‘Everything hurts’: record for world’s longest surf broken in Sydney | Surfing

Sydney man Blake Johnston has broken the record for the longest surf session ever held following taking to the water at 1am on Thursday and harbouring plans to surf by way of till Friday evening to raise funds for mental wellness.

Through a quick break, Johnston admitted that “everything hurts” and the marathon session was tougher than he anticipated.

“I’ve surfed my entire life but by no means in this realm. Yeah, it is been a mental and physical challenge, to say the least,” he told Nine’s Now show.

Johnston has smashed the prior record of 30 hours held by South African Josh Enslin and will continue surfing off Cronulla’s The Alley till Friday evening, taking his record up to 40 hours.

Persons have gathered along the beach to witness the globe record try and give help.

Johnston, a nearby surf instructor and former expert surfer, is performing the gruelling feat to raise funds for the Chumpy Pullin Foundation. The charity was set up to honour the memory of expert snowboarder Alex “Chumpy” Pullin, who died in 2020.

Johnston lost his father, Wayne, to suicide a decade ago.

“This is to honour the anniversary of our dad … for Blake, it is been like this crazy journey considering that we lost our dad,” brother Ben stated. “This is just anything to honour that and he genuinely desires to actively show folks that there are tools to deal with mental wellness.”

The physical strain of 40 hours in the water is intense, with dangers which includes sunburn, dehydration, sharks and marine stingers. The strategy was to raise $250,000 for the foundation and a lot more than $200,000 has currently been donated.

Johnston catches a wave off Cronulla beach. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Pictures

Johnston’s wife Lauren stated when she was relieved her husband was a new globe record holder, she by no means had any doubt he would finish. “I knew he was generally going to get the target that he set,” she stated.

The 40-year-old stated earlier this week he wanted to inspire the little ones he now coaches in surfing and present them with sensible tools and help to make it by way of difficult instances.

“I’m not good to myself at instances. I place a lot of stress on myself to be a good husband, father and buddy,” he stated.

Johnston’s target to surf a lot more than 500 waves – at an typical of one particular wave just about every six minutes – has also been smashed with a lot more than 533 waves ridden ahead of 9am on Friday.

“Yeah, I’m stoked, but I’m cooked. I’ve nonetheless got a further lengthy eight hours left in the water now. So just dealing with that at the moment. This is way tougher than I anticipated,” he stated.

• In Australia, the crisis help service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be located at befrienders.org