Australian surfer Jack Robinson recently posted two images on Instagram. In the first, a 12-year-old Robinson glides effortlessly through a barrel at G-Land. With his knee bent, one hand on the rail of his surfboard and the other caressing the water, Robinson looks at home in the heart of the wave.
The second image, taken during the recent World Surf League event at the same famous Indonesian break, which Robinson won, is almost identical. Same wave, same stance, same style – but with 12 years separating the photos. “Then and now,” he wrote.
The similarity between the images is fitting. Ever since Robinson was a child, he has been regarded as the next big thing in surfing. The West Australian started surfing at three and was charging Pipeline, a famously-heavy Hawaiian wave, by age 11. In 2010 the Weekend Australian magazine put Robinson on the cover and called him the next Kelly Slater. That same year, Quiksilver, a major surfing label, took Robinson to G-Land on one of his first sponsored trips – when the initial photo was taken.
“It’s so long ago now,” Robinson says of the G-Land montage. “It’s pretty wild to think – we’ve done so much work to get where we are. To come back and be there again, it’s quite surreal hey – full circle.”
Robinson is currently riding on a high, having won his home-town WSL event at Margaret River in May and then triumphed at G-Land earlier this month. The consecutive victories have elevated him to No 2 in the world rankings and put him in WSL championship contention with four events remaining until the finals (the Surf City El Salvador Pro is currently underway). No Australian man has been crowned WSL champion since Mick Fanning in 2013; suddenly, Robinson is on the verge of a major breakthrough for Australian surfing.
But the two photos only tell half of the story. It has not been a straight line from G-Land barrel to G-Land barrel, 12 years apart. Robinson’s journey to the heights of competitive surfing may have been foretold since he was a fresh-faced grommet with blond locks and extraordinary ability. In recent years, though, his success has looked far from guaranteed.
***
Robinson has only ever known surfing, and it shows in his mellow demeanour. The 24-year-old natural footer seems unfazed by life’s challenges, texting Guardian Australia with humour throughout his drama-filled two-day transit from Bali to El Salvador. The shaka emoji, a favourite of the surf community, punctuates his messages. When time-zones finally align for an interview, a jetlagged Robinson is all too happy to chat.
Born in Western Australia, Robinson was in the waves of Perth from the age of three after being encouraged by his dad, Trev, a passionate surfer. The family relocated to Margaret River two years later and Robinson was thrown in the deep-end – the area is notorious for its waves of consequence. “It was a bit heavy for me to start,” he laughs. “But I’ve been hooked ever since.”
Robinson was soon a fixture in the line-up, charging waves with surfers a decade or two older than him. “It was funny because I never really saw kids my age out there,” he says. “But I saw all the older guys that I really looked up to going for it – I wanted to jump the gun, doing what they were doing.”
With his barrel-riding prowess, aerial flair and silky-smooth turns, Robinson landed a sponsorship deal with Quiksilver before he was even a teenager. The surf brand signed fellow youngsters Kanoa Igarashi and Leonardo Fioravanti at the same time and gave the trio a global profile – they were considered the future of surfing. Robinson, Japan’s Igarashi and Italy’s Fioravanti travelled the globe together and befriended the world’s best surfers. “Jack, Kanoa and Leo – little shits man!” joked 11-time world champion Slater in a recent episode of TV show Make or Break. “I love those guys.”
But while clips from the time show the trio living a grommet’s dream, some observers were asking questions about the ethics of throwing children into this commercialised, competitive environment at such a young age. This was particularly the case for Robinson, whose father was acting as his coach and manager all while home-schooling him, to ensure maximum time in the water.
“At what point does the ‘rearing’ of a sport prodigy result in other, more prosaic aspects of parenting being neglected?” asked The Australian in its 2010 profile. “And what happens when a parent’s ambition for a child becomes the family’s raison d’être?”
Robinson reflects fondly on his childhood. “I did home-school for a lot of the years,” he says. “Everyone kind of thought I was gonna go crazy, like didn’t know what was gonna happen with me, because I’d be surfing all the time. It was like: ‘He’s not at school!’. But I had the best time ever. I was lucky to travel at a young age and see the world, see different cultures. It was pretty cool growing up like that.”
But he admits that he was not blind to the pressure. “You can feel a lot – especially from the companies, the sponsors, and you’re just a little kid. There’s that side of it. You just want to live your life as a kid, it’s the best years of your life growing up. Yeah, I think I felt it for a lot of years. But once I knew what was going on, once I knew how to handle people, how to be my own man … but it took a long time.”
