We’ve all had those car park or pub yarns after a surf session – trying to oust your mates for who got the wave of the day, claiming you got tubed on a wave which no one conveniently saw. We can all be guilty of overselling ourselves in the hope of extra kudos from friends. Luckily, since the significant development of video cameras in 90s, any disputes can easily be put to rest. And now, with the introduction of Rip Curl’s latest Search GPS3 Watch, you can get hyper-technical when it comes to arguing for bragging rights in the surf.
Rip Curl’s GPS3 is the third installment of the brand’s surf-specific GPS watch. While the market is flush with GPS watches which have becoming increasingly popular for running, cycling and other sports – very few, if any, provide info relevant to surfers. In addition to its usual tide, swell and wind direction features, Rip Curl’s latest offering is specifically tailored to tracking the surf, your surf sessions and allows you to compare yourself against your mates and the world’s best using the Search GPS app. It even allows you to view your clips from a particular surf using Surfline’s Sessions feature if there’s a cam available at that break.
Rip Curl have been in the GPS watch game for a number of years now. Its first offering coming in 2014 and their lighter Search GPS2 dropped in 2018. Other companies have tried to follow suit, but with mixed success.
The latest GPS3 Search Watch has been put through some rigorous testing by a number of Rip Curl’s team riders including Mick Fanning, Mason Ho, Molly Picklum, Jacob Willcox and more.
While you can use the watch to compare yourself to friends, how do you stack up against some of the world’s best?
On route to her first WSL World Title, Molly Picklum picked up two regular season event wins in Brazil and Tahiti. During the final at pumping Chopes against Caitlin Simmers, she caught six waves including three 8’s and finished with a heat total of 17.26. According to her watch stats, her longest wave was 142 metres and her top speed was 40.1km/h. Ever wondered what it’s like to go that quick travelling on a piece of fiberglass across some of the heaviest water in the world? That’s the same speed as a NSW School Zone and is the top speed of the African Elephant.
Fellow Rip Curl team rider Jacob Willcox recently completed a 130km hiking adventure in his home state of WA as he surfed and fished his way along the Cape to Cape Track from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin. Jacob used his watch throughout the trip and one of his highlight sessions saw him catch 42 waves in 6 hours and 15 minutes. During that time he paddled a distance of 38.5km – that’s more than two thirds of the famous Molokai to Oahu crossing, pretty much the same as crossing the English Channel or paddling the entire length of the Gold Coast shoreline from Snapper Rocks to the Spit.
Those are some pretty outlandish stats and while they represent the extreme end of the spectrum, which doesn’t necessarily reflect their everyday surf sessions, it shows what the world’s best are capable of in the right waves.
So how does that compare to your everyday recreational surfer?
With the help of Chat GPT, we asked our AI friend to gather some stats based on Rip Curl’s app trends and reasonable surf assumptions.
Here’s what it spat out at us:
- Average session time – 1.1 hours
- Average waves per session – 9
- Typical ride speed range – 12-22 km/h
- Average total distance covered per session (including paddling) – 2.2-2.7km
While there are a number of factors to consider when it comes to accuracy of this data, it’s fair to infer that most of us are inferior to the elite who make it look so effortless. Surfing is a completely subjective experience and these stats don’t measure the main point of the sport – the amount of fun you’re having. However, there’s no denying that numbers are cool and not only do they contextualize your own surfing, they also put into perspective the talent you watch on your screen when tuning into a WSL comp or catching up on your favourite surfer’s latest Youtube edit. We might not reach 40km/h on a Chopes drainer, but that’s not to say we can’t try and get close to matching some of the pro’s stats.
With features such as ‘Boss of the break’ on the Rip Curl app, you can check the leaderboard at a particular spot to see how you fare when it comes to speed, distance and wave count.
Other features
- In addition to all of the surf features, Rip Curl has also included other elements of generic fitness tracking. The watch includes a step and paddle count, lists the amount of calories you’ve burnt and allows you to set goals. Since its first watch launch in 2014, health, wellbeing and training has increasingly become a priority for a lot of surfer’s and so these added features are a nice touch. I’m really big on training, the gym and am wary of my daily step count since my job predominantly involves sitting on my ass, clacking away on a keyboard. The watch still has a way to go to replace my usual fitness watch which is more beneficial for monitoring my training, but they work alongside each other perfectly and have me covered for all of my hobbies.
- I found the face pretty chunky, but I think that comes down to personal preference. I understand it needs to be of a certain size to make the graphics easier to see, but at the same time you want something that’s neat and slick. However, I didn’t find the size too intrusive, the rubber strap made it comfortable and easy to wear under or over a wettie.
- I’m guilty of checking a bunch of different surf forecasts for a spot, but having the conditions visible on the watch with a number of different display styles is handy and saves the head noise of trying to look at different forecasts to make a decision on where to surf.
Final thoughts
The Rip Curl Search GPS3 does exactly what it says on the tin and delivers on its aim of improving your understanding of your surf sessions. The options to link it with the Rip Curl app and Surfline enhance the overall user experience. It doesn’t try to be something it’s not and if you’re a surfer who is a numbers person then the product is perfect for you.
