veteran will be focusing on his family, freesurfing, and supporting the next generation of francophone surfers.
"I don't like the word ‘retiring' because i don't feel like i'm retiring at all, I'm moving on to the next chapter," Flores said on Instagram.
"I dedicated most of my life to Surfing competition. It's been a rollercoaster, lots of ups & downs but damn i lived it to the fullest. Some epic moments. I tried to stay real the whole time, maybe too much sometimes ? But it was all worth it ! If someone told me, when I was a kid, the success, the life i would have, I wouldn't of believed it. Because of professional surfing i am now lucky enough to live a happy life & provide for my whole family."
"Jeremy has had a long and impressive career," said Jessi Miley-Dyer, WSL SVP Tours and Head of Competition. "Since he joined the tour in 2007 he's racked up four CT wins, is a two-time Pipe Master and represented France during surfing's Olympic debut in Tokyo. We wish Jeremy all the best for the future."
Originally from Reunion Island, Flores first started surfing at age three and has been chasing waves around the world ever since. As a youngster his family spent time in Australia, Europe and Hawaii as he pursued his dreams of becoming a pro surfer. Signed as one of Quiksilver's "Young Guns," he came up the ranks under the eye of Kelly Slater and alongside peers including Julian Wilson, Dane Reynolds and Clay Marzo.
Flores joined the Championship Tour in 2007, finished the season ranked eighth in the world and earned rookie of the year honors for the effort. Over the course of his distinguished career he is one of only a handful of surfers to have earned multiple Pipe Masters crowns - in 2010 and 2017 as well winning the Billabong Pro Tahiti in 2015 and most recently the Quiksilver Pro France in 2019.