Leo Fioravanti – a man you need to keep tabs on

Over the course of the past year, Leo Fioravanti has turned from a kid you need to keep tabs on, to a man you need to start paying attention to… And potentially the first Italian world champion.

Leo is no stranger to the surf world. And the surf world is certainly no stranger to him. The little charmer has had a spotlight shining on him since before he even hit his teens. And why not? He had eerily good form, a myriad of airs, a fearless approach to fearsome waves and a carve as big as his smile. The world was his, and the hype was inevitable.

But those days are over.

Leo’s 18 now. An adult. He’s had a certain fire in him ever since returning to the water after sustaining a broken back at Pipeline. This year, he grabbed the lead on the WQS and has already beaten both Kelly Slater and defending World Champ Adriano de Souza as a wildcard on the WSL. Suffice to say, Leo has arrived.

So now its’ time to put the noise to rest. No more hype. No more big claims. No more calling him a kid. From here on out, Leo’s just going to let his surfing do the talking. Rest assured, we’ll be listening.

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Kelly Slater – 

“Leo has a good eye for waves. He’s always putting himself on the good ones….His best surfing comes in big waves. He seems to really like the powerful stuff, so competitively he already has a real advantage over a lot people”

“When he got hurt last year…in a way i think it was almost a blessing. It gave him a lot of time to sit back, think about where he is going, what he is doing and what he appreciates. And I think he came out more on fire after that”

Zeke Lau – 

“We travel around the world together surfing the CT so it was good to mix it up and surf good waves and have fun and not worry about the contest thing.” 

“His attitude towards everything is really positive, so it’s good to have that energy and feed off of and push each other to new levels.”

Leo Fioravanti – 

“This is what I work hard for. I work hard to surf waves like Fiji without no one else out on the World Tour. This wave is one of the best waves in the world. It’s defiantly better than what i expected”

“This year has really been the best year of my life. I’ve gone from surfing incredible waves with my idol, to spending time with my family and scoring pumping waves with great friends. All these things combined have helped my to hopefully achieve my lifelong goal of qualifying for the world tour and hopefully one day, who knows, become a world champion.”