FindYourSurfBuddy
Spots with live swell and tide forecasts, verified coaches booked with escrow, an organiser desk for competitions, a surf shop directory and a mobile app — a whole ecosystem for people who travel to surf.
FindYourSurfBuddy started as a matching app for travelling surfers. It grew into the toolkit of a surf trip: where to go, who to learn from, what is on, where to buy wax — and who to go in the water with.
What it does
- Spots and conditions — every spot with a live forecast: swell height and period, wind, temperature, tides by day, sourced from Open-Meteo. A deterministic safety advisor flags conditions and sessions to watch, and pushes a warning when the forecast turns.
- Verified coaches — coaches publish offerings and slots; surfers book and pay with Stripe Connect, the money held in escrow until the session happens. Reviews after.
- Organiser desk — create a competition, define categories, import competitors from a CSV, let them link their account with a claim code, publish results per discipline, keep an audit log of every action.
- Surf shops — a curated directory with plans, catalogues, promotions and reviews; a shop signs up, gets approved, publishes its products.
- Buddies and messages — profiles, likes, conversations, a real-time layer on Mercure, and a « around me » map.
- Community model — recurring donations with an Ambassador badge instead of a paywall; subscriptions can be switched off per market.
- Three languages — English, French, Spanish.
Under the hood
Next.js web with an organiser and shop space, an Expo / React Native app for iPhone and Android also exported as a PWA, Laravel API, Stripe Connect, Open-Meteo, Mercure.
In numbers
A demo event — Dawn patrol, Côte des Basques — runs with 24 competitors in three categories, 41 published results across wave and slalom, 8 linked accounts and a 14-entry audit log. 7 verified coaches offer sessions, and a surfer's inbox holds 12 conversations.
The context
Travelling surfers juggle a forecast app, a coaching marketplace, a Facebook group for events and word of mouth for shops. We wanted one place where a spot, a coach, a competition and a shop live side by side — built with surfers, not for a pitch deck.
The build
Spots carry a live Open-Meteo forecast (swell, wind, tides) and a deterministic safety advisor that pushes warnings when conditions turn. Coaches are verified, publish offerings and slots, and are paid through Stripe Connect with escrow until the session. An organiser desk handles competitions end to end: categories, CSV import, account linking by claim code, published results per discipline, an immutable audit log. Surf shops get a directory with plans and catalogues. A web app in Next.js, a mobile app in Expo also exported as a PWA, real time over Mercure, three languages.
The results
Live at findyoursurfbuddy.com and on app.findyoursurfbuddy.com, with the iOS app heading to the App Store. In a demo, one competition runs with 24 competitors, 3 categories and 41 published results; 7 verified coaches take bookings; a surfer's inbox holds 12 conversations. The business model moved from subscription to community donations with an Ambassador badge.
A spot page: swell, wind, temperature and tides, hour by hour
The spots — from Biarritz to Bora Bora
Verified coaches, their offerings and their slots
Organiser desk: 24 competitors, 3 categories, 41 published results, an audit log
A surf shop's catalogue
The full landing page
Conditions on a phone, in the car park
The landing on mobile
