Blake's quest has started

It was surprisingly quiet at 12.30am, the only sound was of shuffling feet and nervous laughter as Blake and his family prepared for his quest silently in the dark under the shadow of the towering lights.

Conditions weren't ideal with a pumping 4-5 ft. east swell making decisions hard for Blake's safety and logistics crew to offer advice that probably wouldn't be accepted.

A final hug and a kiss from the family and he hit the water on the stroke of the hour paddling into the darkness with only the light strip on his surfboard visible to the gathering onlookers.

Blake's first wave drew applause and hoots from the beach as he used the Alley rip to help him maneuver into position.

The rip was problematic and over the next hour he was washed up and down the beach, having to duck dive the driving white wash over and over.

His first drink break also came with eye drops as the salt and jelly blubber remnants washing around in the rip took their toll.

After four hours he had caught almost a hundred waves and by dawn his count was 150 although its not a wave catching contest only a time breaking exercise.

Currently, the record for the world's longest surf is held by South African Josh Elsin who surfed for thirty hours, eleven minutes, catching 455 waves. Johnston's goal is to surf for 40 straight hours and catch 500 .

Johnston's friends are under no illusions as to the severity of the task ahead with one of his early water safety surfers saying Blake said he didn't think the paddling was going to be so hard.

His spirits lifted as day broke and when a pack of hungry NRL Cronulla Sharks led by their coach Craig Fitzgibbon hit the water and the crowds swelled he got back to business.

At the time of writing he was nine hours into his attempt - I surfed with him for 40 mins, he is trying for 40 hours.