Record-Smashing Surf Coach Eyes Off His Next Victim: Sydney Olympic Park

Get yourself an URBNSURF Winter Warrior Pass here.

Blakey Johnston is giving Dry July the finger and diving headfirst into its wettest version yet.

Armed with an URBNSURF Winter Warrior Pass, he’ll attempt to elipse the record for most hours surfed in a wavepool over a single month — 108 hours, set last winter by tradie and Mentawai resort owner Ed Robinson, who slept in his car and logged nine-hour days like his lunch depended on it.

Blake’s setup is different. He’s got a family. A full-time job. A week off mid-month. And a commute. My admittedly measly arithmetic suggests he’ll need to spend more than four and a half hours a day, every day, to eclipse the high water mark.

Which, to be clear, you could technically do too, if you bought a Winter Pass.

“I’m going all in on it. So as much as I can in July, between my family life and business life, I’m going to be driving to Homebush. The water gets to 11 degrees. I think it’s going to be pretty tough logging those hours in a 5/4 and with less flotation in the pool… it’s going to be a bit of a battle.”

As for his grom? He’s going to play the role of lab rat. “He’ll be a bit of a case study… see what visible improvement we can see in his surfing throughout that month and get him to smash out as many hours as he can do too.”

To cake it all off he’s going to be trying to hone in on the ultimate one-board quiver. “I just want to figure out what the ultimate wavepool board is — something that can work in one foot and hold a rail in five foot… that’s the quest.”

But this isn’t some performance stunt. It’s part of a much longer arc.

“It was coming up on 10 years since my dad took his own life,” reflects Blakey Johnston, recalling his motivation for his first world-record-smashing 40-hour surf at Cronulla — which raised over $450K for the Chumpy Pullin Foundation.

“He was a brickie. A builder. Raised five kids. Never got ahead with money. Never complained — but he didn’t have the kind of relationship where he could connect with people. He was stoic, you know? In the ’50s and ’60s, expressing vulnerability wasn’t normal.”

The legendary ex-pro surfer, coach, mentor, keynote speaker, and soon-to-be author from Cronulla is right to characterize the stiffer upper-lips of the old guard. ‘We had to walk six miles uphill in both directions just to get to school!’ they never cease to remind us.

However these whataboutisms, so often made in response to any claim that young people are getting shafted, do little to invalidate the bleak outlook they have about their future prospects of owning a home, affording children, retiring before 80, working a job that won’t be automated, or simply finding a reason to get out of bed that isn’t tied to debt.

“In my experience,” Blake continues, “no one’s got life sorted. And yet we come around and we tell young people what to do — we teach them, instruct them, coach them — but we rarely take the time to actually experience life with them. To put ourselves in their shoes. That 17-year-old struggling today? It’s the same as the 65-year-old man I chat with, or the 13-year-old boy I surf with. No one has it figured out. We need to stop pretending there’s one right way to live. There isn’t. It’s your way.”

It’s a belief fuelling his latest mental health campaign: to connect with youth on an experiential level. When Johnston founded the Cronulla Surf Academy close to 20 years ago, the mission statement was to help facilitate the deep pool of local talent (including CT vet Connor O’Leary and World Junior Champion Jarvis Earle) to the heights of competitive surfing. And he did a fine job.

While that ethos is still palpable, Blake’s shifted his focus more recently towards helping his students become well-rounded humans in addition to putting Joan Duru in combo.

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“You see parents pushing their kids to be pro surfers like it’s the noble thing — but has that ever really worked out well? Most of the guys at the top go through breakups, burnout, and then what? They’ve still got another 60 years of life to figure out after the jersey.”

It’s a compelling case for balance — but still, you can’t ignore the pattern. So many of surfing’s apex predators were shaped in the crucible of family dysfunction: Slater, Lisa, Fanning, Florence, Andy. It begs the question — does greatness require a void to fill? A wound to ride away from?

“I remember Andy King pointing that out to me,” Blake says. “Look at the world champion list — so many of the greats, young and old, came from broken homes. Even if their relationships are good now, there was adversity early on. That’s the price. Those guys are in the water sacrificing relationships, sacrificing other parts of life to get that fucking good. But you grow through what you go through. All that stuff builds grit.”

It’s part of the reason why Blake still pushes the handful of kids in his swellbeing program, to get out of their comfort zone: pushing them to challenge themselves in heavy water, do cold plunges on brisk winter mornings and address personal hardship head on.

“We just got back from a trip to Bali. I took over a handful of kids, including my son. It was epic. They paddled through the cave at solid six-foot Ulus. They had a proper crack. It’s real life stuff, they’ll remember forever.”

Blake is currently writing a book based on all his learnings from fatherhood, coaching, and his world-record-breaking physical experiments. The first publisher to see it loved the concept and offered a $25,000 advance. Despite bouts of imposter syndrome — “just a surf coach with life experience” — he’s poured more words into the project than he ever did in school.

“People kept telling me to write a book, so I reached out to an editor with a simple idea — I just wanted to help people by telling my story. It’s not a how-to, it’s just me saying, ‘If I can do it, anyone can.’ It will be real, from the heart. The goal is to speak to people where they’re at, especially young people, and hopefully show them they’re worthy, they’re capable, and they don’t have to have it all figured out to start.”

Blakey’s now traveling for speaking engagements and hopes the book becomes a tool for young people to feel seen, understood, and inspired to be curious about what they’re capable of.

But first he must get through Wet July.

Blake’s not doing it for charity this time. It’s just for himself.

“There’s probably some little 10-year-old Chinese kid clocking up eight hours a day in a wavepool… but whatever. The curiosity is enough of a driver for me,” he laughs. “I’m just pumped to push myself, and maybe show a few people that you don’t need a grand reason to do something hard. You just can.”

The Winter Pass — unlimited sessions all month — isn’t just a license to surf. It’s permission to commit. To test boards. Bring your kid. Try something new. Build a habit. Break a pattern.

“It’s a weird, beautiful thing,” Blake says. “The repetition is the challenge — but it’s also the medicine.”

Get yourself an URBNSURF Winter Warrior Pass here.