Janine Allis’ Survivor return

JANINE Allis will paddle out in almost anything.

Onshore winds, ankle-high slop, grey skies. Doesn’t matter. If she’s in Byron, she’s in the water.

“You should see the crap I go out in,” she said, laughing.

“Every day. I’ve got this beautiful Harley Ingleby nine-one. I’m a longboarder, totally addicted.”

She bought a place in Wategos in 2024, drawn by the pull of two of her four kids already living in town.

Now the Boost Juice founder, Betty’s Burgers owner and Surfing Australia board member is back on Survivor, representing Australia in the franchise’s fastest, hardest season yet.

At 59, Allis is returning to Australian Survivor for a new international season: Australia v The World.

The 16-day version of the game was filmed in Samoa and pits seven returning Australians against seven Survivor legends from around the globe, including Parvati Shallow, Cirie Fields and Tony Vlachos.

“This was Survivor on steroids,” Allis said. “There was no easing in. It was just ready, set, go.”

She described it as a sprint compared to the 50-day marathon she faced in 2019’s Champions v Contenders, where she lasted 44 days and earned the nickname ‘The Godmother’.

 

“Normally that kind of name might make you a target,” she said. “But in that cast, everyone had a name. David Genat was the Golden God. There was the King, the Queen, the Rebel. So it wasn’t just me with baggage.”

“Everyone was so into the game. Food, shelter, comfort — none of it mattered. The game dominated from day one.”

Despite the pace, Allis felt ready.

She trained with an ex-SAS officer before her first season, and this time kept her prep detailed and deliberate.

“I totally overprepare,” she said. “I even studied footage frame by frame to see what materials worked, how people froze. I packed merino wool, silk, anything that stayed warm when wet.”

“Shawn [Hampson] went in with shorts and a t-shirt. One guy wore basketball gear. I was like, have you not seen this show?”

The physical side changed too.

“The first time I was doing yoga almost every day. This time I’ve been surfing a lot more, which works different muscle groups,” Allis said.

 

“Yoga might have given me more core strength, but surfing gave me something else.”

That ocean comfort translated directly to Survivor’s water-based challenges.

“I’ve always been comfortable in the water,” Allis said. “Holding my breath, swimming, being underwater. That part of it I don’t stress about.”

Allis lived most of her life in Melbourne and now spends much of her time on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

But Byron is where she slows down.

“I’m not here full-time, but I’m here a lot,” she said. “Enough to catch up with my kids. Enough to surf every day. Enough to know I’ll bump into someone I know at The Pass.”

She said Survivor teaches you things you carry back into real life.

“It gives you resilience. And it gives you gratefulness,” she said.

“You realise you can survive without hot showers, without brushing your hair, without comfort. And when you get home, you look at your fridge and your roof and go, wow, I’m lucky.

 

“My daughter says she’s cold, and I’m like, you don’t know what cold is. You don’t know what hungry is. It resets your idea of what’s hard.

“Very quickly, you become primal. You’re sleeping next to strangers. You’re hunting for light before the sun goes down. You have to make fire or you can’t eat.”

She’s quick to point out how much of Survivor is mental, not just physical.

“The body has more in the tank than we think,” she said. “But the mind gives up faster. That’s what I learned.”

Her social game also needed adjusting.

“In 2019, I was paired with Pia [Miranda], and she played a really strong social game,” she said. “I kind of let her lead that, and I focused on strategy. This time I knew I had to bring more of that myself.”

And then there was fire.

 

“I was never good at fire,” Allis said. “I really worked on it. That was a focus this time.”

She’s still chairing Retail Zoo and mentoring startups through her Business Academy, but her days often start with a surf, not a spreadsheet.

“That’s definitely my happy juice,” she said.

As for how she wants to be remembered this time, Allis doesn’t hesitate.

“Respect,” she said. “I’d love people to go, yep, she played a good game. Whether I got voted out early or not. Just respect for playing a smart, strategic game.”

And a third season? Unlikely.

“Unless it was for someone else,” she said. “My son really wanted to do Blood vs Water, but for me? No. The buff’s on the hook.”

Survivor: Australia v The World premieres Sunday August 17 on Network 10 and 10 Play.