Surfline

About Surfline

What if you always knew when the waves were good? That’s the simple but powerful question Surfline answers for millions of surfers worldwide. It’s a tool that has fundamentally changed the sport, moving it from a game of chance to one of precision. The story begins in 1985, when Southern California surfers Jerry Arnold and David Wilk launched a pay-per-call telephone service. For a small fee, you could get a 90-second recording with the day’s surf conditions at 22 local spots. The real magic, however, came from a self-taught forecaster named Sean Collins. Collins, who had a passion for meteorology, joined the team and quickly became the heart and soul of the operation, known for his incredibly accurate predictions. He would later merge his competing service, Wavetrak, with Surfline and eventually take over the company. The business evolved with the times, moving from phone lines to faxes and pagers, and then in 1995, to the internet. Surfline.com launched with live camera feeds, a revolutionary concept at the time. After being acquired by Swell.com in 2000 and then bought back by Collins after the dot-com bust, Surfline solidified its position as the go-to source for wave forecasting. The company expanded its reach by acquiring Buoyweather and FishTrack, and in 2017, the major UK-based forecaster Magicseaweed. A significant milestone came in 2020 when Surfline secured a $30 million investment from The Chernin Group and appointed Kyle Laughlin, a former Amazon and Disney executive, as CEO. Today, with over 700 cameras worldwide and sophisticated AI-powered forecasting, Surfline continues to be an essential tool, helping surfers everywhere know before they go.