With partners including the American Samoan Olympic team and Western Surfing Association, SurfOne's groundbreaking technology is already changing the way we analyze and coach surfing. Photo courtesy SurfOne
Regardless of where you surf, from your local break to exotic surf destinations, to newly opened wave pools, and regardless of what board you ride, we all share one commonality: we want to improve our surfing.
Faster popups. Increased paddling endurance. Stronger bottom turns. Higher airs.
But here’s the thing: with the inconsistency of waves in the ocean (not to mention the crowd) combined with the inability to record any kind of benchmarking information (let’s be honest, a Surfline cam rewind doesn’t help a ton for this), you’re left to improve your surfing based on feeling and the critique of other surfers.
That is, until now.
SurfOne has developed groundbreaking new technology that measures acceleration, power, vertical drop, rail to rail movement in the water called the SurfOne Performance Tracker.
The best part?
The SurfOne Performance Tracker is mounted to your surfboard, usually in the traction pad, so you won’t even notice it. The advantage of a board mounted tracking system versus a watch is simple: this measures exactly what the board is doing — not what your wrist is doing — allowing precise feedback on the surfers input to the board.
SurfOne’s incredible technology has an application not only for surfers, but surf fans alike. While other sports have real-time data during competitions (think ball speed in baseball and ball trajectory on the golf course) surfing doesn’t, creating a challenge for announcers especially when the waves pause during a competition.
With SurfOne, announcers and fans alike can have access to real time data to make surf events even more entertaining, opening a door for non-surfing fans to understand and appreciate the sport which can lead to more sponsorship dollars coming in.
We caught up with one of the founders of SurfOne, Mike Ryan, to hear more about how the technology has progressed from its earliest prototypes, and most importantly, how you can get one attached to your surfboard. — Cash Lambert
ASM: Tell us how the SurfOne Performance Tracker works.
Mike Ryan: The SurfOne Tracker is a small water sealed set of sensors that is packed with technology. Here’s how it works. Let’s say you’re going for a surf. Once it’s attached to your board, you take our magnetic fin key or any relatively strong magnet and tap it on the sensor to activate it. Within 30 seconds, it has a GPS signal, and by the time you start paddling out, you’re ready to go.
When you come in after the surf, you dry off, and then grab your phone, sync your phone, a laptop, or desktop computer to the SurfOne device. Immediately, all the data from your surf — acceleration, power, speed and more — will be loaded onto the SurfOne App, and you can see your stats which are stored along with your previous sessions so you can track progress and achievements.
Or, if you’re at a wave pool with video services, you are surfing in front of a good Surfline cam, you have a buddy video taping you from the beach or a drone, or even when using a GoPro camera, you can pair the data with your video clips and experience a totally new way to view your surfing.
This becomes a valuable tool for you and a surf coach to analyze and critique each session. The ability to not only see how fast you went on a wave, but why you were going that fast can transform your surfing.
ASM: Talk to us about the first SurfOne Performance Tracker prototypes.
After meeting with some key people in surfing, we realized there was interest in this kind of technology so we started working out the best method to collect data. Our first prototype was a rat’s nest of wires and electronics basically stuffed into a GoPro camera case.
Through a few connections and being based in San Clemente, we were able to attach it to Griffin Colapinto’s surfboard and he became one of our first test pilots. He took it out for a surf, and it worked!
We were able to see his speed during the entire surf session. We got a bunch of other information that we couldn't really decipher at the time. I thought, oh, man, creating this technology is going to be easy. And it wasn’t. It was really difficult, especially to get the device shrunken down to a point where you could fit it on a surfboard without it being heavy and cumbersome. And be water sealed, too.
The software itself was just as challenging: to obtain the data, interpret it, and then sync it to video and display it in a way that would make sense. We spent a year and a half with one software firm and were basically no further ahead than when we started … that was a real learning experience. We had three tries at it before we got it right, and tens of thousands of dollars going out the door.
It was almost enough to make us quit, but we knew we were developing something that hadn’t been done before, and we wanted to get it right for the surf community.
How has that original prototype evolved into what it is today?
The SurfOne Performance Tracker will fit into this traction pad and best of all, you'll never know it's there. Photo courtesy SurfOne
Now it’s about the size of two computer thumb drives put next to each other and weighs a third of what a bar of surf wax does. It’s so small and light that you won’t even notice it on your board.
Yeah, it's that small. Photo courtesy SurfOne
How does it attach to your surfboard?
In our initial testing we placed it towards the nose of the board but determined more accurate data is obtained if it's on the back third of the board. We created our own traction pad that has a slot in the back of it for the device to slide into. It's completely hidden and doesn't make the pad feel any different. We also have a mounting system for longboards and soft tops when the traditional shortboard traction pads are not used. We will soon have an installed mounting system where our tracking device can be flush mounted on the deck of the board.
I was going to ask how the SurfOne technology is different from others available today, but I can’t think of anything like this.
Exactly. There have been a few attempts at it that have failed for reasons that we certainly learned from.
There are several watches that offer data points when you’re in the water, but none of them are as robust or accurate as what we’ve created.
Our ability to sync data to a video clip is a real game changer.
It hasn't been done before and the display of performance data as the wave is being ridden opens up many interesting possibilities to see the sport advance. The surfer now has a dynamic and interactive training tool, media broadcasts of surf contests can now be on par with other major sports broadcasts that reference performance data, the data can be used to validate judging scores at contests, and spectators can gain insights to the sport that previously were not available.
And for the surf parks, it provides a whole new dimension to the man made wave experience by allowing surfers to use the consistency of the man made wave and our data to precisely dial in their technique, boards, and even fin type to what suits them best.
Plus, our SurfOne App helps you see all your data, we’re adding a gamification element with achievements. For example, it will help you see how many miles you’ve paddled during a season of surfing, your top speed, hardest turn, etc.
Also, we will be launching an online coaching program — the Surfone Online Coaching Program— that will be useful for both surfers and surf coaches alike.
Can you talk more about the data that SurfOne collects?
While our focus is on performance data as a wave is ridden, we can also collect data similar to what is available from the watches, such as time in the water, wave count, paddling distance, etc. We use mathematical formulas and a combination of sensor readings for things like force and where the force is being applied.
When this is combined with acceleration and speed measurements while the wave is being ridden, an in depth view of how well a wave was surfed emerges. We will soon be able to track rail to rail movement and vertical drop as well.
It’s all really exciting.
How can readers get a SurfOne Performance Tracker?
They can sign up on our preorders page today or signup for our online coaching program at www.surfone.com.
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