User:Lblake3/sandbox

Moto: “Know before you go.”

The Website
Surfline.com was bought up by Swell, Hardcloud and Bluetorch with the hopes of being a “category killer.” They went to Surfer and Surfing magazines to seek out editors, designers, photographers and management. More surfers were becoming more comfortable with going online and Surfline.com was taking advantage of their success by gaining large amounts of money from venture capitalist. The company used that money to improve their data gathering and processing along with surf cams. Surfline.com is now ranked 1,180 in the US and 5,784 in the world in terms of popularity compared to other websites and is now the largest provider of streaming HD coastal cams. Since 2003 it has taken on Buoyweather.com and fishtrach.com (2012), on average the family of websites receives 175,000 visitors per day. The site includes streaming video, surf reports and forecasts.

Website Pages
Surf Cams and Reports: Used to provide real time footage of surf breaks. There are live streaming HD cams set up throughout the world looking at different surf breaks. The cams and reports give information regarding the tide, water temperature, wave size, wind speed and air temperature. They are accompanied with graphs that give the movement and changes of the wave size and tides throughout the day. Forecasts:Provides a estimation of the conditions for the upcoming days. The number of days a user can view in advance depends on their membership level. Surf News: It has videos and articles covering everything from live footage of surf contests to articles covering things not limited to things like rule changes in ASP ( Association of Surfing Professionals ) or new sponsorship contracts. Travel:Surfline.com has a whole travel component for those looking to plan a trip or wanting to explore form home. This section provides maps along with guides and stories from experienced travelers. Videos/Photos: The website features surfing related content from around the world along with films and clips including interviews, contests and famous surfers surfing. Gear: The site also provides product reviews and suggestions based on experience. This can all be found in what is called the Gear channel, this includes products such as: board shorts, wetsuits and surfboards.

Impacts on Surf Culture
The introduction of Surfline.com and the increase in reliance on the real time footage as changed surfer’s lifestyles. With the advances in the technologies and ability to predict the surfing conditions at various spots it has given surfers the ability to make future plans and make decisions about where to surf or if its worth it to go anywhere. It used to be that surfers relied on word of mouth, seasonal tendencies or tides to know what the surf was going to be like. Some would take days off from work based on this unreliable information and then be disappointed when there were no waves that day or there would be days where the surf was ideal and surfers would miss it all together. Surfer magazine’s editor Brendon Thomas has said in response to this shift, “I’m not saying that’s necessarily a good thing, but it’s true.” Another aspect of Surf Culture that is seeing some controversy is dealing with new crowds. There is a strong “Locals Only” mentality in different surf spots around the world. Surfers have blamed Surfline.com and live surf reporting as a contributor to the increase of crowds at surf breaks. The locals were so upset that there was suspicion that some of the surfers in New Jersey even planned to get back by hiding and/or breaking the camera.