Surfline Founder Suffers Heart Attack and Dies While Playing Tennis

Seal Beach resident Sean Collins is not only the founder of Surfline, but also a surfing hall-of-famer and "one of the sport’s most influential figures," according to Los Alamitos Patch. Collins, 59, suffered a heart attack Monday while playing a game of tennis, and died soon after at the hospital.

"Sean's many accomplishments in surf science and forecasting made him one of the most influential surfers of our time," eulogizes Surfline in a special in memorium feature on their founder on their site.

Surfers around the world relied on Surfline's reports to aid them in catching the biggest and best waves. "Collins’ Surfline was the first to install beach webcams around the world to provide real-time images of surf conditions," adds Los Alamitos Patch.

Collins first took up surfing as an eight-year-old in Seal Beach. A graduate of Long Beach's Wilson High, Collins took some courses at a local community college, but had little formal training in meteorology. He held other jobs, but focused on studying weather charts to predict ideal swells for surfing. Surfline essentially began as a phone service, then went on the internet in the late 1990s. It's now one of the largest surf sites in the world.

"[Collins] is such a big part of this community—he’s the one who helped organize the candlelight vigil to help the community mourn and heal together in the aftermath of the Salon Meritage shooting," a friend told Patch.

Sean Collins is survived by his wife Daren and their sons Tyler and AJ.