World Record: The Longest Surf Session Ever! (Via surfeuropemag.com)

Those who appreciate the value of a good old-fashioned challenge will be interested to know that 30-year old South African surfer Josh Enslin recently surfed for over 30 hours straight, in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest surf session ever.

While Guinness is yet to confirm the new record, early signs would suggest that the attempt was a successful one. The previous record stands at 29 hours and 27 minutes, set by American Ben Shaw in North Carolina last year. Enslin’s effort, completed at Pollock Beach in Port Elizabeth last weekend, constitutes an improvement of 44 minutes; he called it quits at 30 hours and 11 minutes.

According to the rules stipulated by the Guinness Book of Records, in order to break the record a surfer must remain more or less constantly active during his time in the water. Thus, over the course of a session spanning two days and one night, Esslin caught an unofficial total of 455 waves, which works out to around a wave every four minutes.

Kept under close supervision throughout, Josh was allowed a ten-minute break every two hours to grab a bite to eat, go to the toilet (erm, wetsuit?), that sort of thing, which if you ask us is borderline cheating, but whatevs, Guinness said it was cool. Perhaps they could have made him drink a pint of Guinness every time he went for a break? It was a Herculean effort in any case, and one that raised 30,000 ZAR (just over $2,000 USD) for street children and impoverished surfers in the Port Elizabeth area.

“It really was four seasons in two days,” said Enslin. “The toughest part for me was the 02:00 [A.M]- to 04:00 [A.M.]-stretch. Conditions were freezing, fatigue had set in, and my body was freezing. The waves had picked up as well, so I was duck diving all the time.”

Josh is a very good surfer, although it’s unclear whether or not the rides documented in the video above are shown in chronological order. It’d be interesting to see how much his performance deteriorated as the session went on — presumably a lot.

Christ does he look fucked by the end. Have a look at those eyes, the poor man!