Competitive surfing has spent decades trying to solve a problem that other sports dealt with long ago.

A surf contest can be amazing to watch - online or on site - but it can also involve long waits, changing conditions and stretches when very little happens on screen.

The World Surf League (WSL) has built a global professional sport around individual surfers competing in heats.

But the new Surfing Super League (SSL) wants to try something different.

Set to launch in Australia in summer 2028, the Surfing Super League is a team competition designed around a 90-minute game.

Eight regional teams will compete along Australia's east coast, with four teams involved in each game.

The league is being created by former Surfing Australia CEO Chris Mater and is designed specifically for live television and a stronger connection between surfers, teams and local fans.

The idea is simple enough to explain in a few seconds.

Four surfers represent each team during a game, and they take turns surfing in a relay format. 

There are two 40-minute halves, a 10-minute halftime break, and a special Power Surfer who closes each half.

The team with the highest score wins.

The result is surfing that looks more like a conventional team sport without removing the part that makes surfing different.

How the Surfing Super League will work

Each SSL team will have six surfers: four men and two women. Every squad must contain at least one surfer from each of four talent groups.

The first is "Royalty", made up of Australian surfing icons and former stars. Owen Wright is given as an example.

The second is "Elite", which is aimed at Australia's leading competitive surfers outside the Championship Tour level. Sophie McCulloch is one example.

The third is the "Wildcard" category. Each team can have one surfer from outside its home market, including an international athlete. Jacob Wilcox is listed as an example.

The fourth is "Free Surfer", designed to give some of Australia's best free surfers a professional competition platform. Soli Bailey is one of the examples supplied by the league.

Six surfers are signed to a team, but only four compete in an individual game. The lineup consists of three men and one woman.

The competition begins with a start signal.

The first surfer paddles out, catches waves and scores before returning to tag the next teammate. The surfers continue rotating throughout the half, with no fixed limit on the number of waves they can ride.

That actually changes the rhythm of a surf contest.

Instead of watching one heat build around two or four surfers, viewers follow a team score that can change every time another surfer enters the water.

The first half lasts 40 minutes. The woman on each team serves as the Power Surfer. She starts the half and also rides the final scoring wave.

Then comes a 10-minute halftime break.

The teams switch for the second half, and a male surfer becomes the Power Surfer. He starts and finishes the second 40-minute period.

There is another twist at the end. Teams must finish the second half within the allotted time. If they fail to do so, they lose five points.

The entire game lasts 90 minutes.

Four teams compete in each game, meaning 16 surfers are in the water across the four teams. The league says the format is designed to leave almost no dead time.

The score at full time decides the winner. The teams collect points across the season before the leading sides meet in a single Grand Final.

Eight teams, one Australian coast

The SSL will be built around regional identity.

The eight teams will represent Sydney's Northern Beaches, Sydney South, Newcastle, the Northern Rivers, the Sunshine Coast, two Gold Coast teams and Melbourne.

The Gold Coast will therefore have its own local rivalry, with two franchises representing the same broad surf region.

The regular season will travel through seven markets: the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Northern Rivers, Newcastle, Sydney Northern Beaches, Sydney South and Melbourne.

Each stop is planned as a beach-stadium event, with grandstands, fan areas, music and local surf communities becoming part of the show.

The league plans seven rounds in a round-robin season, with two games scheduled each weekend across the tour markets. In total, the regular season is planned to contain 15 games and 30 hours of live television.

The season then ends with one winner-take-all Grand Final.

The structure is important because the SSL is selling more than individual performances. A surfer is expected to represent a place.

And that is familiar territory in Australian sport.

Fans can follow a team even when they do not know every surfer in the lineup. Rivalries can develop between regions.

A good result at the local beach can become something that belongs to the community rather than only to the surfer who earned the highest score.

The league is also expected to begin with ownership of all eight franchises before some teams are potentially sold to private owners.

Mater has said he is open to expanding the competition beyond its original markets.

Why the league wants to change the economics of surfing

The financial argument may be as important as the sporting one: the SSL says its players will be paid equally, regardless of gender.

Each team has six contracted surfers, and reporting on the launch says every athlete will receive an $89,000 contract for the eight-week season.

That would give surfers something that is often difficult to find outside the top levels of professional surfing: predictable income.

The problem is especially relevant to Australian surfers trying to reach the WSL Championship Tour, the elite of professional competitive surfing.

The established pathway requires athletes to travel and compete internationally on the WSL's lower tiers. Travel, accommodation and competition costs can quickly become a major burden.

Mater argues that the decline of financial support from traditional surf brands has made this pathway harder for athletes who do not immediately reach the top level.

The SSL is intended to give those surfers a professional domestic platform while they continue developing.

McCulloch, one of the surfers associated with the project, has also pointed to the value of guaranteed income and the ability to spend more time developing as an athlete instead of constantly finding ways to finance an international competition schedule.

There is another attraction for experienced surfers.

The SSL is offering a team environment and a competition that stays in Australia.

Former world champions Layne Beachley and Joel Parkinson, along with Owen Wright, have indicated that they are interested in returning to competitive surfing for the new league.

Wright's possible return is particularly interesting because the SSL is giving retired surfers a reason to compete that is different from chasing another individual world ranking.

The league's format could therefore create space for athletes who sit in an awkward gap between elite professional surfing and retirement.

The SSL versus the WSL

The biggest difference is that the WSL is built around individual surfers and a world championship, while the SSL is built around teams and individual games.

The WSL season is also global; the SSL is almost the opposite.

Its first season is domestic. It stays on Australia's east coast. Its teams are regional. Its games have a fixed 90-minute structure.

The WSL also determines its world champions through accumulated results.

The SSL has no equivalent individual world ranking. Its central question is much simpler: which team scores more points in the game?

That difference could make the SSL easier for a casual viewer to understand.

The WSL has been simplifying its own competition format for 2026, but the basic unit remains the heat.

The SSL replaces that unit with the game. Could it be fun to follow and watch?

A different answer to surfing's television problem

Surfing has an obvious television disadvantage: the ocean does not follow a schedule.

A football game can start at 7:30 pm and finish around two hours later. A surf contest has to wait for waves.

The waiting period may last several days, and even when competition is running, conditions can change quickly.

The SSL is trying to reduce that problem with a format that can adjust to the conditions.

The league says the course length, wave targets and scoring can be changed when the surf is poor. The goal is to decide the match rather than wait for perfect waves.

That is a major departure from the traditional contest mindset.

A WSL event is judged against the quality of the waves available at a particular location. The SSL is designed to make the competition itself more flexible.

The difference matters for broadcasting.

The SSL is targeting two 90-minute games in prime weekend slots, with a 10-minute halftime and a clear finish.

The league has also said it has received two broadcast offers, including one from Kayo Sports.

Instead of asking viewers to check whether the surf contest is running, the product is intended to give them a game they can sit down and watch.

What the team format could add to surfing

The most interesting change may happen inside the surfers' heads.

In a normal surf contest, a surfer's score belongs to that surfer. In the SSL, every wave can affect six teammates, the regional identity of the team, and its position in the season.

A surfer who catches a wave can immediately hand the responsibility to another teammate.

That creates tactical possibilities that do not exist in a standard individual heat.

A team may need to decide when to use its strongest surfers, how to respond to changing conditions, and how aggressively to chase a deficit.

The Power Surfer rule adds another layer. Each half has a designated surfer who starts and finishes the period, giving the final wave a clear place in the story of the game.

It also gives women a defined role in every game.

One woman must surf for every team in each match, and the first half's Power Surfer is a woman. Because squads contain two women, teams must build enough depth to cover that role across the season.

The league says men and women will be paid the same.

