My lady gave me a rad gift for my 27th birthday by basically telling me: “I rented a house in Mexico and we’re going. I got your boards and clothes packed.” It happened to coincide right around the time The Inertia came across a Search GPS Watch by Rip Curl for testing. What better place to put it through the ringer, right? After a few celebratory coldies at the local watering hole, we hit the road. I didn’t know much about the watch beyond what the teaser videos provided, and tech-savvy isn’t exactly a primary characteristic I would give myself. However, the watch is super easy to setup. The operating system is user-friendly and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to navigate it. I downloaded the Rip Curl GPS application on my iPhone and synced it with my watch in five minutes. After that, all you need to do is hit “Go Surf” on the watch and you’re out there.
The Search GPS Watch by Ripcurl. | Photo: Ripcurl
The conditions at K-38 on this particular day were nothing to write home about. Heavy winds from the NW, semi-walled, four to six feet, and too many San Diegans in the water to make it feel like the three hour drive was worth it. However, my experience with the watch was great. First, the soft, stretchy rubber was super comfortable. As comfy as an old shoe. Secondly, you would expect a watch with such technology to be big and bulky. It was no bigger than most surf watches out there. Anyway, here are my results:
GPS Watch App Screenshot
The satellite image on the left shows several stats such as: total waves, top speed, longest wave, distance ridden, and distance paddled. The blue lines are waves ridden and the red line is the longest wave ridden. The white squiggly lines on the right shows my paddling patterns. Kind of cool, eh? It’s not every day you have a satellite following your every move while you surf. That is, unless you surf with your Facebook messenger app open on your phone. You can make a profile, follow the pros, and create a group for you and your friends to battle for highest speed and longest ride. Below is a table of the stats of the top performing pros. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t stoked that my longest wave (203 meters) is the 2nd longest wave just behind Owen Wright’s wave (211 meters). Yes, I only surfed for 46 minutes, but you must understand it was my birthday weekend and I was force-fed cheap tequila and dodgy, yet delicious tacos all weekend. So much so, that this particular morning I woke up so hungover that I thought I contracted ebola.
Pro Stats Photo: RipCurl
To wrap things up, the Search GPS Watch by Rip Curl is the cat’s pajamas. It allows you to re-live your sessions with location maps, image sharing and graphic charts. These stats and images can also be showcased to your friends so they can make fun of you for only catching eight waves in a single session. You can connect with pros and compare your sessions with their results. This allows you to see where in the lineup surfers are catching waves and where they are not. Most importantly, the watch truly made me want to be a better surfer. I wanted to go faster and further. I wanted to catch more waves and surf longer. Although it’s impossible for me to ever surf as good as anyone mentioned above, if I can improve my stats and move closer to the pros, well, then that’s alright by me.
For more information on the Search GPS Watch by Rip Curl, visit RipCurl.com.
