The wave whisperer | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

How Peruvian longboarder Javier Leon carved an Aussie academic career with sand in his toes – and the next generation on his mind.

Even for a physical geographer, Javier Leon has found himself in some wild places for work.

In 2014, he was wading deep across a reef during a tropical storm in the South Pacific where an island had disappeared due to sea level rise and wave action.

“Kale used to be a beautiful island with an amazing surfing wave but it was swept away in a matter of years,” recalls the Associate Professor from the University of the Sunshine Coast on Australia’s east coast.

“My role was to survey the elevation of the remaining reef, which helped provide the first scientific evidence that sea level rise had claimed five islands in the remote Solomons.”

In 2000, as a 21-year-old research assistant, he was riding giant swell in Peru’s “comparatively small vessel” the Humboldt across the treacherous Drake Passage from South America to Antarctica.

“That was a seriously scary moment,” says Javier, who was then still finishing his five-year undergraduate geography degree. “I realised how small we are compared to the ocean – even though I’d surfed since I was seven years old, growing up in Lima.

“It was humbling to be exposed to that sort of energy but I gained fantastic experience mapping Antarctica’s mountainous topography and monitoring glacial streams.”

But it was 3am one dark morning in late January 2025, when he jumped out of bed to measure eroding sand dunes on Noosa Beach, that Javier faced the future of our changing coastal environment.

Alfred was coming.

The first tropical cyclone in 50 years predicted to hit as far south as the populous Sunshine and Gold coasts and the capital city of Brisbane was hovering off the state as a category two with winds around 100km/h.

Why 3am?

“It may sound funny but from mid-January I had this intuition. The ocean was boiling for so long, the tides were really high and we were long overdue for a cyclone in this region. I thought it had to come.

“So I was determined to map everything I could to get accurate pre-cyclone data. But the window of opportunity was small. I needed the low tide, the right winds, waves. That happened to be 3am.”

His wife and two sons aged 10 and 6, safe in their Noosa home, “thought I’d lost it”.

“But I got this amazing dataset so I’m happy I did it,” he grins.

Two days before TC Alfred made its slow, splintered landfall off Brisbane’s Moreton Island on 7 March, Javier did his first of multiple national and global interviews about the heavy beach erosion for hundreds of kilometres.

It was a live cross to veteran ABC TV presenter Joe O’Brien for the national channel’s 24-hour news program – from Javier’s car in the rain. On zoom, on his phone. With his young son climbing in and out of the passenger seat.

“I’ve lived in Australia for almost 20 years but I’m not a native English speaker so I work hard to answer questions clearly, in simple language with understandable pronunciation!”

“I’ve been preparing for this for the last 10 years and now that it’s actually happening, it’s quite confronting. I’m really hoping that everyone stays safe, that impacts are manageable, and that we learn a lot from this disaster because there’s more coming. This is not going to be the last one. At least we can learn and better prepare for the next one.” – Javier Leon on ABC TV

After measuring, mapping and recording waves and sand before, during and after the cyclone, which caused several deaths and widespread wind and flood damage to the built and natural environment, Javier immediately focused on analysis.

“If we can quantify how much sand was lost from various sites, it will help inform future coastal management as well as help us better calibrate modelling for future events.”

Risk v retreat

At age 47, the former Australian Research Council Superscience Fellow has published 67 papers on topics from coral reef bathymetry (measuring water depth) to geomorphology (studying landscapes) to remote sensing data collection.

But his goal isn’t just papers. In one sense, it’s not even about protecting the environment. It’s about empowering people to live well in nature and with nature, from landscape to seascape.

He uses research to bring his teaching alive for UniSC science students, to influence coastal decision-makers, to raise awareness among residents and visitors and school children. He collaborates across disciplines, governments, community organisations.

“I want people to understand that coastal systems are dynamic and complex. Sand moves on and off beaches. Often it comes back, sometimes it disappears. The problems start when we want to ‘fix’ the shoreline and keep it stable,” he says.

“The coastline from Noosa to Byron Bay has some of the country’s most expensive beachside real estate but every time we get a big storm, erosion occurs and councils have to make decisions. Seawalls or groynes? Pumping, bulldozing or dredging? Then problems multiply. 

