Most sessions end the way they should. You come in, you pack up, you drive home. But kiting puts you a long way from shore with nobody watching, and the people who care about you have no way of knowing whether you are still riding or in trouble.
Beacon Safety is the answer to that. Turn it on and the people you choose can follow your session live, and Surfr will notify them the moment you raise the alarm.
đ Free for everyone - Beacon Safety is free on every plan. Safety is not something we put behind a subscription.
đľ You choose who - Only the emergency contacts you add. Nobody else sees any of this.
â Works best on a watch - A watch lets you raise the alarm from your wrist. A phone in a pouch cannot, so a phone session shares your position and nothing more.
đ One short training first - A hands-on walkthrough on each device you ride with, watch or phone. It takes a few minutes and you only do it once per device.
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đ Internet connection required - Your watch needs connectivity, either through eSIM or a paired phone nearby, so the alert can reach your friends. Without an internet connection, Beacon Safety cannot work.
Find your device
How you raise the alarm depends on what is on your wrist. Each guide has the exact movement, plus what to check when it does not work:
Beacon Safety on your Galaxy Watch, and any Wear OS watch with a back button
Beacon Safety on your Pixel Watch, where the crown does everything
Beacon Safety on your phone, if you ride without a watch
Setting it up
Go to Profile â Beacon Safety
Add at least one emergency contact. You pick them from your Surfr friends, so follow each other first
Complete the safety training for the device you ride with
Your beacon then switches itself on at the start of every session. You do not have to remember anything.
What your contacts see
They are notified when your session starts. So they know you are on the water without you having to tell them.
They can check on you whenever they want. Your beacon shows them where you are, how far you are from where you launched, and when you were last seen.
You can call for help yourself, instantly. Spin the crown on Apple Watch. On Wear OS, press the back button five times, or on a watch with no back button such as a Pixel Watch, shake the crown: spin it back and forth quickly. On Garmin, triple press BACK. That goes to your contacts straight away, with nothing for you to confirm first.
When you are fine again, they are told. Every alert gets an all clear.
đŁ An alarm is a notification, not a guarantee Your contacts are notified the way any other app notifies them. If their phone is on silent, face down or in a pocket, they can miss it, so do not assume an alarm has reached someone at home. Ask your contacts to allow Surfr notifications, and if you are in life-threatening danger always contact your local rescue services.
If you stop looking like you are riding
Your watch pays attention to how your movement looks during a session, not just whether you are moving. If the pattern stops looking like riding, it asks you whether you are OK.
Answer and nothing happens. Say you are fine and your session carries on as normal.
Do not answer and your contacts are alerted for you, with where you were last seen. That is the point of it: the moment you cannot reach your watch is exactly when you cannot raise the alarm yourself.
It sits on top of raising the alarm yourself, it does not replace it. If you need help, call for it. Do not wait to be asked.
This needs a watch. A phone session shares your position only, so nothing is raised automatically.
If your watch loses signal
Your contacts are told as soon as your updates stop: when it happened, and where you were last seen. They can judge for themselves instead of being left guessing.
It reaches them as a lost connection, not as an alarm. Signal drops for ordinary reasons, riding out of coverage or a battery running down, and if every one of those raised the alarm your contacts would soon stop taking any of them seriously.
The trade is deliberate. If you go down and your device dies at the same moment, Surfr will not raise the alarm for you. What your contacts get is the honest picture, in time to make their own call.
What it does not do
â ď¸ Important Beacon Safety gets the right people looking in the right place faster. It is not a rescue service.
It does not call the coastguard, rescue services, or any emergency number. If you are in life-threatening danger, always contact your local rescue services, such as the Coast Guard, 112, 911, or the relevant emergency number in your area.
It does not track you outside a session
It does not share anything with anyone except the contacts you added
It is not a substitute for riding with people, telling someone your plan, or carrying a phone in a dry bag
Turning it off
Profile â Beacon Safety â Beacon. Off means off, immediately, for the session you are in.
