As it goes with competition, your biggest rivals are sometimes your best friends, the ones who push you and bring out your best as they put out theirs. In the case of Jack Robinson, Kanoa Igarashi, and Leonardo Fioravanti, they’ve been doing that for each other for most of their lives, and it now plays out on the Championship Tour as they each chase their first World Title.
One More, the latest film from Red Bull, gets the boys together for a boat trip to the Mentawais, their first trip together in 16 years. The backstories run deep, the conversations are candid, the friendship (and rivalry) is real, and the surfing is absolutely next level.
We spoke with One More producer Travis Ferre about growing up on tour, the weight of rivalry, and what it means to keep chasing one more.
What was it like for each of them as groms with promise?
Kanoa, Jack, and Leo all came up on the Quiksilver team, which meant growing up on tour in the orbit of Kelly Slater. Quiksilver team manager Steve “Belly” Bell took them on trips around the world as kids, with one piece of advice: watch Kelly and learn from him.
As young groms, Kanoa Igarashi, Jack Robinson, and Leo Fioravanti were given unprecedented access to all the tools of surf stardom. They had the golden ticket: a Quiksilver sponsorship and the chance to tour the world at a super young age. “The Super Young Guns.” It wouldn’t be weird to see 12-year-old Californian Kanoa eating in Hossegor, France, surrounded by the ranks of the World Tour. Or to bump into the Italian Leo on the Gold Coast with Julian Wilson and Dane Reynolds. They were part of the fabric on tour from a super young age. And with all that access comes the pitfalls of failing to live up to it all.
Luckily, these three had “Belly.” Stephen Bell took these three groms under his wing while managing the Quiksilver team and gave them one piece of advice: “Watch.” Watch what Kelly Slater does and that is all you need to know about becoming a surfing professional. They all had the talent. They had the access. They just needed to maintain the line, and Belly gave them the tools to do that. It’s why we invited “Belly” aboard this reunion boat trip: a chance for him to see up close that they had indeed held the line and made it.
Nate Lawrence
What has the line between friends and rivals been like over the years?
These three can now candidly discuss the evolution of their emotions toward each other, including the jealousy and envy that has been a constant in their relationship. When your best friends are also your biggest competitors, it creates a complicated web of emotion, and all three address how they’ve managed that throughout their careers.
In a candid roundtable discussion on the boat, we get to watch them dissect their personal evolutions through those emotions. While they’ve landed in a mature place with it, there is still one thing missing from each resume: a World Title. And you get a sense that each of them battles with how they will feel should the other get it first.
What obligations come with being a fulfilled prodigy, and how did this trip come together?
Nate Lawrence
These guys have unending obligations. Every sticker on their board and relationship in their life represents both a support vehicle and a distraction from the task of winning a world title. It wasn’t until they realized that a trip like this together could serve as both a therapeutic option and a new motivation to be first. So after 16 years, we provided the literal vessel for the reunion: the Raja Ombak in the Mentawai Islands. Watching the three of them duel with this conflicting emotion is what makes the film and its conclusion so fascinating, especially since there are still events left in the year and all three are within striking distance of the title.
“We did it” vs. “Why do we do it?”
Nate Lawrence
For most of their lives, these three have been chasing a feeling that is hard to understand. As groms, “we did it” meant making the tour and getting the ride. They did that years ago. “We did it” then meant winning a World Tour event. They did that next. Now, there is still one unanswered question they all have to face: who will win the world title first?
What happens then? When you’ve already done the thing you dreamed about at 12, the question isn’t “how do I get there?” anymore. It’s “why do I keep doing this?” The film’s answer is there, in a session at a “two-foot right.” It isn’t a trophy, and it isn’t the title. It’s what happens when the three of them surf together with nothing on the line and the joy that returns. “One More” stops meaning one more win and starts where it began in the first place: one more wave with your friends.
You don’t need a trip like this to win a world title, but it doesn’t hurt in reminding you why you want it in the first place.