When Rip Curl’s global watch chairman, Shane Helm, was appointed to his position he wanted two main things from his job – a project that motivated him to surf more and an opportunity to produce a highly innovative, surf specific timepiece. Now, after five years of dreaming about it and two years of intensive research and development, Shane is about to see the new SearchGPS watch on the wrists of surfers around the world. “It’s going to be amazing to see it on the shelves but the most exciting thing will be to see people’s reactions when they use it,” suggested Helm who happily admits he spent plenty of time in the surf to test the watch.

Shane Helm doing a little bit of R&D in Indonesia.

Tracks recently had a chance to test-drive the highly anticipated product, which is scheduled to hit stores in early November.

Unlike some of the models of old, which made setting the tide feel a little like shearing a sheep with tweezers, the inbuilt satellite technology means the SearchGPS watch can be auto-set to indicate the tide anywhere in the world with a single click. Pretty handy if you arrive in Bali and know you want low tide barrels at Bingin or to gauge whether or not that beachy you just drove two hours to surf is likely to come alive in the next hour.

While the tide component gets a tick for fundamental needs the other features are where the fun really begins. The moment you hit the water and press the button for surf mode, you are a single click away from knowing your top speed on a wave, your wave count and the distance you’ve travelled. The instantaneous feedback adds an entirely new interactive dimension to your surf. Trying to travel as fast as you can on a wave is a buzz, particularly when you realise you are clocking velocities of around 30km/hr on an average day and faster when it gets bigger. On a more functional level the feedback is really useful when it comes to working out whether or not a particular board or set of fins are delivering you more acceleration – ‘Is that quad really faster or did it just feel faster?’ Now such questions can be answered with hard facts. All the info is easy to access and you’re never in danger of missing waves because you are fiddling with your watch.

Track your waves, their length, your fastest speed and plenty more with a detailed breakdown of each surf.

Of course the possibilities are endless when you get more than one person wearing the watches. A surf can turn into an aquatic drag race as you try and go   faster than your mates – this was fun enough at a remote beachy but at an all-down-the-line wave like G-land or the Superbank the need for speed could be taken to new levels.

The wave-total function can be used amongst friends to calculate not just who rode the most waves in a day but who had the highest tally in say a year or a month. “That becomes one of the stats you really start comparing,” suggests Victorian legend, Mick Ray, who has been doing R&D on the watch. Obviously topping the wave-count for the year amongst mates means major bragging rights and if you wanted to run a bet on it then the SearchGPS watches would ensure the results were irrefutable.

Gabriel Medina, adding one more wave in Africa to his wave count. Photo: Sparkes

Alternatively you could tell a mate who is a notorious wave pig that they have to cap their session at twenty waves or pay for petrol – point being that with a bit of creative thinking the device can be used for all kinds of scenarios. One can imagine surf coaches loving them.

The distance travelled stat is also interesting, particularly as an indication of what kind of workout you had. A couple of schooners and a pie tasted much better when I realised I’d paddled, drifted and ridden 11.9km in a two and half hour surf.

Ultimately the watch is two- dimensional. You can monitor your own stats and compete with yourself, or make it a more social experience by comparing your results with friends and other surfers.

Owen Wright increasing his stats and memory bank in Mozambique. Photo: Sparkes

The second stage of feedback comes post-surf when the watch is synched with the Search app. In addition to a summary of your top speed, wave total and distance travelled your ipad, iphone or computer will be able to provide a lineal representation of the waves you rode and where you paddled. This screen is similar to the one you see in the cricket, which shows where a batsmen has scored their runs.

The App has a series of further functions that build on the feedback and add to the experience. It allows you to create clubs with other surfers or follow the pros who are also using the watch. For example you can find out how fast Owen Wright and Matt Wilkinson were travelling at massive Teahupoo or better still try and go quicker than Mick Fanning’s top speed.

One more time with feeling. Photo: Sparkes

The app uses the stored Satellite info to give a geographic reference for surfs but if you want to make sure no one knows where and when you paddled out, you can always switch the mode to secret surf.

Overall the Rip Curl SearchGPS watch offers a great combination of functionality and fun. The unique feelings, emotions and experiences we all get in the water can now be complemented by some raw statistical data that’s accessible at the twist of a wrist and the click of a button. The satellite technology takes surfing into the twenty-first century and there’s also a measure of pride in wearing an innovative surf product that was designed and developed in Australia.

The Rip CurlSearchGPS watch is forecast to be in stores in early November meaning your surfing summer just got potentially way more statistical.

A combination that will forever change your surfing, coming this summer.

To keep up to date with the release of The Rip Curl SearhGPS watch head to http://www.ripcurl.com/searchgps-1.html