Sean Robb Collins (April 8, 1952 – December 26, 2011) was the American founder of

Surfline Surfline is a company and website based in Huntington Beach, California that specializes in surf forecasting and surf reports, live webcasting, photography, videography, as well as editorial coverage of the sport of surfing. Surfline.com is no ...

and a noted figure in the areas of surfing and

surf forecasting Surf forecasting is the process of using offshore swell data to predict onshore wave conditions. It is used by millions of people across the world, including professionals who put their forecasts online, meteorologists who work for news crews, a ...

Biography

Collins was born in Pasadena, California.''Surfline: Surfing A to Z, The Surfing Encyclopedia'',
Sean Collins Biography
, Retrieved 05/10/2011 His father, Whitney Collins, was a former Navy lieutenant who enjoyed sailboat racing and owned a 45-foot Newporter

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fro ...

, "Leprechaun", berthed in the Long Beach marina and biking distance from Collins' Long Beach home. Collins' early experiences sailing with his father instilled a passion for the ocean and meteorology. Much of his knowledge of meteorology was self-taught. While Long Beach has almost no surf because of its breakwater, Collins was part of a vibrant surf culture at Woodrow Wilson high school (class of 1970), where surf film director Bruce Brown graduated earlier, and world-class woman surfer, Jericho Poppler, was a classmate. In the early years of Collins' surf forecasting he would record weather reports and forecasts from the Southern Hemisphere, which he received via shortwave radio.Cherie Whyte, ''Surfer's Village'', May 5, 2008,
Sean Collins to be inducted into the Surfers Hall of Fame
. Retrieved May 10, 2011. He also studied charts and data from the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

library. By comparing these various data sources with his observations of the surf, he devised formulas for predicting how global weather events would affect near-shore surf conditions; these models were eventually combined into a set of swell-modeling algorithms nicknamed "LOLA". In the 1970s, Collins spent extensive time traveling and surfing in Mexico. He converted

marine weather forecasting Marine weather forecasting is the process by which mariners and meteorological organizations attempt to forecast future weather conditions over the Earth's oceans. Mariners have had rules of thumb regarding the navigation around tropical cyclon ...

equipment for use in an automobile so that he would have advance knowledge of where swells and offshore weather patterns were developing, and in turn used that information to find the best locations for surfing.Damien Hobgood, ''ESPN'', August 13, 2009,
The Man Behind The Weather Map
. Retrieved May 10, 2011. In 1985, Collin's founded a surf report service called ''

''. The company started as a call-in service, which provided verbal condition reports for various surf breaks around Southern California.Marc Lacey, ''Los Angeles Times'', December 26, 1991,
Riding a Wave of Success
. Retrieved May 10, 2011 In 1995, Surfline moved online, offering live video streams of surf breaks in addition to written surf reports.Joe Haakenson, ''Costa Mesa Daily Pilot'', April 20, 2011.
Before There was Surfline, There were Landlines.
Retrieved May 10, 2011 Surfline eventually expanded to offer editorial coverage of surfing, and is now one of the most prominent websites related to the sport.Corey Kilgannon, ''New York Times'', January 27, 2008,

Retrieved May 4, 2011.

Recognitions

In 1999, Collins was named one of the "25 Most Influential Surfers of the Century" by '' Surfer'' magazine. In 2006, he was named ''"one of the 100 most powerful people in Southern California"'' by ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

''West Magazine'', for his influence on the region's surfers.''Los Angeles Times'', August 13, 2006,
The West 100.
Retrieved May 10, 2011. In 2008, in honor of his contributions to surf forecasting, Collins was inducted into the Surfers' Hall of Fame in

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 during the 2020 census, maki ...

.Adam Tschorn, ''Los Angeles Times'', July 20, 2008,
Riding High.
Retrieved May 10, 2011''Surfer's Hall of Fame'', July 20, 2008,
Surfers' Hall of Fame 2008 Inductees
. Retrieved May 10, 2011. In 2012, Collins was inducted into the Surfer's Walk of Fame and received the Surf Culture Award in

.Mike Cianciulli,''Surfline.com'', August 2, 2012,
Sean Collins Inducted into Surfing Walk of Fame
. Retrieved August 30, 2012. In August 2012, Sean Collins was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the SIMA Waterman's Ball in

Laguna Niguel, California Laguna Niguel () is a city in Orange County, California, United States. The name Laguna Niguel is derived from the words "Laguna" (Spanish for "lagoon") and "Niguili" (the name of a Native American village once located near Aliso Creek). As of ...

.Laylan Connelly, ''OrangeCounty.com'', August 13, 2012,
Icons honored at Waterman’s Ball, surfers raise $400,000
. Retrieved August 30, 2012.

Death

He died on December 26, 2011, in Newport Beach, California, aged 59, from a heart attack. His death was memorialized by a paddle out by about 200 surfers in what was described as the "biggest memorial tribute ever held for a surfer in Huntington Beach", with about 2,000 people in attendance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Sean 1952 births 2011 deaths People from Pasadena, California Businesspeople from California American surfers Big wave surfing Surfing mass media Surf forecasting People from Long Beach, California 20th-century American businesspeople