Sean Collins
President, Chief Surf Forecaster
Sean Collins serves as President, Chief Surf Forecaster, and Founder for Surfline. Collins was the first person to accurately forecast swells on a regular basis in the '70s and early '80s. He pioneered and created the first ongoing surf forecast available to the surfing public via Surfline and 976-SURF in 1985. Over the past 25 years, he has developed a sophisticated, proprietary system of wave forecasting - much of which is currently used in LOLA, Surfline's Global Swell Model. Through Surfline, Collins provides weather and forecasting services to every lifeguard agency in California, the Coast Guard, US Navy Seals, National Weather Service, numerous television and movie production companies, multiple domestic and international governmental agencies and nearly every surf company in the world. Collins also developed the very first live "Surfcam" in 1996, the precedent for famous Surfline camera network available on Surfline.com today. He was named one of the "25 Most Influential Surfers of the Century" by Surfer Magazine in the summer of 1999, the "8th Most Powerful Surfer in the Surf Industry" by Surfer Magazine in the summer of 2002, and in the TOP 100 People who wield the most Power and Influence in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times WEST Magazine in the summer of 2006. Finally in July 2008, Sean was inducted to the Surfer's Hall of Fame with his foot and hand prints immortalized in stone on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street in Huntington Beach, right next to the DUKE statue in front of Huntington Surf & Sport. Collins also directs an exclusive crew of Big Wave riders to chase the largest waves on Earth at any moment - including Mike Parsons, Brad Gerlach, Shane Dorian, Laird Hamiltion, Greg and Rusty Long, Jamie Sterling, and many more. Collins has been surfing and wave exploring by land, air, and sea for more than 40 years and is still holding vast knowledge of many secret spots south of the border. The Surfline office staff also knows a good south swell is confirmed and on the way when Collins disappears out of the office on one of his many solo surf trips to Baja.
Drop Sean a line: scollins@surfline.com
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Kevin Wallis
Forecast Manager, Lead Forecaster
Kevin Wallis started at Surfline in June 2000, initially joining the team as a report coordinator. Since that time he has trained and made his way through the ranks to his current position of Forecast Manager. Wallis' responsibilities as manager entail developing and supervising the daily forecasts for California, Hawaii, Baja, Mainland Mexico, Central America and the Gulf of Mexico as well as providing video forecasts for California and Hawaii twice a week. In addition, he works closely with Sean to provide numerous specialty forecasts throughout the year, including a number of ASP/WCT events such as the Billabong Pro Tahiti and XXL forecasts for the world's big wave chargers. Although not classically trained in meteorology or oceanography when he started, Wallis is now working toward a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology through the Mississippi State distance learning program, which he will complete in 2009. When not forecasting or traveling in search of waves, Kevin enjoys bodysurfing Wedge in Newport Beach, snowboarding June Mountain, playing water polo and refusing to let fellow Surfline Forecaster Jon Warren take any vacation.
Drop Kevin a line: kwallis@surfline.com
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Mike Watson
East Coast Forecast Manager, Lead East Coast Forecaster
Mike Watson serves as the manager and lead forecaster for Surfline's East Coast operations. Watson is a Florida native and originally from the wave starved Indian Rocks Beach region. Mike has over 20 years of experience monitoring waves through his passion, surfing. Watson holds a B.S. in Meteorology (2002) with minors in math and physics along with an M.S. in Meteorology (2005) specializing in the tropics from The Florida State University. He currently resides in Melbourne Beach, FL with his beautiful wife Leela and their dog and video forecast star, Marley.
Drop Mike a line: mwatson@surfline.com
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Jonathan Warren
West Coast Forecast Manager, Forecaster
Born and raised in West Palm Beach, FL, Jonathan Warren started surfing at the age of 12 and was hooked for life. Growing up as a surfer and fisher, he naturally became interested in the weather. After graduating Royal Palm Beach H.S. in 1999 he earned himself an academic scholarship to Florida State University where he studied meteorology. In his time as a Seminole, Jonathan founded the FSU Surf Club/Team, and it is here where he started to steer towards his career by becoming the club's surf forecaster. Through the Surf Club's website, Jon forecasted Florida's Gulf and East coast for over 4 years before obtaining his Bachelor's degree in Meteorology with Math and Physics as minors in the fall of 2004. Through the winter of 2003/04, Warren won the Red Bull Icebreak National Wave Forecast Contest, hosted by Surfline. He won an extensive trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where a surf forecast practicum was taught by his friend, fellow FSU alumni, and Surfline's former East Coast manager Mark Willis. After college, he moved back home to West Palm Beach to take a break, save some money, and search for a career. Living in South FL, Jon worked for the airlines and called in daily reports for Surfline in Palm Beach. After a year of calling in reports that were flat most of the time and still no desirable career, Warren decided that he needed a change in his life. So he packed up his car and moved to Oceanside, CA at the beginning of May 2006. In September 2006, Surfline's former West Coast manager Charlie Fox called Jonathan up and offered him a position he could not refuse, forecaster! ("Thanks Mikey for looking out"). Jon started work right away at Surline in October predicting surf for the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, California, mainland Mexico, Costa Rica, Baja, and Europe. With a quick move to Huntington Beach, he is stoked with his current career that blends two passions, meteorology and surfing. When Jon is not forecasting surf around the world, you can find him either in the water, at the sk8park, or jamming on the drums with his band.