That obviously does not make the SSL a replacement for the women's WSL Championship Tour.

It creates a different competitive product in which men and women share the same team structure and contribute to the same result.

A domestic league with a bigger ambition

The SSL is being launched as an Australian competition, but its stated purpose reaches beyond a summer of beach events.

Mater has described the league as a way to strengthen Australia's development system and keep talented surfers inside professional surfing for longer.

The broader aim is to improve the depth of Australian talent available for future world titles and Olympic competition.

That could make the SSL a useful partner to the WSL rather than a direct replacement for it.

The two systems would reward different skills.

The WSL remains the place where surfers compete for the world's biggest individual title and travel to the most important waves on the professional calendar.

The SSL would give Australian surfers a paid domestic competition with teams, local rivalries and a much tighter television format.

There is room for both.

The biggest test will come when the first games are actually played. A relay can sound exciting on paper, but surfing is still surfing. Waves arrive when they want, not when a television producer wants them.

The SSL's success will depend on whether its rules can turn that uncertainty into part of the spectacle without making the competition feel artificial.

For a sport that has spent decades waiting for the next set, that may be the most important experiment of all.

Hopefully, it won't have the same fate as football's European Super League, an alternative tournament which at some point was led by Real Madrid but never saw the light of day.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

A surfer checking the tide chart before paddling out probably isn't thinking about the Moon, Earth's rotation, or the mechanics of the solar system.

They're thinking about whether the reef will have enough water over it, whether the sandbar will finally start working, or whether the waves are going to improve as the tide comes in.

Fair enough.

But there's something about that tide chart that most surfers probably don't know.

The tides are slowly changing the length of Earth's days.

NASA notes that tidal interactions have been slowing Earth's rotation for billions of years. And we have geological evidence showing just how different Earth once was.

For example, sedimentary records in South Australia indicate that around 620 million years ago, a day on Earth lasted only about 21.9 hours.

So, yes, your tide chart is connected to a planet that is very, very slowly changing.

How does that happen?

The ocean acts like a brake

You probably already know the basic story.

The Moon's gravity pulls on Earth and its oceans, creating the tidal bulges responsible for the rise and fall of sea level.

But there's a little more going on.

Earth is rotating once roughly every 24 hours, while the Moon takes about 27.3 days to orbit Earth.

The two movements don't line up perfectly, and the tidal bulges are dragged slightly ahead of the Moon as Earth spins.

Then comes the ocean itself.

Tidal water doesn't move around a smooth, frictionless planet. It encounters coastlines, shallow seas, continental shelves, underwater ridges, and the seafloor.

All that movement generates friction and dissipates some of the energy involved in Earth's rotation.

Think of it as a tiny brake on the planet. It isn't a brake you'll ever feel. Your surf session won't suddenly become 23 hours and 59 minutes long.

But over geological time, even a tiny effect can become significant. And that's where things get really interesting.

Earth's days are getting longer

Tides and Earth's rotation might seem like two completely separate things.

They aren't.

Some of the rotational energy that keeps Earth spinning is transferred into the tidal system and eventually dissipated as heat. As a result, Earth's rotation gradually slows.

And when Earth spins more slowly, the length of the day increases. The change is incredibly small on a human timescale.

Nobody is going to check the clock halfway through a surf and discover that Tuesday has mysteriously gained an extra minute.

But go back hundreds of millions of years and the difference becomes much easier to see.

Earth used to rotate faster.

That means a year contained more days than it does today - not because Earth needed longer to travel around the Sun, but because each day was shorter.

The ancient Earth was, quite literally, spinning faster. And that brings us back to the water washing over the reef in front of you.

Every tide is part of the same process.

And the Moon is moving away

There's another remarkable side effect.

As Earth's rotation loses energy through tidal interactions, some of that energy is transferred to the Moon's orbit.

The Moon responds by gradually moving farther away from Earth.

Today, the Moon is receding at roughly 3.8 centimeters per year. That's not exactly something you'll notice during your next dawn patrol.

At that rate, the Moon only moves about as far as the length of a fingernail in a year. But geological time has a way of making tiny numbers much more interesting.

Over hundreds of millions of years, centimeters become kilometers.

So two things are happening at the same time: Earth is gradually spinning more slowly, and the Moon is gradually moving farther away.

The tides are part of the connection between them.

Not bad for the water level you were checking before paddling out.

The tide that shapes your surf session

Of course, surfers experience tides in a much more immediate way.

A few centimeters or tens of centimeters of water can make a huge difference to a wave.

A rising tide can cover a shallow reef, change the depth over a sandbar or alter the way a wave breaks.

A falling tide can expose rocks, change currents and turn an average-looking lineup into something completely different.

But there's no universal "high-tide wave" or "low-tide wave."

The Moon may be responsible for the gravitational force behind the tides, but the coastline and seafloor decide how that tidal energy behaves locally.

Continental shelves, underwater ridges, reefs, bays, estuaries, and the shape of the coastline all influence how tidal waves travel through the ocean.

That's why two peaks relatively close to each other can have very different tidal ranges and timing.

It's also why local knowledge matters.

Locals and experienced surfers don't just know whether a spot works on a rising or falling tide. They know how that particular wave responds to changing water levels.

Some breaks wake up as the tide fills in; others start firing as the water drains away. Some have a very narrow window when everything comes together.

Every surf break has its own relationship with the tide.

Rocks that remember ancient tides

And here's where the story gets even more fascinating.

Scientists don't have to rely entirely on computer models or old observations to understand how tides behaved in the distant past.

Rocks can remember them.

Certain sedimentary deposits, known as tidal rhythmites, contain layers produced by repeating tidal cycles.

By studying those patterns, scientists can investigate how Earth's tides behaved hundreds of millions of years ago.

These geological records offer clues about a very different Earth - one where the planet was rotating faster, and the Moon was closer.

In a sense, they're geological tide charts that have been sitting around for hundreds of millions of years.

No surf forecast, smartphone app, or tide table pinned to the refrigerator: just layers of rock recording the rhythm of an ancient ocean.

And if you're a surfer, there's something pretty cool about that.

The same gravitational relationship that helps determine whether your favorite wave works at high tide has been shaping Earth's oceans - and leaving traces in its rocks - for hundreds of millions of years.

So the next time you check the tide before paddling out, remember that you're watching a small part of a planetary process that is slowing Earth down, pushing the Moon away and changing the length of our days.

All while you're waiting for the next set. Isn't that fun and exciting?

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

I am not a surf instructor, and I never wanted to be. Yet, I have casually taught fewer than a handful of people to surf in over 35 years of surfing. Last Saturday, I taught three in a row and confirmed an old adage (related to surfboards).

In over three decades, I have kept my love of surfing to myself.

I have never forced, imposed, or gotten my friends and family excited to join me and try to get up on a surfboard. If they don't show interest, it's OK.

Besides, they know who to call when the subject is surfing... and London.

Therefore, because I have never been pushy with others about my hobbies (the same applies to indoor climbing), my contribution to spreading the stoke or increasing the crowd factor is not particularly relevant.

Not guilty, I guess.

Congrats, you're a surfer

However, life has crazy days reserved for us.

Suddenly, what was supposed to be my father's 80th birthday party quickly transformed into a "massive" surfing baptism for three girls of different ages.

We were just checking the surf after eating the anniversary cake. Our goal was never to paddle on a full belly - just feel the sea breeze and the vibes.

But, hey, some things happen for a reason, and the quick beach check quickly escalated into a "let-us-all-go-surfing" session.

Suddenly, I had an eight- and a ten-year-old begging to try surfing for the first time. One of them was my niece.

I have to admit I wanted them to succeed so badly, I took a long, wide, and thick surfboard out to the water.