Robinson pauses, reflecting, before conceding: “It was definitely interesting, it’s not always like that for everybody.” This is quite the understatement. Few surfers have been so highly-rated, with so much expectation from peers and sponsors, from such a young age.
***
Having found fame and commercial success, the next stop for young Robinson was the top-tier of elite surfing: the WSL. He proved his competitive acumen in 2014, winning a big junior event at Sunset Beach in Hawaii, aged just 16. In the same year Robinson switched from Quiksilver to Billabong, in a six-figure sponsorship deal. The WSL was surely only a matter of time.
And then – the drift. As Robinson came of age, he seemed to falter in the competitive environment. Wins came here and there, but the prodigy lacked the consistency to vault up the rankings in the qualifying series. He almost secured a WSL spot in 2018, but fell agonisingly short. He briefly withdrew from competition, a previously unimaginable decision from a surfer who could out-barrel the world’s best.
“I think looking back on it, I was just a completely different person,” he says. “On the QS [qualifying series], when me and my dad were travelling together, I just don’t think I was in a very good headspace.”
One factor in Robinson’s stall was the quality of waves. WSL surfers compete at the world’s best breaks; competition organisers prioritise wave conditions in deciding when to run heats. The QS can be more of a grind, criss-crossing the globe on a gruelling schedule from one wave to the next, battling it out in what can be little better than beach slop. “I think my view on it wasn’t very good – especially when the waves were shitty,” he says.
With each year that Robinson failed to qualify for the WSL, the pressure built, particularly as a number of high-profile Australian male surfers retired from the tour and fans looked to the next generation. “I know that there’s a lot of eyes on you, this ‘you’ve got to prove yourself’,” he says. “And you can get caught up in that. But in the end, I know I’ve got what it takes. I’ve got the talent, I have the package, it’s just about putting it together.” Robinson adds that, in his time slogging it out on the QS, he learnt a lot about himself. “You can get ahead of yourself – you want to win everything,” he says. “It’s about enjoying the ride, too.”
Then came the change. Robinson met Julia Muniz, a Brazilian model. The pair began dating and travelling together. It coincided with Robinson’s best form of his competitive career and, in turn, qualification for the WSL, ahead of the 2020 season. The couple were married in mid-2020, after Covid-19 interrupted Robinson’s debut WSL season. “She’s amazing,” says Robinson. “It’s everything you want.”
The arrival of Muniz coincided with Robinson’s father, Trev, taking a backseat. After a long stint with his father closely involved in his career, this marked a significant change for Robinson. Surfing magazine Tracks described Trev as his son’s “coach, confidant and chief strategist” and noted that over the years some commentators had drawn comparison with highly-strung “soccer dads”. But Robinson junior insists that while the relationship may have evolved, he remains on good terms with his father.
“I think it’s not always the easiest when you’re doing it with your family, them playing the manager as well – doing that with the companies, managing me and then also managing the deals,” he says. “He’s my Dad – we keep that relationship like that, and I think it’s in a much better place.” After a period apart, the pair were reunited at the recent Margaret River event. “He was super stoked,” adds Robinson. “To see me win at home – I think he was over the moon.”
***
Last year, in his debut season, Robinson claimed his maiden WSL event in Mexico, helping him to 12th place finish overall. This year, the Australian made the quarter-finals in the second event of the series, in Hawaii, and the semis at Bells Beach in Victoria. Having won consecutive events in Margaret River and G-Land, a world title is now within grasp.
Australia has long been a force in competitive surfing. Mark Richards reigned supreme in late 1970s and early 1980s. Tom Carroll and Damien Hardman won two titles apiece over the next decade, before Mark Occhilupo, Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson won championships during an era otherwise dominated by Slater. But while Australia’s women stars – Tyler Wright, Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons – have continued to perform, in the men’s WSL it has been Brazilian and Hawaiian surfers at the forefront in recent years.
Almost a decade since Fanning’s last world title, which came just as Robinson was rising to prominence, is the 24-year-old ready to lead a new generation of Australian surfers to WSL glory?
“I’ve always wanted that,” he says. “But it’s a long road to get there. I feel like it’s just one milestone after another. Even these event wins – it’s a long journey ahead. There’s so much more to come.”
After more than a decade in the limelight, Robinson knows that success is not predestined. A WSL championship, if it is to come, will need an ingredient that can be hard to find in the glare of the surfing spotlight.
“There’s a lot going on, more eyes on you, people saying this and that,” Robinson says. “But I think the main thing is to focus on yourself. Take it moment by moment, being present, going surfing.”
