Attention single surfers: a new dating app can help you find you a partner who surfs, too. Photo: Pat Nolan//WSL
A new dating app is looking to grow its user base by inking a sponsorship deal with the World Surf League’s US Open of Surfing. The app is coincidentally called “SURF,” but don’t get confused, it has nothing to do with riding waves.
A WSL press release states that it’s the League’s first partnership with a dating app (duh), leveraging the US Open to connect those “who share an interest in surfing as a sport and lifestyle.”
“We’re excited to have SURF help facilitate these new connections for fans during one of our biggest events of the year,” said WSL Chief Revenue Officer Nicole Metzger.
The US Open has become much more tame since the riots and sexually charged vibe of past events. But SURF thinks there’s still latent intimacy to be activated among fans.
It begs several questions: Is there a gap that the popular dating apps Hinge, Bumble, and Tinder aren’t currently filling? Do surfers (notoriously selfish) necessarily prefer to date other (potentially selfish) surfers? The app’s CEO, Rob Long thinks so. “When you remove the noise and focus on a shared lifestyle, better outcomes follow,” he says.
What differentiates SURF is that instead of swiping through the dopamine hits of potential suitors suggested by an algorithm, you get access to a chunk of the userbase in a grid, filtering criteria to find people who align with you. You can add the WSL as your “affiliation” to find others who also found the app through the pro tour. The catch: it limits the profiles you can view and “like.” To see them all or talk to more people you gotta lay down your CC digits.
Match making has seemingly become a WSL tradition: see current and past pro surfing couples like Tatiana Weston-Webb and Jesse Mendes, Jack Freestone and Alana Blanchard, Ethan Ewing and Sawyer Lindblad, Luana Silva and Joao Chianca. So, perhaps, there’s untapped romantic potential among League fans? Surfing as the great aphrodisiac?
The angles are endless on this one. Imagine this: the 2026 US Open of Surfing might create a generation of power-surfing couples.
