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Surfline founder Sean Collins dies at 59
Published: Dec. 26, 2011 Updated: Dec. 27, 2011 4:34 p.m.
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The founder of the forecast site was regarded as an innovator and influential member of the surf community.
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The words "Follow Your Passions" will forever be inscribed in concrete on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street.
Sean Collins, the founder of Surfline.com, wrote the phrase when he was inducted into the Surfers Hall of Fame in 2008 and lived by those words. The influential surfer dedicated his life to following waves, tracking winds and sharing stories of swells with the world.
Flowers adorn the Surfers Hall of Fame at PCH and Main Street in Huntington Beach where Sean Collins, the founder of Surfline.com left his mark in 2008. Collins, 59, died monday of natural causes.
PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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Collins, 59, died Monday from natural causes, according to the Orange County coroner's office.
His youngest son, A.J., said Collins was playing tennis at his club in Newport at about 2 p.m. when he died suddenly from a heart attack. The family was together, trying to grapple with the news.
For the surfing community, Collins' death means the loss of one of the most influential surfers in the world. He changed the way people sought out waves around the world.
Collins founded Huntington Beach-based Surfline, which started as a phone service and became one of the most powerful surf forecasting web sites in the world, guiding surfers who once aimlessly searched for waves but now had information readily available to predict the best windows for waves.
Peter "P.T." Townend, surfing's first world champion, remembers Collins coming to a meeting at Surfing Magazine and explaining this new phone service.
"We were all going, 'We don't know if that will ever work," he recalled. "And now look at us. It's the No. 1 communication to our world."
"We've all ridden more waves because of Sean Collins. It's that simple."
Collins started tracking weather patterns while spending hours at sea with his father on a sailboat. He had no formal training, just a few courses and a passion.
By the early 1980s, friends would ask for his advice on where to hit the waves. Then surfers he didn't know started calling.
He teamed up with some Orange County businessmen to help create a phone line called Surfline. He eventually ended up buying that company and launching the largest surf forecast web site in the world.
"People tell us we can't do it, and we're going to try that much harder," Collins said in his Hall of Fame induction speech.
The soft-spoken surfer helped the everyday surfer who wanted to get some waves before work in the morning as well as the world's best surfers looking for secret, undiscovered spots. He advised organizers of the world's biggest surf contests of the best days to hold the events.
Government agencies asked for his advice about sand replenishment projects, and he personally sent alerts to lifeguards and news agencies when big waves were on the way that could threaten the lives of beachgoers unfamiliar with the ocean's strength.
Collins often told stories about Federales in Mexico in the '80s who thought he worked for the CIA when they uncovered strange-looking machines in his car.
He traveled south to Mexico often when big swells hit, sometimes cutting it very close to destructive hurricanes that hit so he could find the best waves. He was part of a team that discovered Cortes Bank, a wave that only an elite group of surfers can tackle that rarely breaks and only in the best conditions.
One of his favorite things was the family surf trips he took with his two sons, Tyler and A.J.
"My No. 1 priority now is surfing with my kids,'' he said in an Orange County Register article in 2005. "We got some incredibly good sessions. It's great taking off on a big wave and having my kids see me and hoot at me."
Collins was named one of the 25 Most Influential Surfers of the Century by Surfer Magazine in summer 1999 and the Eighth Most Powerful Surfer in the Surf Industry by Surfer Magazine in summer 2002. He sold Surfline in 2000 but stayed on as president and chief forecaster, heading the forecast team. He traveled the world seeking the best waves and photographed and documented many of his surf sessions.
A few years ago, the Register interviewed Collins about his work for a story about having the best job in Orange County.
"I founded the site because I saw a need, but primarily because I wanted to follow my passions and wanted to control my own future. I believe the real secret of my success was to surround myself with really good people who could help to build our business," he said.
"The personal payoff is the lifestyle of continuing to be able to chase great surf around the world while getting paid for it, and I couldn't do that without my great team of people."
In a biography on Surfline.com, he said this about the secret to success: "Really simple things when you think about it. Mostly just follow your passion, try to be a really good person and a good judge of character, and then just surround yourself with a great team and really good people. Add lots of luck, and all kinds of great things can happen."
Information about a service is pending. He is survived by his wife, Daren, and sons, Tyler and A.J.
Please share memories of Collins or stories of how Surfline affects or has changed your life below.
Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com
Related:
SEAN COLLINS: 1952-2011 (12/26) Surfline founder, president, chief forecaster passes away at 59
http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/sean-collins-1952-2011_64380/
Collins Family
Surfline.com Founder Sean Collins Dies of Heart Attack at 59 in California
By Nancy Kercheval - Dec 27, 2011 9:01 PM PT
Sean Collins, the founder of Surfline.com, died of a heart attack two days ago while playing tennis in Newport Beach, California, according to his website. He was 59.
Collins, who began surfing at the age of eight, developed a proprietary information system that kept surfers, lifeguards, U.S. Navy Seals, theNational Weather Service, television and movie production companies, government agencies and the Coast Guard up to date on wave actions around the world.
“I’ve been in storms 100 miles out at sea, then surfed the same swells the next day,” Collins said on his website. “I was always looking at charts to plan my surfing and sailing, and developed a keen sense about the ocean.”
Surfline started as a phone service that provided proprietary surf reporting and forecasting services. After two years, Collins left and started a rival company. He bought out Surfline in 1990.
Five years later, he started Surfline.com to send free surf reports and then in 1996 added the first live surf cam. In 1999, Surfline had 200,000 unique monthly visitors, which eventually jumped to 1.5 million, according to the website.
Collins was named one of the 25 Most Influential Surfers of the Century in 1999 by Surfer magazine. In 2008, he was inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame.
The Association of Surfing Professionals said on its website that Collins had been instrumental “in developing the best event windows for the world’s best surfers to perform in.”
He learned about sailing aboard his father’s 50-foot boat.
“My favorite part of racing was bringing the boat back,” he said on his website. “We could take our time and search out surf spots.”
Collins is survived by his wife, Daren, and two sons, Tyler and A.J.; his mother, two brothers and a sister.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington atnkercheval@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
Collins on the sand in Seal Beach circa 1980.
Surf world mourns Surfline founder Sean Collins
December 26th, 2011, 8:33 pm by Laylan Connelly, staff writer
Sean Collins, as he got inducted into the Surfers' Hall of Fame.
It’s with a heavy heart that I’m hearing of the sudden and tragic passing of Sean Collins, founder and president of Surfline.com.
Collins, who suffered a heart attack on Monday, had a profound influence on the surf culture, and was regarded as one of the most influential surfers of our time. He revolutionized the way people sought waves, first with a phone service with forecasts, then with the world’s largest surfing website.
The soft-spoken Seal Beach surfer had a passion for finding waves, and seemed to be connected to the weather – having deep knowledge of charts and patterns, but also having a huge spiritual sense of how waves would come together to form something magical.
This one is personal. He was someone who indirectly touched millions of surfers, but for me – he changed my life. When I first started covering the coast, Collins explained swells with enthusiasm, making the scientific into intriguing, the complicated understandable.
He took me under his wing, guided me to the right people to talk to, called me with scoops and always – no matter where he was in the world – got back to me if I needed a quote about a swell brewing. We’d meet up at Taco Surf in Surfside with former OC Register science reporter Gary Robbins (who knew him since 1985 and wrote a tribute here), take down a few beers and talk about the logistics of swells.
He was someone always ahead of the curve when it came to technology, and encouraged me to embrace the digital world. I remember a long, thoughtful e-mail he sent me one day, gently encouraging me into a digital direction – pick up a camera and shoot photos, learn how to video edit, do a blog, he wrote. This is where it is all heading.
It was a turning point for me, a light bulb went on. His guidance was a big reason I ended up on the Beaches beat, and in turn doing a job I love with the same passion he preached in his own life. I will always be thankful for that.
At the U.S. Open of Surfing, he’d always quietly make his way into the media booth to say hello, pulling up a chair and asking about my family and life, and we’d share stories of travels and he’d catch me up on the adventures of his sons, who he was so very proud of.
I know Sean touched many people in the world – whether you check out the cams in the morning to head out to your favorite surf spot, or track big swells around the world to seek out – he had an impact like no other in the surf world.
Plain and simple: He helped us all catch more waves.
I wrote an article for the Orange County Register about Collins and his impacts and influence on the surf culture, which were huge … unprecedented. Read more about his influence here.
He was a friend, mentor and innovator in the surf world. Our thoughts are with his family, and I will keep you posted on information as it comes.
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