The two children were really skinny and light, and I thought I could have more chances of becoming their surf hero if I could get them up and riding on their first whitewater waves.

And I wasn't wrong. So, I put all the money into the largest board - in length and volume - I could take.

The old lesson that says, "the bigger the board, the easier it is to stand up and ride," is still valid.

And then, with youngsters, everything gets easier and easier.

The "boat" that I took worked wonders. They needed just a couple of waves to adjust to the initial bumpiness of the rumbling whitewash.

After that introduction, stoke and addiction took over.

The girls were so over the moon and full of joy that they wanted the board just for them. They wanted all the waves that existed.

They just couldn't stop catching waves - nonstop, back and forth. And their smiles told me everything I needed to fill up my soul.

Children, especially pre-teenagers, have an overwhelming stock of energy that seems to recharge itself via enthusiasm.

At some point, I was exhausted. I was sending them into the waves constantly, and they were showing no signs of fatigue.

The rides went for 50 yards or more. On and on.

A 46-year-old standing up at the second ride

But it wasn't over.

I had one more challenge I wanted to tick from my list of surfing accomplishments: an adult mother in her mid-40s who had never lain on a surfboard.

Could I make her experience the ultimate thrill of the water world?

"Come here," I told her. "Seriously, try it."

And so I pushed her on three waves. In one of them, she stood up and glided for a few seconds.

"Congratulations, sir!" I told my inflated ego. "You've made it!"

The Triple Crown of Surfing Baptisms had been concluded, and the trick was just an old recipe.

If you're a first-timer or a beginner surfer, get a really big board to get things started. It's really worth it.

You'll skip consecutive frustrations and ride attempts, unnecessary wipeouts, and the belief that surfing is hard.

It isn't. It's easy and should be a joyful experience from the get-go.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

The words of Zachary Payne have and carry deep meaning. They come from the depth of someone who truly feels surfing.

In the age of social media and inner entertainment ruled by short video clips and fast content, there is not much space for poets anymore.

Let alone surf poets.

Zachary Payne is one of the few who are building bridges between the spiritual side and essence of wave-riding and that treasure world of words and literature.

SurferToday.com has been the home of surf poetry for quite a while, thanks to this elite club of those who refuse to shut down one of humanity's last enclaves of intelligence and thought.

Payne publicly revealed "Where Did the Stoke Go?" at the 17th annual Honolulu Surf Film Festival at the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA).

The night was curated by The Surf Poet Society, which is a grassroots network of artists and arts movement founded on Oahu.

It brings together surfers, ocean lovers, poets, and visual artists to celebrate the artistic and spiritual side of surf and alternative surf culture.

Before reading the poem, Zach gave a short intro where he shared a bit of background about the piece and a humorous story about the very first time he shared it.

He explained that the poem is about surfing, but it's also about poetry itself and the creative process - how poems come, how they sometimes get stuck, and how they eventually take shape.

In this particular case, one morning while driving to Hawaii's Sandy's, the poem suddenly started pouring into his mind.

Payne was composing and finishing it in his head as he drove.

When he arrived and got out of his car, he spotted legendary waterman Mark Cunningham checking the surf.

Zachary walked right up to him and blurted out: "Mark, I'm gonna read you a poem!" admitting he probably scared Mark a little.

Now, you, dear reader, have the chance to read the written words. Please, enjoy.

'Where Did the Stoke Go?"

"Where did the stoke go?" is a great title for a piece in which I thought I would explore the loss of the mystical and the magical,
The loss of desire, or the dying of the flickering spark.
First with poetic definitions to set the stage:
Embers are tiny smoldering pieces left of the dying fire. To stoke is to encourage, to incite, to feed the fire so that it will intensify.

The poem stalled here, and sat and waited, and waited, and waited.

After some time, in an attempt to continue it, I came up with some catching questions, and I ask:
Where did you lose your stoke? Or should I ask when?
Was it in the need of getting the shot, or making the post?
Was it in the competition of having to get the score,
Or the need to always go for more, more, more?

The poem stalled again as if it didn't want to be written. I'm not one to force a poem;
They will go where they want to go, when they want to go, if they want to go at all.
For this reason, I have plenty of titles and half-written items, sticky notes and phone memos - all stalled, stuck in waiting.

But then after months, maybe years, something happens, and a thread appears.
I don't know many sages, and I don't really hang with wise men, but I have two daughters,
And kids do say the darndest things.

For example, the other day as we're driving home from the shop, my daughter was looking at a surf mag,
And she said, "I don't want to be a competition surfer, Dad. I want to surf like you."
In my mind, I thought, "an out-of-shape, middle-aged bodysurfer."

But I replied, "A soul surfer?"
She said, "No, not a soul surfer, Dad. A love surfer."
"A love surfer?"
"Yeah, a love surfer, Dad. Out there simply because you love it."

The lights went on, the celestial music started to play, and I was filled with pride,

Because my daughter sees me as a love surfer.

Not out there because I'm good - mostly average, not radical, not extreme.
Not out there in search of sponsors or money or accolades.
Not out there in pursuit of Nirvana or trying to find the true meaning of the universe.
Only out there because I love it.

Because I love straight-running knee-high crumblers with my girls.
I love chasing the whomp and the two seconds of glorious vision.
I love having a sore back and a neck that hurts every time I look to the left.
I love Wawamalu and the Sandy's morning crew - retirees that hear on a daily from an uninformed that they are "too old." Catch me in 20 years, life goals!

I love the nicks, the scrapes that become scars from the shallow reefs.
I love the playground, love the long stylish rights,
The lully days where one is more buoy than rider.
I love my wife - God, she's amazing, mi compañera.
And I love when a poem goes... I love when poems go free, free-flowing. What an adventure!

And I love those days - those days when it's inspiring, and after a few good ones you feel so full,
And you stay past the leg cramps, just swimming because there's perfection in the moment.

Yeah, a love surfer... out there simply because you love it.

And after many months and plenty of wondering, this poem has come full circle and found its end.
But I leave you with this one question:

Where did the stoke go?
Or should I ask when?

Words by Zachary Payne | Spanish Teacher and Bodysurfer

Imagine enjoying a day at a wave pool like you're playing a video game in which you are one of the characters with goals and a mission.

Flowstate is adding a new layer to the wave pool experience by turning every surf session into part of an ongoing game.

The Australian surf technology company has launched Flowstate Game Modes, a points-based gaming platform that rewards surfers for what happens on every wave while helping surf parks encourage repeat visits. 

The system is already running at URBNSURF Sydney, URBNSURF Melbourne, Atlantic Park Surf, Lost Shore, and will soon expand to SurfTown MUC before reaching more parks in Flowstate's global network.

Instead of treating each booking as a standalone session, the platform connects every ride to leaderboards, achievements, seasonal competitions, and rewards.

But how does this work?

Every wave now earns points

Flowstate's gaming engine is built on the company's artificial intelligence model, which already analyzes individual waves and surfing performance.

Each session earns points based on factors such as the number of waves caught, ride length, and the difficulty of completed maneuvers.

Operators can then build different games on top of the same scoring engine, each with its own objectives, rules, and bonus multipliers.

According to Flowstate, the AI automatically calculates scores for every wave after park operators define the rules of each competition.

"The Flowstate AI model was built from the ground up to understand exactly what happens on a wave; every maneuver, every section, every ride in full context," said Chris Hausler, Flowstate's co-founder and chief technology officer.

"Whether it's getting to your feet for the first time, surfing backside or pulling into a barrel, every moment is scored with weighted handicap points designed to find a winner across every level of surfer."

The company says the handicap system allows beginners, intermediate surfers, and advanced riders to compete fairly by comparing performances against surfers of similar ability rather than against the strongest surfers in the lineup.

