Borrero, J.C.; O'Day, C., and Rifai, J., 2019. Application of Rip Curl SearchGPS watch data for analyzing surf breaks. In: Bryan, K.R. and Atkin, E. (eds.), Surf Break Management in Aotearoa New Zealand. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 87, pp. 55–69. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Data from the Rip Curl SearchGPS watch is used to quantitatively analyze surf breaks. The SearchGPS watch captures surfer speed and position at one second intervals as well as user demographic data and saves this data to a master database for display in the Rip Curl online or app-based interface. For this study, we were given access to anonymized data from nearly one million surf sessions by more than 22 thousand individual users. The data were analyzed for general demographic information as well as for assessing the functional performance of each break in terms of environmental variables such as swell size, period and direction, tide level and wind. A univariate analysis was applied to determine which variable has the strongest effect on both maximum surfer speed and ride length. The data was also used to assess the spatial characteristics of each surfbreak and individual users. This analysis gives insights into user behavior and seasonal characteristics of a particular surfbreak in terms of user numbers and surfbreak quality as it relates to changing environmental conditions over the course of a year. The analysis techniques proposed here can be used for the effective management of surfing resources in urban areas. This could include quantitative assessments of potential impacts on surfing resources as a result of proposed coastal development or other activities such a as beach nourishment or offshore dumping of dredged material.