How Blakey Johnston Caught A World-Record-Setting 4,097 Waves In A Month

You can read our full story on Blakey’s world record break here.

In July of 2025, endurance athlete, father, husband, and Cronulla Surf Academy owner Blakey Johnston beat the world record for most waves ridden in a month.

This was after Blakey set his first world record for doing this back in 2023, and then having that record beaten by someone else in 2024.

4,097 waves and one severely battered rig later, Blakey regained his crown. Here are the official stats:

• Waves: 4,097
• Sessions: 256
• Time riding waves: 17 hrs 58 mins 21 sec
• Average session: 10.3 hours
• Bottom Turns: 10,284
• Snaps: 5,154
• Barrels: 674
• Airs: 92 (Blake reckons these must’ve been his body varials)
• Total Turns: 21,658 (the humble bottom turn is included in this)

“I’ve got a 50 cent-sized ulcer on my heel that’s been rubbing against my booties for three weeks,” he croaked, one day post-surf-marathon. “All the healed scar tissue on my feet has reopened. Two weeks in I had an all-consuming ear infection. I averaged 3.5 hours of sleep according to my Whoop watch. Basically everything hurts now. Weird shooting nerve pain. It was pretty brutal,” he concludes with a chuckle.

Now, one might argue that it’s hard to get emotionally invested in the pathos that is getting barreled 674 times while the rest of us are at work, but, this is the man’s work. Blakey runs a successful surf school in his hometown of Cronulla, and he raised $330,000 for children’s mental health causes through these feats.

Let’s cut him some well-earned slack.

Now a year later, this mini-doc goes over Blakey’s world record achievement and the unexpected, real, and interesting turmoil that goes into stuffing yourself into a wetsuit in Australia’s mid-winter and surfing for 10 hours a day in a pool for the love of the game.

Watch above.