Solving the return visit problem

For most surf parks, attracting first-time visitors is only part of the business challenge.

Keeping those guests coming back regularly is far more valuable.
Flowstate believes gamification can help solve that problem without relying on discounts.

"Every wave pool operator is chasing the same thing: a surfer who books once and keeps coming back," said Mike Mortimer, Flowstate's co-founder and chief product officer.

"Flowstate Game Modes gives us the most powerful rebooking engine we've ever had. When every session earns points, unlocks achievements, and puts your name on a leaderboard, the reason to book your next session is built into the experience itself."

The company says the platform applies ideas borrowed from behavioral science rather than relying only on rankings.

Small rewards can be earned quickly to encourage regular participation. Daily, monthly, and seasonal competitions provide longer-term goals. 

Public recognition also plays a role, with surfers earning titles such as "Barrel Hunter of the Day."

Flowstate also attempts to change the emotional response to failure. In one game, even a wipeout can trigger rewards that encourage surfers to keep progressing instead of leaving frustrated.

Four games with different goals

Rather than offering one universal leaderboard, Flowstate has introduced four branded competitions, each targeting different surfing behaviors and commercial objectives.

"Everyday Hero" is designed as a handicap competition that anyone can enter. Surfers collect points throughout daily, monthly, and season-long rankings regardless of their ability level.

"Barrel Hunter" rewards tube riding. Every AI-verified barrel adds to a surfer's score, with the best performers earning recognition and prizes.

"Wipeout Roulette" turns crashes into opportunities. After selected wipeouts, surfers can receive AI coaching feedback, technical tips, or offers for in-pool coaching sessions. The idea is to introduce surfers to coaching services they might not have requested on their own.

"Winter Warrior" focuses on participation during quieter months. The seasonal challenge rewards surfers who log the highest number of waves through winter, helping operators increase demand during traditionally slower periods.

Inspired by arcades and Topgolf

Flowstate says its approach reflects a broader consumer trend toward competitive social experiences.

Luke Wallace, Flowstate's co-founder and chief executive officer, said the company studied businesses outside surfing while developing the platform.

"Driving and maintaining high levels of utilization across the week, the month and throughout the seasonal cycle of the year is the key goal of any surf park operator," Wallace said.

"Consumer spending habits are currently more reserved, and people have been more conservative with their spending."

He added that Flowstate looked at experiences including Topgolf, virtual reality attractions, and traditional arcades to understand how other industries encourage repeat participation and build customer loyalty.

A marathon put the scoring engine to work

Before the commercial launch, Flowstate tested the platform during a 12-hour surf marathon at URBNSURF Sydney.

Australian endurance surfer Blakey Johnston and Red Bull snowboarder Valentino Guseli competed while the AI scored every ride across three different game modes.

Johnston finished ahead in Barrel Hunter, scoring 2,611 points against Guseli's 1,793. He also won "Everyday Hero" with 7,046 points compared with 6,114.

Guseli's aggressive approach produced a different outcome in "Wipeout Roulette." He recorded 75 wipeouts compared with Johnston's 19 and won that leaderboard by 25,266 points to 6,572.

The results highlighted how different games reward different surfing styles rather than favoring only traditional performance metrics.

More than entertainment

The platform also gives surf park operators additional ways to manage their business.

Operators can apply scoring multipliers to encourage bookings during quieter hours or less popular periods. Leaderboards can support sponsorships through branded prizes and seasonal competitions.

Wipeout Roulette also introduces surfers to coaching, AI video analysis, and one-on-one instruction, creating new revenue opportunities alongside standard surf sessions.

Flowstate says Game Modes currently operates across surf parks using five different wave-making technologies around the world.

The launch marks the second phase of the company's rollout strategy.

During August 2026, Flowstate plans to publish its first utilization and leaderboard data before demonstrating the platform to surf park operators at the Surf Park Summit, which takes place in Virginia Beach from September 1 to 3.

As wave pools continue to grow beyond simple surfing venues into destinations built around community, coaching, and technology, competitive gaming may soon become as familiar as choosing which wave setting to book next.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

Every surfer has experienced it: you paddle out feeling either too full or completely empty.

Halfway through the session, your shoulders begin to fade, your reactions slow, and every wave seems just a little harder to catch.

Choosing what to eat before surfing is not only about satisfying hunger but also about giving your body the right fuel at the right time.

Unlike running or cycling, surfing combines prolonged aerobic exercise with repeated bursts of high-intensity effort.

A typical session can involve constant paddling, duck dives, sprinting to catch waves, quick pop-ups, and maneuvering the surf line like crazy.

That means your pre-surf meal needs to deliver steady energy, support muscular endurance, avoid digestive discomfort, and leave you feeling light enough to move freely in the water.

Finding that balance isn't always easy, but we've got you covered.

One simple brunch checks all those boxes. It's SurferToday's recipe.

SurferToday's power brunch bowl

The following breakfast is designed to be eaten about 60 to 90 minutes before paddling out.

It's quick to prepare, easy to digest, and provides a balanced combination of carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, and hydration.

In other words, you'll get sustained energy for paddling, stable blood sugar, adequate protein to protect muscles, hydration-supporting ingredients, and minimal foods that tend to cause stomach discomfort in the water.

Please give it a try.

Preparation time

• Preparation: 8 minutes
• Cooking: 4-5 minutes
• Total: 12-15 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ cup (50 g) rolled oats;
• 200 ml milk or unsweetened oat milk;
• 170 g plain Greek yogurt;
• 1 medium banana;
• ½ cup blueberries;
• 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts;
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds;
• 1 teaspoon chia seeds;
• 1 teaspoon honey (optional);
• Pinch of cinnamon;
• 2 eggs;
• 500 ml water (with a small pinch of sea salt on particularly hot days if desired);

How to make it

Begin by cooking the rolled oats in the milk over medium heat until they reach a creamy consistency.

While the oats cook, prepare two eggs using your preferred method - boiled, poached, or lightly scrambled all work well.

Transfer the cooked oats into a bowl and top them with the Greek yogurt, sliced banana, blueberries, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, cinnamon, and, if you'd like a touch of sweetness, a drizzle of honey.

Serve the eggs alongside the bowl and drink the water while you eat.

The result is a meal containing roughly 650 to 700 calories, about 35 to 40 grams of protein, 70 to 80 grams of carbohydrates, and enough healthy fats to keep you satisfied without slowing digestion.

Why this breakfast works so well before surfing

The secret about SurferToday's breakfast is how each food complements the others. Here's why we included each one of them in your meal.

Greek yogurt provides high-quality protein

Greek yogurt introduces high-quality protein through both whey and casein.

These proteins help reduce muscle breakdown, promote satiety, and begin supporting recovery before you've even left the beach.

Calcium from the yogurt also plays a vital role in muscle contraction.

Oats provide long-lasting carbohydrates

Rolled oats form the nutritional foundation of the meal.

Their complex carbohydrates release energy gradually thanks to soluble fiber known as beta-glucan.

Rather than producing a rapid spike and crash in blood sugar, oats provide a slow, steady supply of glucose that helps sustain paddling over long sessions.

Cinnamon may help moderate blood sugar

Even the pinch of cinnamon has a purpose.

Besides adding flavor without additional sugar, some research suggests cinnamon may help support healthy blood glucose regulation, although its effects are relatively modest.

Banana supplies quick-access energy

The banana serves a different purpose.

Its carbohydrates are absorbed more quickly, providing readily available energy shortly after eating, while its potassium contributes to normal muscle and nerve function.

Although cramps have many possible causes, potassium remains an important electrolyte for active surfers.

