“Maybe we meet up sort of early in the heats and I have to beat him, and then I have to win a bunch of heats to get past him,” Slater said. “Or he could end it right there for me if he just beats me. It would be nice if it’s in one of our hands.”

A Waiting Game

Florence’s ability to compete at Pipeline remains the week’s most talked-about variable. Sitting in a chair on his deck, he admitted that his recovery from anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction had been slowed by the 30 days in August and September he spent sailing his catamaran to and from Palmyra Atoll and Fanning Island, more than 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, with four others.

“I probably would be farther ahead if I had stayed at home and trained every day, for sure, but that’s just not really who I am,” he said. His blond ringlets sneaked out from the bottom of his cap, and a pale scar was visible in the sun tan of his right leg. His blue eyes are paler than a shallow sea. “It was an awesome trip — a life experience,” he said. “So happy that we did it.”

Florence was the two-time defending world champion when he injured the knee midway through 2018. He missed the second half of the season resting it, opting against surgery, and then charged through the first half of 2019, winning two of his first four events.