{"id":449298,"date":"2026-01-31T10:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/449298\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T10:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:08:11","slug":"newcastle-surfer-josh-levey-catches-7000-waves-in-one-month-for-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/449298\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle surfer Josh Levey catches 7,000 waves in one month for charity"},"content":{"rendered":"

When his eyes were stinging and his lips were “on fire”, Newcastle surfer Josh Levey remembered a simple mantra \u2014 “love is the willingness to be inconvenienced by another”.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old competitive surfer, who has been riding a board since he was seven years old, has caught a staggering 7,000 waves in the last month to raise money for a local homeless charity.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always kind of wanted to do some sort of a challenge using my gift, which is surfing,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

Josh Levey was carried up the beach after catching his 7,000th wave. (ABC Newcastle: Keely Johnson)<\/p>\n

Physical, mental toll<\/p>\n

Josh faced difficult conditions throughout January \u2014 from heavy rain and strong swells to heatwave weather and tiny waves.<\/p>\n

But they did not stop him catching an average of 225 waves a day.<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

“A tricky part of the ocean is there’s so many uncontrollable variables,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think the biggest thing is the exhaustion. You’re burning insane amounts of energy and calories constantly, so I can feel my energies go super up and down all the time.<\/p>\n

“But any physical sacrifice that I have to make is nothing compared to what other people are making.”\"A<\/p>\n

Josh Levey scored some good waves in Sydney throughout the challenge. (Supplied: Ian McDonald)<\/p>\n

Spending hours in the sun and saltwater took its toll, made evident by Josh’s wetsuit neck tan, salt-reddened eyes and chapped lips.<\/p>\n

“My eyes are cooked,” he said.<\/p>\n

“My lips are so sore they feel like they’re on fire.<\/p>\n

“I woke up this morning and there was, like, blood on them.”<\/p>\n

Doing it tough<\/p>\n

Josh initially set out with the goal of catching 5,000 waves in a month but upped the target to 7,000 about halfway through his gruelling schedule.<\/p>\n

“We realised that there are so many people out there that are doing it tough,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And so we thought, ‘Let’s just put the pedal down and give it everything we got for the last two weeks’.<\/p>\n

“I discussed it with my team and I felt like I could get to 7,000.”<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

Josh Levey is hoping to inspire others through his challenge. (ABC Newcastle: Keely Johnson)<\/p>\n

A bigger purpose<\/p>\n

Josh used the challenge to raise funds for Newcastle charity Soul Hub which provides food, support and services to the city’s most vulnerable, homeless, and at risk.<\/p>\n

“Soul Hub is an amazing place that really shows their love through their actions,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So I thought, ‘Why not support [them]?'”<\/p>\n

He has raised more than $95,000 for the charity, which relies on community funding.<\/p>\n

“It’s huge for us,” Soul Hub’s guest support coordinator John Fowler said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John Fowler says the charity relies on donations and community funding. (Supplied: Soul Hub)<\/p>\n

“The support from the community \u2014 whether that’s pocket money from a child which we sometimes receive, or whether that’s thousands of dollars from somebody like Josh \u2014 the impact on our guests is significant.<\/p>\n

“Because without that this place would just not exist.”<\/p>\n

Soul Hub has more than 300 volunteers and supports about 250 people each week, providing meals, support services and essential facilities.<\/p>\n

Inspiring others<\/p>\n

Josh said he hoped his efforts would also help to spread an important message.<\/p>\n

“The message that we really want to convey with this challenge is that love is the willingness to be inconvenienced by another,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So, I hope it could inspire someone else to go out and love someone in their own way.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Josh Levey and Guinness world record holder Blakey Johnson on a party wave in January. (Supplied: Ian McDonald)<\/p>\n

Josh spent 12 hours in the water with Sydney surfer Blakey Johnston, who holds a Guinness world record for surfing 4,000 waves in a wave pool over 25 days in August last year.<\/p>\n

The Newcastle surfer’s efforts won’t be recorded as an official record because it would have required every wave to be videotaped for verification.<\/p>\n

But Josh said it was not the point of the exercise, and he had received “overwhelming” support from fellow surfers, sports people and the wider community.<\/p>\n

“There has constantly been people coming up to me asking me how many waves I’m on and how I’m going,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Having people like [ultramarathon athlete] Nedd Brockmann [reach out] \u2014 there’s been so many cool people that have jumped on board and helping us out.”<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

About 200 people supported Josh Levey at Dixon Park Beach in Newcastle for his 7,000th wave. (ABC Newcastle: Keely Johnson)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When his eyes were stinging and his lips were “on fire”, Newcastle surfer Josh Levey remembered a simple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[232443,232444,64,63,232446,232441,232449,232447,232448,232445,85,232442],"class_list":["post-449298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-5000-wave-challenge","tag-7000-wave-challenge","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-homelessness-charity","tag-josh-levey","tag-josh-levey-surf-5000-waves","tag-josh-leveys-record-surf","tag-new-record","tag-soul-hub","tag-sports","tag-surf-challenge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}