Eggs add complete protein

The two eggs complete the protein profile.

Eggs naturally contain all nine essential amino acids, including leucine, which is particularly important for stimulating muscle protein synthesis.

Even though surfing isn't traditionally thought of as a strength sport, hours of paddling place significant demands on the shoulders, chest, upper back, and arms.

Blueberries provide antioxidants

Blueberries bring more than color to the bowl.

Rich in anthocyanins and other antioxidant compounds, they help support the body's natural response to the oxidative stress generated by prolonged exercise and exposure to sunlight.

While no single food dramatically accelerates recovery, regularly eating antioxidant-rich fruits contributes to a healthy overall diet.

Nuts and seeds provide healthy fats

Walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and chia seeds provide healthy unsaturated fats alongside magnesium, zinc, vitamin E, and plant-based omega-3 fatty acids.

These nutrients contribute to cardiovascular health, muscle function, and recovery.

The quantities remain modest because excessive fat before exercise can delay stomach emptying and leave surfers feeling sluggish.

Don't forget hydration

Many surfers unknowingly arrive at the beach already dehydrated. It happens more frequently than you might think.

Time spent driving to the coast, early morning starts, warm weather, and even cool-water sessions can leave the body short on fluids before the first paddle.

So, drinking around half a liter of water with breakfast helps start the session properly hydrated.

On particularly hot days or after heavy sweating, adding a small pinch of salt may help replace some of the sodium lost through perspiration.

Timing is almost as important as the meal

For most surfers, eating this breakfast about one hour before entering the water strikes the right balance between digestion and energy availability.

If you're planning a particularly large breakfast, allowing closer to two hours gives your body more time to digest comfortably.

On the other hand, if dawn patrol calls and you're paddling out within half an hour of waking up, reducing the portion size and skipping the nuts and seeds makes the meal easier to tolerate.

We hope it works for you. Let us know.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

It's surprising how much professional surfing and professional tennis have in common.

Both sports travel the world, both reward athletes with ranking points based on their results, both use rankings to seed competitors and determine entry into elite events, and both also rely on a development pathway that allows rising talent to earn a place among the world's best.

On top of that, both sports share a similar tournament ladder format at each event that takes place in different countries with different conditions (beach, point, or reef breaks, and clay, grass, or hard courts).

Yet one very important difference separates them.

Tennis celebrates the player who performs best over an entire year. Surfing no longer does.

That difference has become one of the biggest talking and controversial points in competitive surfing since the World Surf League (WSL) introduced the Finals format in 2021.

The change created a dramatic finish to the season, but it also changed the meaning of the world title.

Instead of recognizing the surfer who performed best across every event, the championship is now decided in a single day between the top five surfers in the rankings.

Looking at how professional tennis handles rankings and championships offers a potentially interesting alternative that could eventually be worth exploring.

Tennis separates rankings from championships

Modern tennis has no official world champion. And that could maybe shock surf fans. But let's see.

Instead, the sport recognizes the ATP and WTA World No. 1 players. 

Those rankings are built over a rolling 52-week period and reflect consistent performance across dozens of tournaments, something surf fans were praising about the pre-WSL finals era.

At the end of the season, the top players also compete in the ATP Finals and WTA Finals. Winning those tournaments is a major achievement, but it does not determine who finishes the year as World No. 1.

The distinction is simple.

One title recognizes excellence over an entire season. The other rewards the player who wins the final tournament.

Fans understand both achievements. Neither diminishes the other.

So, in tennis' case, there are not men's and women's world champions getting crowned every year.

Surfing once operated in a similar way.

For decades, the surfer who collected the most points over the season became world champion.

That changed when the WSL introduced the Finals, where the top five surfers compete for the title regardless of how large the points gap may have been during the regular season.

But does this format truly reflect what a surfing season means to dozens of athletes?

Consistency deserves recognition

Surfing is one of the few professional sports where athletes compete in a changing natural environment.

In other words, no two heats are identical.

Wave size changes, wind shifts constantly, tides rise and fall, peaks move, some heats offer several excellent waves, while others produce long periods of waiting with very few scoring opportunities.

So, those Nature-dependent variables make athletic consistency even more valuable.

A surfer who repeatedly reaches quarterfinals, semifinals and finals at different waves around the world demonstrates an ability to adapt to many conditions. That's indisputable.

Therefore, that achievement tells more about performance and talent than a single day of competition.

A season-long world ranking reflects that body of work.

It also rewards surfers who perform well at reef breaks, beach breaks, point breaks, challenging barrels and small waves.

Excelling across that variety has always been one of the strongest measures of competitive surfing.

However, it doesn't feel like pro surfing grabs the spectator the way tennis does.

A ranking fans could follow every event

Tennis rankings are part of the sport's identity.

Fans know who is climbing. They know who is defending points from last year, and they know what it means to become World No. 1.

Surfing could create the same kind of narrative, eventually merging the Championship Tour (CT), the Challenger (CS), and the Qualifying Series (QS) rankings and event points distribution (similar to Grand Slams, ATP Masters 1000, ATP 500, ATP 250, ATP Challenger Tour, etc.).

Imagine a season where every single event - CT, CS, and QS - reshapes the race for the top ranking.

A victory at Bells Beach moves one surfer into first place, then a strong finish at Jeffreys Bay closes the gap, and a surprise result at Teahupo'o changes the standings again.

The (unified) ranking itself becomes part of the story, putting athletes from all tiers in a single list.

Instead of focusing only on who wins each contest, fans would have another reason to follow every stop on the tour.

The season would feel more connected because every event would influence the race for the top position.

You could say it already works like that, but the WSL Finals and the points attribution system are not as volatile as with professional tennis.

History would become easier to compare

Professional surfing has evolved through many different competitive systems. We at SurferToday.com have highlighted the different eras the sport lived through.

Initially, early world titles were decided by single events. Later, champions were determined through season-long rankings. Today, the Finals decide the title.

It's as simplistic as that. Nevertheless, those changes make it harder to compare surfers from different generations.

A continuous world ranking would provide a stable reference across every era. If we're dramatically changing the rules every decade, we lose that comparison perspective.

Statistics such as weeks at World No. 1, consecutive seasons finishing first, or total year-end No. 1 rankings would become meaningful records, much like they are in tennis or even golf.

It's these types of achievements that would add another layer to surfing's history and appeal without changing the character of the sport itself.

The Finals could still matter

Now, here's where we could build a bridge between old school, die-hard fans, and the commercial and industry side of the business.

None of this requires removing the WSL Finals. In truth, the event could remain one of the biggest competitions of the year.

So, how would it work?

Only the best surfers would qualify. The winner would earn one of the most prestigious trophies in the sport.

The difference would be in what that trophy represents.

The Finals would crown the champion of the season-ending tournament, while the world rankings would identify the best surfer across the full competitive year.

Tennis has shown that fans can appreciate both accomplishments without confusing one for the other.

The ocean makes rankings even more important

We need to frame the formula proposed above within the following assumption: tennis takes place on standardized courts, surfing does not.

Every location presents unique challenges - Pipeline is nothing like Margaret River, and Teahupoo bears little resemblance to Lower Trestles.

A surfer who succeeds across all of them proves an exceptional range of skills.

Because the ocean introduces so much uncertainty, judging a season rather than a single contest arguably provides a fairer picture of overall performance.

Now, the elephant in the room.

Luck always plays a role in surfing. We know that for a fact. And some surfers seem to be a swell magnet.

A poor wave cycle or an unexpected change in weather patterns can also influence the outcome of any heat.

But across an entire season, those moments tend to balance out.

And that is one reason many fans and former competitors continue to value season-long rankings so highly.

