A great new sporting talent was celebrated as John John Florence won his first World Surfing Championship at 24. A brilliant future has been predicted for the young Hawaiian and he clinched surfing’s crown with more than a month to go in the World Surf League’s Championship Tour. Throughout the year he scored big with his gravity-defying aerial tricks. At 13, he became the youngest surfer to compete at the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing and in 2011 he was the youngest surfer to win it. He is the first Hawaii-born surfer to win the men’s title since Andy Irons in 2004 and many are predicting as bright a future.