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

Throughout a brief 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 These days show.

Johnston has smashed the earlier 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 supply help.

Johnston, a nearby surf instructor and former skilled surfer, is performing the gruelling feat to raise income for the Chumpy Pullin Foundation. The charity was set up to honour the memory of skilled 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 because we lost our dad,” brother Ben mentioned. “This is just anything to honour that and he definitely desires to actively show individuals that there are tools to deal with mental overall health.”

The physical strain of 40 hours in the water is intense, with dangers like sunburn, dehydration, sharks and marine stingers. The strategy was to raise $250,000 for the foundation and far 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 mentioned 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 normally going to get the purpose that he set,” she mentioned.

The 40-year-old mentioned earlier this week he wanted to inspire the children he now coaches in surfing and supply them with sensible tools and help to make it by way of hard occasions.

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

Johnston’s purpose to surf far more than 500 waves – at an typical of one particular wave each six minutes – has also been smashed with far more than 533 waves ridden just before 9am on Friday.

“Yeah, I’m stoked, but I’m cooked. I’ve nevertheless got an additional extended eight hours left in the water right now. So just dealing with that at the moment. This is way tougher than I anticipated,” he mentioned.

• 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 identified at befrienders.org