{"id":126923,"date":"2026-05-26T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tracksmag.com.au\/?p=126923"},"modified":"2026-05-26T07:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:20:22","slug":"how-learning-to-fly-reinvented-michael-dunphys-surf-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tracksmag.com.au\/how-learning-to-fly-reinvented-michael-dunphys-surf-career","title":{"rendered":"How Learning to Fly Reinvented Michael Dunphy\u2019s Surf Career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Flying at 3,000 feet has given Michael Dunphy a unique method of checking the waves and a fresh perspective on his surf career. Because the truth is that just surfing alone doesn\u2019t pay the bills anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know that I wouldn\u2019t still be getting paid to surf if I was competing on the QS or Challenger Series,\u201d said the 35-year-old from Virginia Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one wants to see me limp around the contest scene and try to make a couple heats. Unless you\u2019re in the top ten, there\u2019s definitely a timeline on the competitive surfing thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regular footer spent years grinding through professional surfing\u2019s second tier. He\u2019s won multiple QS 1,000 events. His biggest victory came at the QS 3,000 Barbados Surf Pro during the 2021\/22 season. He’s also had some sporadic Challenger Series campaigns. But like many surfers outside the elite bracket, he realised the traditional surf career model was changing fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dunphy celebrates his victory at the Barbados Surf Pro in 2022. Photo: WSL.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2026, sponsors care more about audience, personality and storytelling than contest results. Personal brand is everything. A viral reel can generate more attention than a heat win buried deep in the WSL webcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where Michael\u2019s 1978 Cessna comes in. The small, single-engine aircraft has become the driving force of a second act that\u2019s transformed him from another hardworking competitive surfer into one of surfing\u2019s more intriguing modern explorers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was so used to being gung-ho and on the road all the time with the CS and then Covid hit and everything got halted,” said Dunphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At the time I had a friend who was a flight instructor and I started learning with him for fun and as a way of keeping myself busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never had any interest in flying prior. Planes were always just a means to an end for me, to get from one destination to another. But everything kind of spiraled from there and next thing you know I\u2019m a few years down the line and I\u2019ve got my license and bought my own plane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bit less grindy than the WSL locker room setup.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since purchasing the Cessna, Dunphy has used it to launch strike missions up and down the East Coast, while increasingly turning his attention toward the Caribbean – a region he believes still offers genuine opportunities for exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One particular mission alongside Jimmy Wilson in 2025 caught the attention of the surfing world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair scored a sand-bottom right-hander that looked like a miniature reverse version of Skeleton Bay, a trip Dunphy still describes as the best surf mission of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, he\u2019s returned to the islands repeatedly, often flying solo between tiny airstrips scattered throughout the Caribbean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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