“This happens around Australia, where 90 percent of people live within 50km of the coast and populations are growing as rapidly as the climate crisis. Sea levels are rising, natural disasters intensifying and risks escalating for people and places. That’s where geography can shine a light.

“My studies so far point to two conclusions – that we should use nature-based solutions where possible or get serious about managed retreat. That means not building or rebuilding on some erosion-prone areas, not ‘fixing’ some beaches. In some cases, it means tough decisions to relocate houses and infrastructure inland.”  

Eyes in the skies

Far from weighed down by the findings, however, Javier maintains a buoyancy linked to a lifetime by the beach, across 13,000km of Pacific Ocean between Peru’s west coast and Australia’s east coast where he arrived in 2006 to do a PhD at the University of Wollongong.

“The beach is not just my work – I’m always there,” he says. “Even if I’m on my 12-foot Glider, out with my sons, we’re looking at how the waves affect the sandbars and how the sandbars affect the surfing quality. 

“It’s hard for me to know what is work and what is fun. Collecting data with a drone or measuring with a surveying rod, that’s time on the beach I love. I want more university students to take their passion into their careers so they can shape a sustainable future.”

In the past 10 years at UniSC, Javier has become a familiar sight honing his drone skills across the sprawling 100-hectare campus only 10km from the ocean.

With drones his “tool of choice” but not suited to all weather conditions or underwater mapping, he incorporates a range of remote sensing technologies into classes offering maximum practical experience.

Students have learned to use drones while monitoring coastal changes in Noosa and mapping grey kangaroos on the Sunshine Coast campus, coral reefs off the resort island of Viti Levu in Fiji, and dingoes on the world’s largest sand island, K’gari, near UniSC’s Hervey Bay campus.

Javier also constantly updates his own technical skills, whether he’s kayaking with underwater surveying gear, using GoPros to map coral reefs, or implementing artificial intelligence and machine learning when analysing satellite and drone pictures.

“The latest technology is so fast and accurate, it’s exciting. I want students to see that.”

And he will never stop trying to innovate – even if detractors surface. A case in point: in 2018 when UniSC announced his new course the Geography of Surfing, which included an economics element dubbed “surfonomics”.

“A few people said it wasn’t a proper ‘uni course’ but we had a lot of support and it taught so many skills in the context of surfing – from business and culture to field techniques and interviewing. It’s funny because some big city unis now have very similar, very popular courses.”

Dropping in on academia

In 2025, why is Javier so determined to encourage students out of the lecture theatre and into the field – or on to the sand? Barefoot. Wearing boardies. Just like him.

“I want people to know you don’t have to wear a lab coat to be a scientist, or a suit to be a respected voice in the community. You can wear boardies and a t-shirt and still study the beach, not just to earn money but to find purpose in life.”

His desire to debunk the “surfer bum” stereotype mirrors his own unexpected career.

“In Peru in the 1990s, studying geography was not popular. I was going to drop out of uni. I was top of the class but bored. I thought I might become a nature photographer.

“Then I saw a brochure in my lecturer’s room that had an Aussie guy in a wetsuit measuring waves. (It was Professor Andy Short, famous for conducting the longest quantitative beach monitoring program at Narrabeen, north of Sydney.) And that was it.”

When asked about his best attribute, Javier nominates perseverance. “You don’t have to be super smart to be a scientist. I’m not a computer. I can struggle with numbers. But I persevere.”

Spreading the news

With his expertise so vital and relatable for millions of people who live by the beach worldwide, Javier has become sought-after by media as well as community leaders. 

Finding the time can be tricky between teaching, researching and supervising eager higher-degree students, but he strongly believes that science must be communicated to ensure as many people as possible understand the evidence.

“I’ll talk to anyone if they can share my message,” he laughs, whether it’s Newsweek US, Australia’s The Conversation (1.2million reads), The Guardian, Sky TV News, nonprofit Oceanriders Podcast, Swellnet.com, commercial TV, national radio or social channels – and even if he’s called Mr or Professor (he got both in media during the cyclone).

“I hope it all helps to positively influence our future, not only for my kids – for everyone’s kids. They should be able to enjoy our beaches long-term.”