Fair enough. The ocean's unpredictable ways must not be a prevailing factor when ranking surfers.

A simpler story for new fans

Surfing has always faced the challenge of explaining its competitive structure to people discovering the sport.

The relationship between the several rankings (Championship Tour, Challenger Series, and Qualifying Series), the regular season, the rankings, and the Finals is not immediately obvious, even for those who follow the sport on a regular basis.

A straightforward ranking system would be familiar to millions of sports fans.

The surfer with the most points becomes World No. 1, while the season-ending event crowns its own champion.

That is a model already understood in tennis and several other individual sports. It would be easy for broadcasters to explain and easy for new audiences to follow.

It would also give surfing two compelling stories instead of one.

Every contest would shape the race for the world rankings, while the season would still build toward an elite championship featuring the year's best performers.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

Whether you've played it or not, "TransWorld Surf" is one of the most overlooked surfing games ever made.

However, it arrived at an unfortunate moment - released almost simultaneously with "Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer" - and was eventually overshadowed despite introducing several ideas that were surprisingly ambitious for 2001.

Activision's heavily marketed "Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer," powered by the proven "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" engine and carrying the sport's biggest name, dominated the spotlight.

Many players bought only one surfing video game, and Kelly Slater usually won. 

Yet more than two decades later, "TransWorld Surf" has quietly become a cult classic.

Browse online discussions among surfers and retro gamers, and a pattern quickly emerges: many believe it delivered the most authentic surfing experience of its era, alongside another one, "Sunny Garcia Surfing."

Its realistic waves, faithful recreations of famous surf breaks, memorable soundtrack, and distinctive atmosphere left an impression that has only grown stronger with time.

Perhaps the game's greatest irony is that it was built by a studio that would soon become one of the most influential developers in the gaming industry.

Here are some very curious and interesting facts about "TransWorld Surf."

Developed by the studio that became Rockstar San Diego

The game was developed by Angel Studios, a California company later acquired by Rockstar Games and renamed Rockstar San Diego.

That means the same studio that eventually produced the "Red Dead Redemption" series, "Midnight Club," and contributed heavily to the "Grand Theft Auto" series once built one of the most realistic surfing games of its era.

It wasn't trying to copy Tony Hawk

While almost every extreme sports game after "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" became an arcade combo-fest, "TransWorld Surf" tried to reproduce actual surfing mechanics.

Developers wanted players to paddle correctly, position themselves in the lineup, generate speed by pumping, stay inside the pocket, and use the wave instead of simply riding on top of it.

Players noted that this realism created a steep learning curve, but also made it feel closer to real surfing than previous games.

The water was considered revolutionary

When previews first appeared in 2001, almost every article focused on one thing: the water.

At the time, Angel Studios built one of the most convincing real-time ocean simulations seen on consoles up to that point.

The Xbox version was even nominated by GameSpot for Best In-Game Water of 2001, losing only to Nintendo's "Wave Race: Blue Storm."

For an original Xbox launch title, that was remarkable recognition.

Steve Rotenberg, Angel Studios' director of research and development, explained in a 2002 interview with the Los Angeles Times that the team initially experimented with fluid dynamics to generate wave motion.

They created ripples using computer models based on the physics of fluids. However, they quickly discovered two major problems.

The first one was that it was too computationally expensive.

In 2001, the original Xbox had a 733 MHz Pentium III processor and 64 MB of unified RAM.

True fluid simulation - solving the equations governing turbulent water - was simply too demanding for a real-time surfing game.

Even today, realistic ocean simulation is one of the hardest problems in computer graphics.

Then, physics didn't give designers enough control, and this was the more surprising reason.

"Game designers want precise control over how the wave breaks, how fast it is, how large it is..." Rotenberg explained.

A real wave behaves according to physics, but a game wave has to behave according to gameplay.

For example, break at exactly the right moment, produce a barrel long enough to surf, generate launch ramps for airs, and remain fun every single run.

If they had based everything on real fluid dynamics, designers would have had to modify the virtual seabed every time they wanted to tweak the wave.

And that wasn't practical.

Instead, Angel Studios built what Rotenberg called a procedural animation system.

Rather than simulating every water particle, algorithms generated the shape and motion of the wave while allowing designers to specify:

• Wave height;
• Breaking point;
• Steepness;
• Peeling speed;
• Barrel size;
• Frequency;
• Timing;

In modern graphics terms, it was closer to a parametric wave model than a fluid simulation.

Why did it look so convincing? The illusion came from layering several techniques together.

Several technologies combined to create one of the most convincing digital oceans of its generation.

The wave itself was constantly deforming rather than simply scrolling beneath the surfer.

Animated geometry created pitching lips, hollow barrels, peeling shoulders, and collapsing sections that evolved naturally along the wave.

Multiple animated texture layers added ripples, reflections, foam, and subtle surface disturbances.

Moving independently, these layers prevented the repetitive appearance common in early 2000s games.

Also, particle systems generated convincing spray whenever surfers carved through turns, floated across breaking sections, or struck the lip.

Dynamic lighting produced shimmering reflections and translucent barrels that looked extraordinary on contemporary hardware.

Even the PlayStation 2 version, despite graphical compromises and occasional slowdowns, retained the impressive wave shapes that reviewers consistently praised.

Ultimately, "close to one-third to half of the [central processing power] is allocated to the ocean, in terms of physics and rendering. That makes sense for a surfing game," added Rotenberg.

Surfing still obeyed physics

Although the ocean itself was procedurally animated, the surfer's interaction with it depended on a sophisticated physics model.

Board angle, rail engagement, gravity, momentum, pumping, and acceleration down the wave face all influenced movement.

That combination created a distinctly different sensation from the arcade movement of "Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer."

Success depended less on memorizing trick combinations and more on understanding the shape and energy of the wave itself.

The result occasionally frustrated newcomers, but many experienced surfers appreciated the authenticity.

A digital world built around surf culture

Then, authenticity extended well beyond the wave mechanics.

Instead of fictional beaches, "TransWorld Surf" recreated more than twenty iconic surf breaks, including Pipeline, Backdoor, Teahupo'o, Jeffreys Bay, Kirra, Hossegor, G-Land, Todos Santos, Tavarua, Huntington Beach, and Witches Rock.

For countless players, the game became their first virtual visit to some of surfing's most famous locations.

The professional surfer roster now serves as a time capsule of early-2000s surfing.

Andy Irons, Taj Burrow, Shane Dorian, Christian Fletcher, Dan Malloy, Rochelle Ballard, Cory Lopez, Chris Ward, Tylor Knox, Tim Curran, Fred Patacchia, Shawn Barron, and Jason Collins all appeared as playable characters, capturing a generation that helped redefine progressive surfing.

How cooler could it be?

Rather than chasing prize money, players progressed by earning the cover of TransWorld SURF magazine itself.

Photographers stationed around the lineup rewarded perfectly timed maneuvers, reinforcing the importance of style, positioning, and wave selection over pure point accumulation.

Interestingly, Chris Coté, the co-founder of the surf magazine with the same name, once revealed that "all of us at the mag were heavily involved with the making of the game."

Unlockable real-world surf videos further blurred the boundary between video game and surf magazine, making players feel immersed in the culture rather than simply competing in sporting events.

You don't see this much in console video games anymore.

Dolphins, photographers... and sharks

One of the game's most unusual features was its Karma Meter.

Players could interact with photographers, dolphins, bodyboarders, and fellow surfers. Their behavior affected an invisible karma score that subtly influenced gameplay.

Among the system's strangest consequences was an increased likelihood of shark attacks for players with poor karma.

So, with no surprise, the shark quickly became one of the game's most memorable features.

Years later, gamers would still ask online about "that surfing game where the shark drags you away," often discovering that the answer was "TransWorld Surf."

