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Barton Lynch is ready for ‘Blast Off’ 2021

The online surf event that connects kids and cultivates talent at all levels. 

Growing up in the 70s Barton Lynch didn’t live on the beach. His Mosman home was a twenty-minute drive to Manly so he improvised. The skinny grommet would make his way to Military road, stick his thumb out and hitch. “Sometimes it was four different car rides in a round trip,” reflects a typically upbeat Barton, who is speaking over zoom from his home in Hawaii.

While most modern parents would reel in horror at the thought of little Jimmy or Jenny hustling rides with strangers, back then that was just what you did, particularly if you were fuelled with the kind of ambition Barton was. “I used to tell the drivers I wanted to be world Champion,” he explains. “I was a courageous, wild crazy kid. I thought I was a scared, a timid little skinny kid. Now looking back I’m like, You had some balls. I wasn’t hiding. I was telling them what I was gonna do. I wasn’t pretending like, ‘You know, it’d be cool, if you know, maybe I might you know, be a world champion.’ I was putting it out there.”  

One day, years later he ran into a guy who’d picked him up as a kid. He reminded Barton that he’d told them that he was going to be a world champion. By that stage he was.

Barton Lynch celebrating his 1988 world title win with a gaggle of mainstream press.


Barton, who was lauded for his commentary efforts at this year’s Olympics, also credits the hitchhiking for developing one of his other talents. “That’s how I learned to waffle. I wanted to make sure those people had a good time; I also wanted to make sure that they’d pick me up again next time.”

While Barton’s ‘free ride’ path to surfing glory may not be included in the modern ‘How to Become a Pro Surfer’ handbook, he always wanted to create a contest format that allowed young surfers to take risks and nurture their talent in a positive environment. Sixteen years ago, he came up with Blast Off, a junior-contest , which encouraged participation without prematurely passing judgement.

According to Barton, Blast Off was founded on two pillars – “progression and stoke”. In a radical departure from conventional contests he decided that kids would not be scored. There would be placings and heat progression, but no numbers attached to rides. “We’d run three days of that event and all they’d hear is coaching advice. You know, what someone did right what they did wrong and they get a paragraph of coaching. Plus they’d go up to the Hurley Surf van and watch their heat on video and have their surfing explained to them by a coach… We created a very different style of engaging with that 14-and under age bracket.”

The real achievement in Barton’s eyes was to formulate a platform that inspired involvement and engagement, irrespective of ability level. “You wouldn’t think that you could do a surfing event that was for the best kids in the country, and then a surfing event for beginners who have never done a contest before. People would go well, that’s kind of two different products. And I don’t think about products. I don’t think about demographics. I don’t think about the things that people think about in that sense. I think about being the best version of us and creating the best thing and making my ideas come to fruition in the most positive way.”

The physical Blast Off events ran in Australia and later Bali, and there were plans to run them in the Maldives until COVID prompted Barton to rethink the approach. “I always had in my mind the idea of doing a video challenge. It seemed like the obvious time to do it last year with COVID. I took a gamble and cancelled the physical events, Thank gosh, because as things panned out, that was perfect.”   

In the inaugural video challenge Blast Off received 505 video submissions from 20 Different countries. Barton grows particularly animated when discussing some of the unique participants. “We got sent a video from Kamali P, an eleven-year-old little girl from a fishing village in India… I was like, yes, we love it. We sent her a Go Pro and saw her connecting with all the other kids around the world who took part.”

Every kid who posted a video received coaching feedback and much of the time it was Barton himself who supplied the commentary. The platform allowed kids to watch all the submissions and read and learn from the advice others were given. “We’re creating this really wonderful tool to help people improve their surfing,” insists Barton.       

This year Blast-Off  has Brad Gerlach, Beau Mitchell and Philippe Malvaux from Europe co-coaching and providing feedback. The program, which has already kicked off, runs for seven weeks and culminates with a selection of the best video submissions. Along the way there a bunch of prizes given out and awards for video of the week. At the end of the contest window each division is judged by a surfing expert on a zoom-cast everyone can watch. Last year Jack Robinson, Kyuss King, Mahina Maeda, Vahine Fierro and Eli Hanneman were all part of the judging team and Barton will call on a similarly stellar cast this year.       

Blast Off may give future champions the confidence boost they need or it might just help young kids get more enjoyment out of their surfing, but ultimately Barton sees it as a tool for creating a sense of much-needed tribal belonging.    

“We’re bringing kids together at a time when they need community, they need to know that there’s hope and that there’s all these other kids frothing around the world. We connect all these people … That’s how I see it as important.”

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