Drop Jonathan a line: jon@surfline.com
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Chris Borg
Senior Forecaster
Chris Borg was born and raised in San Diego, California where he spent a lot of time enjoying the ocean: bodysurfing, rowing, sailing and surfing. It was while learning to fly that Chris decided to become a meteorologist. Shortly after receiving his B.S. in Atmospheric Science at San Jose State University he was hired by a small new company called Surfline to be their Surf Forecaster. That was back in the days before the internet, before surfcams, before any sophisticated computer swell models or nearly all of the advanced swell forecasting tools we rely on now. Over the last 2 decades Chris has seen Surfline steadily grow along with its staff of Surf Forecasters and their ability to accurately predict waves around the world.
Drop Chris a line: cborg@surfline.com
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Kurt Korte
Forecaster
Kurt Korte - joined the Surfline forecasting and reporting team as another wave starved East Coast native in March 2005. Kurt has a B.A. in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia where he found time from his busy surf trip schedule to play on the football team. He successfully completed his graduate studies in atmospheric science, specializing in tropical meteorology, at NC State University in December 2007. Kurt currently resides on the Outer Banks of North Carolina so when the surf gets good his friends would have a place to stay. Kurt enjoys waking up early for dawn patrol surf reports and Mama Kwan's fish tacos.
Drop Kurt a line: korte@surfline.com
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Dave Sellin
Forecaster
Born and raised in Detroit, MI, David spent the first part of his life using the exact opposite form of water, ice as his playground. As an aspiring hockey player growing up and spending countless hours traveling around North America and freezing his ass off when was faced with either college hockey or taking his life in a different direction he chose the latter. After a few years of working and saving money David and his high school girlfriend (and now wife, married in Oct. '07) decided to make the move to Huntington Beach, Ca. He taught himself how to surf along the shores of Huntington and Newport and like so many, became hooked instantly. While living in Michigan, David was always fascinated (and as a young boy often scared) with the dynamic, dangerous and always changing weather that area experiences. Often times making his friends go looking for tornadoes when there were warnings issued. So, naturally when he started surfing it became more than just the act of surfing, he wanted to know the dynamics of waves and how they were formed. So, in January '07 when using surfline one day he noticed an ad for a job as Surf Report Coordinator he responded and got lucky as they hired him. Sellin's daily coordinating duties entail morning and afternoon reports along the West Coast as well as International reports and daily forecasts for the OC register. He was just promoted to full-time forecaster and is now being trained and worked into the forecasting rotation concentrating on the West Coast, and Hawaii. Stoked with his new promotion and forecasting duties, David is also now working towards his Bachelor of Science in Meteorology through Mississippi State University's distance learning program. When not surfing, forecasting, or studying David enjoys playing tennis, taking his dog to the beach, reading and relaxing as much as possible.
Drop Dave a line: daves@surfline.com
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Kevin Noonan
International Forecaster
Kevin Noonan starting working for Surfline in February of 1990 as the lowly weekend surf forecaster and reporter and also doing the early morning surf and ski reports that were only listened to by KNAC users that were still up from the night before. He obtained his B.A. in Physical Geography with a minor in Climatology along with a California Teaching Credential from Cal State Fullerton in the late 80's. Kevin now provides the international surf forecasts for Indonesia, Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, South America, South Africa and Japan. His life once consisted of only surfing and providing surf reports and forecasts but now consists of spending all his time providing surf forecasts and raising kids in the hopes of someday having enough money to travel to all the above surf destinations with unspoiled surf grommets.
Drop Kevin a line: kevinoonan@hotmail.com
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Surfline Charts
Like to see the raw data? Surfline's detailed LOLA, NOGAPS, GFS and FNMOC charts of oceanic conditions, coupled with incoming swell trains allow you to make your own forecasts.
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| Meet the Forecasters |
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Surfline is proud to have an accomplished team of eight specially trained, world renowned surf forecasters to provide you with the best possible information for you to score the best waves any where in the world.
Meet the Forecasters
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