Music without stereotypes

The soundtrack also resisted convention.

Instead of relying exclusively on surf rock, Angel Studios licensed music across punk, alternative rock, heavy metal, hip-hop, and downtempo genres.

Contemporary reviewers noted the unusually broad musical selection that reflected the increasingly diverse tastes of early-2000s surf culture.

The GameCube version had a different title

For GameCube, rather than simply porting the game, Infogrames renamed it: "TransWorld Surf: Next Wave."

Although largely the same game, the title change has confused collectors for years.

Critics liked it more than many players expected

Review scores were stronger than many people remember.

Typical scores included an 8/10 in GameSpot and 76/100 in Metacritic for the Xbox version.

However, there were generally favorable reviews for Xbox and PlayStation 2 across the internet.

Most criticism centered on difficult controls, repetitive competitions, and niche appeal. But reviewers consistently praised the wave physics, atmosphere, authenticity, and water effects.

Despite becoming a cult video game, especially among surfers, "TransWorld Surf" wasn't a huge commercial success.

"I think 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' was marketed a bit better than ours," added Chris Coté.

"Sales-wise, 'Transworld Surf' wasn't promoted well. We tried to do what we could in the magazine, but it was only played and promoted on the coast."

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

Every summer, millions of people head to beaches expecting a simple promise. If something goes wrong in the water, someone will come.

That someone is usually an open water lifeguard.

At SurferToday.com, we have been promoting the sharing of knowledge about water safety, surf lifesaving, and surf rescue, and highlighting the importance of lifeguards in saving hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide every year.

It seems that we, collectively, only realize that when someone close to us goes through a life-threatening event or worse, and eventually, during summer.

So, here's what reality tells us every day, especially during the warmer months.

Whether they patrol the surf at Huntington Beach, the shorebreak at Jersey beaches, or the powerful currents of the North Shore of Hawaii, open water lifeguards are often the first professionals to reach people in distress.

There's basically no one else.

They dive into dangerous surf, swim through rip currents, perform rescues, provide emergency medical care, and hand victims over to ambulance crews when they reach shore.

Now, here's the most surprising and maybe shocking part you might not know.

Despite carrying out many of the same duties as firefighters, paramedics, and police officers during emergencies, open water lifeguards are not consistently recognized as first responders under federal law.

The good news is that a resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 119th Congress seeks to change that conversation.

But will it lobby through? What's at stake?

A job that begins where everyone else stops

Open water lifeguarding is unlike pool lifeguarding or most other emergency services. The workplace itself - the ocean - is unpredictable.

Ocean conditions change by the minute. You've probably witnessed that.

Rip currents form without warning; large surf, cold water, rocks, reefs, tides, and marine traffic all add to the risk.

So, every rescue begins with an assessment of hazards that can threaten both the victim and the rescuer.

The job extends well beyond pulling swimmers from the water.

Many open water lifeguards are trained in emergency medical care, spinal injury management, rescue watercraft operations, marine firefighting support, and public safety.

On busy, crowded beaches, they regularly respond to heart attacks, traumatic injuries, missing children, boating incidents, shark sightings, hazardous marine life, and environmental emergencies.

For many beachgoers, the lifeguard tower functions as the first emergency response station they encounter.

The first person on the scene

When an emergency unfolds in the surf, every second matters. There's actually a timeline of drowning, that is, stages of impact as minutes pass by.

Unlike ambulance crews, whose arrival depends on road access and dispatch times, lifeguards are already on the beach. They react within seconds.

They continuously watch swimmers, identify developing problems, and often enter the water before anyone has placed a 911 call.

That is one of the central arguments behind House Resolution 1188.

Introduced in April 2026, the resolution states that open water lifeguards perform the essential work of protecting lives while placing themselves in danger.

It also notes that many are cross-trained in emergency medical response, marine fire safety, law enforcement, and rescue craft operations.

The resolution argues that their duties fit the role of emergency response providers and first responders, and formally expresses congressional support for recognizing them as such.

The measure is symbolic rather than legally binding.

It does not automatically change federal law or extend benefits associated with first responder status.

Instead, it represents an effort to acknowledge the profession at the national level and encourage broader recognition.

And then, eventually, one day, things could change further.

The numbers behind the rescues

The scale of lifeguards' work often goes unnoticed because successful rescues rarely make national headlines.

According to the United States Lifesaving Association, beaches protected by its affiliated lifeguards record an extraordinarily low drowning rate.

The organization estimates that the chance of a person drowning at a beach protected by USLA lifeguards is approximately 1 in 18 million.

That figure reflects decades of prevention as much as rescue.

Experienced lifeguards spend much of their day moving swimmers away from rip currents, warning surfers about changing conditions, educating visitors about hazards, and spotting trouble before it becomes a life-threatening emergency.

When prevention fails, rescue becomes the priority.

The USLA says its members respond to medical emergencies, drowning incidents, severe injuries, boating accidents, and many other situations involving public safety every year.

Risk comes with the uniform

People often think of lifeguards as young athletes sitting in elevated chairs. The reality is far more demanding.

Open water rescues require swimming through breaking waves, strong currents, heavy shorebreak, or rough offshore conditions while carrying rescue equipment and supporting victims who may be panicked, injured, or unconscious.

The danger is real.

House Resolution 1188 points to the deaths of two New Jersey lifeguards in 2021 while they were performing their duties.

Their deaths serve as a reminder that rescuers sometimes become victims themselves.

Every rescue involves balancing urgency against personal safety.

Lifeguards are trained to minimize unnecessary risk, yet they regularly enter environments that most people are trying desperately to escape.

Ryder Williams became the face of the debate

The discussion about recognizing lifeguards as first responders gained fresh attention after a dramatic rescue by 16-year-old California State Parks lifeguard Ryder Williams at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz.

Williams repeatedly swam through powerful surf to keep hold of a drowning 10-year-old boy until both could reach safety.

Video of the rescue spread quickly, showing the teenager disappearing beneath breaking waves before resurfacing with the child still in his grasp.

The rescue illustrated what many professional lifeguards have argued for years.

The first emergency responder on a beach is often not an ambulance crew or a firefighter. It is the lifeguard already watching the water.

Why recognition matters

For many lifeguards, the issue extends beyond job titles.

Recognition as first responders can influence eligibility for training programs, emergency management planning, occupational protections, mental health resources, grant opportunities, and other government programs that specifically reference emergency response personnel.

Supporters also argue that formal recognition better reflects reality.

Open water lifeguards routinely make rapid medical decisions, coordinate with firefighters and police officers, communicate with emergency dispatchers, stabilize victims, and transfer patients to advanced medical teams.

In practice, they already function as part of the emergency response system.

The question raised by House Resolution 1188 is whether public policy should catch up with what happens every day on America's beaches.

For surfers, swimmers, paddlers, and families, the answer may already be visible from the nearest lifeguard tower. Long before an ambulance appears, someone has already entered the water.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

Fear is one of the most interesting and mysterious emotional states a human can feel, and one we all would like to tame, control, or reduce in our lives.

As a surfer, the first time you paddle toward a wave that looks far bigger than anything you have surfed before, something strange happens.

Your breathing changes, your heart beats faster, your hands grip the rails of your board a little tighter, and every instinct tells you to turn around.

That's more or less like that, right?

That feeling is fear - pure and simple.

It is one of the oldest survival systems in the human body, and it exists for a simple reason. It has kept our ancestors alive for millions of years.

Surfers often talk about conquering fear, but science paints a different picture. Fear is not an obstacle to eliminate.

Actually, although it might sound like a paradox, we should be thankful for having it in our lives.

