Once "reckless" teen, now cautious dad - How child prodigy Jack Robinson grew up to rock surfing's elite
Jack Robinson is considering putting his newborn son on a surfboard. Then he thinks again and downscales his parental ambitions.
“I put him on the board on land,” the Australian surfer conceded. “He's only two months, I'll wait.”
Knowing Robinson’s journey in the sport, it is easy to see why this would be a compromise. The now 26-year-old has been travelling the world in search of the biggest waves since he was a child. His accomplishments in surfing have dazzled and defied age.
The new version of Jack Robinson, however, while no less talented, is a bit more subdued.
“I was a little reckless as a kid. Not now though. I'm a dad now,” Robinson said with a chuckle.
Olympics.com caught up with the current world No.2 about the ups and downs of growing up as a teen prodigy, securing a quota for his first Olympic Games*, and what he learned about Teahupo’o since first tackling the famous Tahitian wave as a teen.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Jack Robinson living the teenage dream
Jack Robinson started surfing at age three near Perth and took on Margaret River two years later when his father Trev, an avid surfer himself, relocated the family to live by the famous reef break.
The move gave Robinson daily exposure to a Championship Tour venue where waves can reach up to 15 feet. He spent his childhood chasing the biggest of them alongside surfers who were older than him by a decade or more.
Despite the difference in their ages, Robinson proved to be a worthy companion.
“That literally shaped me, how I am, everything that I am today,” Robinson said of tackling waves together with older surfers. “I wanted to be on the high level. I was looking at the older guys, so I was like, ‘OK, I got to be on that level and higher’, and I was probably eight or nine. It's pretty cool. That's the place I grew up and my friends are older than me and charged harder.”
By 11, Robinson was surfing Pipeline, one of the world’s heaviest waves.
It was a daunting undertaking. Even now, after three full seasons on the Championship Tour, Robinson admits that surfing big waves can rattle him.
“I still get scared today, but I feel like it's how you manage it,” he said. “You're definitely more reckless as a kid. You just go, you're not even thinking. It's a fine balance because if you're too cautious, then you can get hurt. You have to really respect the wave and the ocean. It's dangerous so you always got to be wise.”
Robinson’s talent and fearless nature growing up quickly caught the attention of surfing connoisseurs. Magazine covers introducing him as “the next Kelly Slater”, sponsorship deals and trips around the world followed. And all this before he was a teenager.
While his childhood was far from ordinary, Robinson has no regrets.
“I think it was a full childhood just because of where I grew up,” he said. “I still got to have fun and be a kid, but it was full. It came with its challenges, for sure, when I travelled, and sponsors, everything. But in the long run, you got to get through it. That's part of the job.”
From teen star to adult rookie: Jack Robinson’s bumpy ride
The next step in this job was for Robinson to replicate his teenage success in adult surf competitions.
But while Robinson basked in the spotlight as a teen, the transition to the adult circuits proved challenging. He celebrated some wins on the Qualifying Series but was not consistent enough to progress to the top tier of the Championship Tour.
Meanwhile, the pressure to qualify grew. After a near miss in 2018, Robinson took a short break from competition to regain his mental focus.
He ultimately qualified for the Championship Tour in 2020, although that season was interrupted by Covid-19. His first win came at the Mexico Open in August 2021. He finished that season in 12th place.
“For sure it's hard. Brings up so many memories, but I got through it,” Robinson said of his rocky journey through the adult circuits.
“I feel like if you can make it through that time when you're in the spotlight as a kid - because it's so many expectations on your shoulders and you don't really know how to handle it because you're so young - if you can make it through that and have the right people around you, then it's better for the long run because now having expectations and people all hyped, it would almost be too new. You'd be like, ‘Oh, how do I handle it?’ So, I feel like I handled it at a young age and got it out of the way.”
From Tahiti to babies: A year to remember for Jack Robinson
It was not until the 2022 season when Robinson truly came into his own, winning two stages and finishing third in the WSL Finals.
By comparison, the following year was a rollercoaster of highs and lows. He started off by winning the season opener at Pipeline but had to withdraw from his hometown stage at Margaret River, which he won in 2022, due to a knee injury.
“I was on top of the world and I was just going so hard,” Robinson recalled. “I burned out.”
The return to competition was rocky. Robinson recorded three back-to-back 17th places until coming back in full force to win Tahiti Pro and secure his spot in the WSL Finals.
He finished the year in fifth place overall.
“It's a good learning curve for me,” Robinson said. “The challenges last year reminded me of the challenges as a kid, but at a different level now. I was like, ‘I got to fight my way back’. You always try and look for that way to get through.”
Teenager in Tahiti: How Jack Robinson is using his early experiences to tackle the Olympic wave
Winning Tahiti Pro in August 2023 was a particular confidence boost for Robinson.
Not only did he beat out the world’s best, including 2014 and 2018 winner Gabriel Medina, on the same wave that will host the Olympic surfing competition this summer, Robinson also secured a quota for the upcoming Games.
“It means everything that you could ever want out of doing the sport that I do and representing the country that I come from,” Robinson said of becoming an Olympian. “It's the pinnacle.”
Having travelled to Teahupo’o multiple times since he was a teenager, Robinson believes he has a solid understanding of the wave’s many moods.
“I feel like there's a lot of different phases of that wave,” the surfer said. “It's always changing. It's got a big energy that place. The wave is just crazy and exciting and perfect. It's everything you could want as a surfer, but you got to have respect for the wave too, because it can really, really hurt people.”
“I always go back for swells. I got a lot of friends there. It has a special place in me, Tahiti. A special place in my heart,” Jack Robinson to Olympics.com
Jack Robinson’s fatherly instincts
As euphoric as winning Tahiti Pro was, Robinson’s biggest highlight of 2023 was the birth of his son Zen in December.
Zen wasted no time in becoming a globe trotter himself, making an appearance in an oversized ‘Robinson’ jersey in Hawaii to watch his dad win Sunset Beach Pro and already looking like one of the crew among the world’s best surfers.
The former child prodigy, however, is in no rush to set his own son loose on the waves.
“I'll get worried for sure,” Robinson said. “I don't see how you couldn't be. My dad was always worried about me. I feel like it's just this trust, you know? I'm going to be worried though.”