No place like home for Jack Robinson as he prepares for World Surf League event in Margaret River

He travels the world chasing the best waves for eight months each year, now with wife Julia and 17-month-old son Zen in tow. But for Margaret River’s Jack Robinson there really is no place like home. “It feels like it hasn’t changed,” Robinson told The West Australian while gazing out at the region’s famous coastline. “I just got back and I’m happy to back. I feel like this is what I needed — I need this — to come home in the middle of the year. There is just something about where you grew up. There’s really not much you can explain about it. It’s special and it’s just home.” Raised in the Margaret River surf, Robinson has established himself as one of the world’s best wave riders over recent years, currently No.7 in the World Surf League rankings. He’s a multiple event winner on the championship tour, including the past two he has competed in at his home break. While he’s as motivated as ever to win again when competition at this year’s Margaret River Pro starts on Saturday, life on tour with a young family is different. “I think it’s changed me for the better,” he said of fatherhood. “It’s sometimes a challenge but it’s also the greatest moments of our lives, we are just super blessed to be living in the moment.” Robinson, 27, said he was loving seeing son Zen embrace surfing and the ocean more as he got older but that he was still a little way off dropping into a barrel himself. “Every surfer he sees on the screen now he says, ‘Dadda’, so he is definitely starting to engage more and interact,” he said. “I got him on there (a surfboard) a couple times just so he could feel it when he was tiny but I don’t want to rush it. I think I’m going to wait I while. I want him to pick the board up and then want to go. “But he loves the ocean, I want to make sure he’s always around it.” Robinson, a favourite to add to his 2022 and 2024 wins at Main Break, believes his long-formed connection to the waves in WA’s South West can give him an advantage again in reading the ocean. “I’ve grown up here and I’ve surfed it just about more than anyone so I think that has a lot to do with it,” he said. “It’s going to be a big event and I’m just really excited.” This year’s Pro will bring thousands of tourists to the region, with more than 10 million more people expected to watch on from around the world and take in the stunning pictures of the WA coastline. WSL Asia Pacific president Andrew Stark said it was an event that everyone on tour was excited for. “The waves are pumping and sun is out and we just love WA,” he said. “The surfers enjoy coming here and not just for the surf, there ‘s such good food and wine — there’s just so much to do here.” The 10-day window for competition opens Saturday, with the forecast likely to bring early action. Watch the WSL Margaret River Pro live and free on 7PLUS

No place like home for Jack Robinson as he prepares for World Surf League event in Margaret River

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