Dennis Fujimoto the garden island Surfline founder Sean Collins suffered a heart attack Monday while playing tennis in Orange County, Calif., and passed away in a hospital shortly afterward, states the Surfline website. He is survived by his wife, Daren,
Dennis Fujimoto
the garden island
Surfline founder Sean Collins suffered a heart attack Monday while playing tennis in Orange County, Calif., and passed away in a hospital shortly afterward, states the Surfline website.
He is survived by his wife, Daren, two sons, Tyler and A.J., his mother, Gloria, and siblings, Whitney Jr., Gloria Burdette II and Robert.
Born in Southern California on April 8, 1952, Collins developed his fondness for the ocean aboard his father’s 50-foot sailboard, entering races from Mexico and Hawai‘i.
During that time, he became interested in meteorology as it related to sailing and surfing, the website states.
Growing up as a Seal Beach surfer south of Los Angeles, Collins competed in local WSA events. While spending two years at the Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy on the Big Island, he would “ditch” class to surf and explore new spots on neighboring islands.
While attending Long Beach Community College in California, began studying weather charts while taking photographs for Yary Sports Photography, the Berzon Talent Agency and Surfing magazine.
Using late-night weather faxes from New Zealand via a crude shortwave radio compared against week-old charts of Seal Beach conditions and supplemented by charts from the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, Collins finally was able to come up with his own formula for forecasting swells.
When Tyler, Collins’ first son, arrived in 1983, he set out for more secure employment, meeting some Orange County businessmen who requested his services as a founder to develop proprietary surf reporting and forecasting services for a fledgling phone venture called Surfline.
He jumped at the opportunity, but he left after two years to start a rival company called Wavetrak.
The new project took off and in 1990, he bought out Surfline, expanding his products and services to other mediums and offering a subscription-based Wavefax.
Surfline.com was launched in 1995 featuring free surf reports from around the country. He also developed the first live surf cam in February, 1996.
Following the dot-com crash in 2001, Surfline became an independent company focusing on the core business of surf reporting and forecasting. Collins was the president, chief surf forecaster and founder.
Collins was named one of the 25 most influential surfers of the century by Surfer magazine in 1999.
He was inducted into the Surfer’s Hall of Fame in 2008. His hand prints and foot prints in stone can be seen next to the Duke statue on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street in Huntington Beach, Calif., directly below the Surfline offices.
“Really simple things when you think about it,” Collins once said in response to a question about his success, according to the website. “Mostly, just follow your passion, try to be a really good person and a good judge of character, and then, just surround yourself with a great team and really good people. Add lots of luck and all kinds of great things can happen.”
Visit www.surfline.com for more information.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
