The recent announcement of Flowstate AI 4.1 marks a major leap beyond traditional surf video analysis. Rather than simply detecting surfers and classifying maneuvers, the new Surfing Foundation Model is designed to understand a surfer’s entire wave.
As Flowstate CEO Luke Wallace puts it:
“Everything is now possible. Automated scoring, AI coaching, gamification and progression aren’t features we’re bolting on; they’re the natural output of a model that has watched, learned from, and understood 20 million waves.”
In this episode
- What is the Surfing Foundation Model?
- How does it differ from traditional surf video analysis?
- How does it evaluate an entire ride—from takeoff to exit—for scoring and coaching?
- What is Flowstate MCP, and why does it matter?
- How could this transform the surf park customer experience?
How it was built
- How did the 20+ million-wave dataset and WSL partnership train the model?
- What were the biggest technical challenges, especially across different wave technologies?
- How do you validate the model’s understanding of a wave?
- How much better does it get as more data is added?
What it means for the industry
- What can surf parks do now that wasn’t possible before?
- What opportunities does Flowstate MCP create for partners and third-party developers?
- Could surf parks build their own rankings, challenges, and competitive ecosystems?
- Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest long-term impact of this technology?
Chris Hausler is the co-founder and CTO of Flowstate. Previously, he led AI at Zendesk and holds a PhD in machine learning. Today, he focuses on building AI that helps surfers and surf parks better understand performance. Nic Chapman is a machine learning researcher specializing in computer vision, robotics, and autonomous sensing. He holds a PhD in robotics from Queensland University of Technology and develops AI systems at Flowstate that record and understand surfing.
