How We Can Guarantee You’ll Surf More in 2019 Than You Did in 2018

How was your 2018? Filled with excitement, regret, remorse? Did you speak about hating work and longing for surf? Probably. We all do it, and put it on repeat.

Amongst us are those who surf a lot, a little, and the occasional pal who savours the idea of surfing – purchases multiple sleds and suits throughout the year and each time you invite them for a friendly session they decline, sighting some thin excuse. Friends that leave you questioning if they like to surf or if they just enjoy the notion of being a surfer.

Ted Robinson is not that friend. He's a man who’ll make you feel guilty about the amount of time you spend in the water. And to prove it, Mr Robinson tracks all of his sessions with his new Rip Curl SearchGPS 2 – well almost all of his sessions. “The only time I don’t use it is when I’m doing step-offs in Mex,” Ted says. “Which can give an inaccurate reading of how often I surf. Pretty much anytime it’s going to be overhead, I take out my ski and do step-offs – it’s just too addicting. That’s a lifesaver for me. It gets too crazy around here sometimes.”

It’s more for bragging rights than anything, though – who’s gone the fastest, who spends the most time in the water.

When Mr Robinson says “here”, he’s referring to Orange County. See, Ted’s a Huntington Beach guy. He frequents HB and Newport and then shoots down to his pad in Baja when things get a little too hectic. “If you saw my set-up down there you’d understand why I spend so much of my time in Mex. I would have surfed more this year if the waves had been better.”

The guy has had 432 sessions over one year. He spent a total of 21 days (a cumulative total of 504 hours) atop foam submerged in salt water. It’s unimaginable how much he’d surf if the waves were always firing. Going through his statistics, it isn’t rare for Mr Robinson to surf three times a day and spend over three hours in the water during each surf. “I take pride in the amount of time I spend in the water and how many waves I catch,” he explains. “It’s interesting to me to track as many sessions as possible.”

On January 20th,, Ted had a marathon four-hour session out at El Porto in Los Angeles, and if you’re familiar with the break then you’re aware it had to have been just kicking that day to keep any sane individual out there that long. It seems like it was. Ted caught 70 waves that session, he paddled 10.3 miles, had a top speed of 17.1 mph and clocked in his longest wave at 176 yards.

Ted has a group of friends who all have the watch and they have a club set up on the app. “There is a dozen of us,” he says. “It’s cool that we get competitive. It’s more for bragging rights than anything, though – who’s gone the fastest, who spends the most time in the water. That’s what everyone cares about. It’s pretty funny though – sometimes guys forget to turn their watches off and they get in the cars, and next thing you know they’re hitting a three-mile wave at 60 mph. So, taking that in to account, we definitely try to keep each other honest.”

The SearchGPS 2 watch was just released this year, and it has a ton of new updates to the original watch.

It’s not only significantly smaller, lighter and more durable, but it has real-time conditions across surf spots all over the world (brought straight to you from Surfline) and it can actually track other sports.

If you’re anything like Ted, this watch could change your surfing life in 2019. And if there’s one New Years Resolution you should make, it’s to just GO SURF MORE!

There are a lot of cool things about the SearchGPS 2… but the coolest part is, it just makes you want to GO SURF.