After a month of January spent enjoying the scenery and training in Tahiti on the Olympic wave at Teahupoo, Johanne Defay contested the first two rounds of the World Surfing Championship. And the Private Sport Shop ambassador got the year off to a good start with two quarter-finals.
Last season, Johanne Defay had a difficult year, cut short in the early months by a foot injury. In the end, the Frenchwoman's best result on the world championship circuit was a quarter-final. She had only reached this stage once before, at the Surf Ranch Pro. Returning to the World Tour in fine form this year, the Private Sport Shop ambassador has already equalled her best result of 2023 with two quarter-finals in the first two events of the year.
Johanne's first event of the year, the Pipe Pro in Hawaii in early February, saw her reach the quarter-finals after winning two heats. She then fell to Australia's Molly Picklum (current world number one) in a heat in which she hit the reef quite hard with her head. But more fear than harm for the Frenchwoman, who was unable to catch up with her rival and ended the Hawaiian event with a promising fifth place finish at the start of the season.
The next event was again in Hawaii, at Sunset Beach. This round saw Johanne take second place in her opening round behind Lakey Peterson, before edging out Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb in the Round of 16. In the quarter-finals, she was up against reigning world champion Caroline Marks of the USA. Despite scoring the best wave of the series (5.50), the Frenchwoman ultimately lost by a narrow margin (8.57 to 7.67) and thus finished back in fifth place. Now in sixth place overall, Johanne Defay has a date with the ISA World Surfing Championships in Puerto Rico in the next few days. But there's no pressure on the Frenchwoman, who has already qualified for the Olympics, and will be aiming for a good performance to help the French group onto the team podium. Then it's off to Portugal for the third round of the season, scheduled from March 6 to 16.
While we wait to meet her on the competition circuit, here are the last two episodes of her "With Jojo" series. It's an opportunity to follow her trip to Tahiti last January, where she did some training on the Teahupoo wave, which will be the next spot for the Paris Olympics. "Obviously, as it's not the best season for this spot, I had some time to enjoy the Polynesian ocean," she explains. "I'll tell you all about it in this new episode, I'll also tell you more specifically about Teahupoo and how this wave makes me feel."
"Rangi, after four days there discovering your way of life and observing your flora and fauna, we didn't want to leave! During our training trip to Teahupo'o, we took advantage of the swell-free days on the peninsula to get moving and discover a little more of Polynesia and its atolls. We fell in love with this little corner of paradise and are infinitely grateful to Vaimanu and Taz for their good humor and fishing advice! So, after this trip, I can officially say that I'm finally a fisherman! Who do you think had the biggest catch of the trip? Simon or me? Should I 'do more fishing episodes by the way? 😉 But I couldn't resist the call of the waves, it was so much fun... and after Teahupo'o, easing off a bit and surfing straights was pure bliss. I'll let you find out all about it in this new Polynesian favorite episode."