Fear is information, and the challenge is learning how to understand it instead of letting it make every decision.

Fear is the brain's early warning system

Fear begins long before you become aware of it.

As your eyes scan the horizon, your brain constantly compares what you see with memories of previous experiences.

It asks a simple question over and over again: "Am I safe?"

If the answer is uncertain or negative, several parts of the brain begin working together.

The amygdala, often described as the brain's alarm system, helps detect events that deserve immediate attention.

It does not work alone.

The hypothalamus, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, brainstem, and other regions all help decide how serious a situation really is.

Modern neuroscience views fear as the product of a network rather than a single "fear center."

And that network reacts incredibly fast.

In many situations, your brain starts preparing your body before your conscious mind has fully understood what is happening.

For a surfer, that might be the moment a larger-than-expected set appears on the horizon, or simply the fear of deep waters. You know the feeling pretty well.

Your body is built for dangerous moments

Within seconds, the sympathetic nervous system switches on.

Adrenaline enters the bloodstream, your heart pumps faster, your breathing speeds up, and blood flows toward the muscles that need it most.

Your pupils widen, allowing more light into your eyes, pain becomes less noticeable, and your attention becomes more focused.

Although it might look like it, these unbelievably sharp reactions are not signs that your body is failing.

They are signs that it is preparing you to survive.

Many surfers mistake these sensations for panic. They feel their racing heartbeat and assume they are losing control.

In reality, a faster heartbeat is often exactly what your body needs before making a demanding paddle or recovering after a wipeout.

The problem begins when the stress response becomes too strong. Extremely high levels of arousal can narrow attention so much that good decisions become harder to make.

Why beginners fear waves that experts barely notice

Fear depends less on the size of a wave than on how predictable it feels.

A shoulder-high wave may terrify someone during their first surf lesson. The same wave hardly raises the heartbeat of an experienced surfer.

The ocean has not changed; the surfer has. And that's the trick.

The brain constantly updates its predictions using experience.

Every successful takeoff, every duck dive, and every wipeout that ends safely provides new information. Over time, the nervous system learns that certain situations are manageable.

"A six-foot wave on the head... It wasn't that bad, was it?" one could say.

Confidence is often described as belief.

Neuroscience suggests something more practical - confidence is evidence.

The more evidence your brain collects that you can handle a situation, the less likely it is to trigger a strong fear response.

That explains why progression in surfing usually happens in small steps rather than giant leaps.

With the exception, obviously, of those who suffer from cymophobia.

Memory can make fear stronger

The brain never forgets a frightening experience completely.

If you have suffered a violent hold down, collided with a reef, or nearly drowned, those memories become part of your future risk calculations.

The hippocampus stores memories together with the surrounding context.

Years later, similar waves, sounds, or even the smell of the ocean can reactivate those memories and make a surfer feel nervous before anything dangerous has actually happened.

So, we're not talking about weakness anymore. It is the brain trying to protect you by learning from previous events.

The same mechanism explains why positive experiences matter just as much. Every successful session gradually rewrites those predictions.

Our brain like a hard drive - unbelievable, isn't it?

Some people naturally fear less than others

Not everyone experiences fear in the same way, though.

Genes, personality, hormones, childhood experiences, training, and repeated exposure to risk all influence how easily the brain sounds the alarm.

Psychologists have long studied people known as "sensation seekers." The concept really exists.

These people generally enjoy novelty, accept higher levels of uncertainty, and require more stimulation before situations feel exciting or threatening.

Many elite (big-wave) surfers fit this profile.

That does not mean they are reckless. It means their brains often place the danger threshold a little higher than average.

Training then pushes that threshold even further.

The mystery of Alex Honnold

Few athletes have generated more curiosity than free solo climber Alex Honnold.

He has climbed some of the world's biggest rock faces without ropes, including El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

Alex's achievements led neuroscientists to study his brain.

Functional MRI scans conducted by neuroscientist Jane Joseph found that Honnold's amygdala showed remarkably little activity when he viewed images designed to provoke fear.

Those findings became famous, but they are often misunderstood. The scans do not prove that Honnold cannot feel fear.

Scientists have repeatedly warned against that interpretation. They simply show that his brain reacts differently under specific laboratory conditions.

Honnold himself has offered another explanation: preparation.

Before attempting a dangerous free solo climb, Alex may spend weeks or months climbing the same route with ropes. He memorizes every handhold, every foothold, and every sequence of movements.

By the time he removes the rope, very little is left to chance.

While it's true that the climb still carries enormous consequences, uncertainty has been reduced as much as possible.

That lesson applies directly to surfing.

The world's best big wave surfers do not simply ignore fear.

They spend countless hours studying forecasts, tides, wind, bathymetry, currents, rescue procedures and equipment. They become familiar with a break long before paddling into its biggest swells.

The art of managing breath becomes a lifeline for the worst possible scenario.

Ultimately, preparation reduces uncertainty; uncertainty fuels fear. Does it make sense?

By the way, climbing helps your surfing.

What science found inside the brains of big wave surfers

A 2022 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that elite big-wave surfers process threatening images differently from experienced surfers who do not specialize in giant waves.

Researchers used functional MRI to compare experienced big-wave surfers with skilled surfers who did not ride giant waves.

Participants viewed emotionally charged images while their brain activity was measured.

The study found clear differences in the way the two groups processed highly negative images.

Big wave surfers showed greater activity in regions such as the insula and the periaqueductal gray, while the comparison group displayed stronger activation in the hypothalamus during the same tasks.

The overall pattern suggested that elite big wave surfers process threatening information differently rather than simply feeling less fear. 

Interestingly, questionnaires found no meaningful psychological differences between the groups, showing that brain activity can reveal distinctions that standard personality tests miss.

The researchers were careful not to claim that big wave surfers are fearless. Their brains simply appeared to organize responses to threatening situations in a different way.

That finding fits what experienced surfers have described for decades - large waves demand calm attention rather than emotional excitement.

Fear and panic are not the same

Many surfers use the words fear and panic interchangeably. They should not.

Why? Because fear is a normal response to danger and panic is what happens when fear overwhelms decision-making.

Fear can sharpen focus. On the other hand, panic can destroy it. And that distinction matters a lot in the ocean.

A surfer who feels fear can still choose a good line, protect their head during a wipeout, or stay relaxed underwater.

A panicked surfer may waste oxygen, thrash unnecessarily, and lose awareness of what is happening around them.

Learning to stay calm does not eliminate fear: it prevents fear from becoming panic.

Why breathing matters

One of the simplest ways to influence fear is through breathing.

When breathing becomes rapid and shallow, the body interprets it as another sign that danger is increasing.

Slower, controlled breathing helps reduce excessive activation of the stress response and allows the thinking parts of the brain to stay engaged.

Big wave surfers spend as much time training their breath and underwater comfort as they do improving their surfing.

The goal is not to hold your breath longer than everyone else but to remain composed when everything around you feels chaotic.

Respect is stronger than bravado

Surf culture sometimes celebrates fearlessness; the ocean does not. Many experienced watermen speak instead about respect.

Respect means recognizing when conditions exceed your current ability. It means understanding that courage and recklessness are different things.

The surfer who paddles back to the beach because the conditions are beyond their skills has listened to the same biological system that kept our ancestors alive.

Fear has done its job.

The most accomplished surfers rarely try to silence that inner voice. They ask why it is speaking.

Sometimes it points to poor preparation, sometimes it reflects a lack of experience, and sometimes it is warning about genuine danger.

Learning to tell the difference may be one of the most valuable skills a surfer can develop.

Remember that fear will always paddle out beside you.

The goal is to make sure it stays in its proper place, quietly helping you make better decisions while you chase the next wave.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com