Johanne_Defay
Johanne Defay
French professional surfer
Johanne Defay (born 19 November 1993) is a French professional surfer. She was born in Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire, Auvergne, France. She qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games.
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She began surfing at the age of 8 off the beaches of Reunion Island, which is her home today. After Johanne's first competition when she was only ten years old, she quickly moved through the European amateur ranks to eventually take on the WSL World Qualifying Series. In 2008 Defay almost gave up competing. She was finding it difficult to transition from the juniors to the WQS and then the economy crashed causing many surf companies cancel their sponsorships. At that time, Johanne found herself without sponsors and also without decent results. However, with her parents’ encouragement, Johanne was able to qualify for the World Championship Tour within two years.
She has won five World Surf League events, the Vans US Open of Surfing 2015, the Fiji Women's Pro 2016, Uluwatu CT 2018, the Jeep Surf Ranch Pro 2021[1] and the Quiksilver/ROXY Pro G-Land 2022.
