World Surf League has expanded its existing technology sponsorship with Apple, which designates Apple Watch the WSL’s “official wearable technology.” The relationship began in 2023 with WSL athletes leveraging a custom-built Apple Watch app for performance insights but as of the 2026 season now also includes:
- Integrating data from athlete-worn Apple Watches into WSL broadcasts.
- Capturing broadcast/social media content with iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models.
WSL CEO Ryan Crosby told SBJ the timing of adding Apple Watch-derived metrics on WSL broadcasts -- which are produced by the league in-house and primarily distributed through WSL’s owned-and-operated YouTube channel, website and app -- was more a question of technical capacity than new fan demand. The metrics being used include distance traveled on wave, wave speed and the athlete’s heart rate.
“There was always demand. If you look at where sport is going, the desire for more data and analytics in broadcast is there everywhere,” Crosby said. “For us, it was more a question of the warehousing and the cleaning of the data to make it valuable and usable in our broadcast.”
Operational benefits
Data delivered to athletes, meanwhile, is designed to help surfers make decisions on the water in an environment where real-time information like heat scores or time remaining can be difficult to relay.
“We can’t control a lot of the aspects of what is going on in our playing field,” Crosby said. “It is loud. It is sometimes cold, sometimes hot. It’s incredibly windy. It’s hard to see. Your eyes are wet, water is dripping in your face. You have a hard time seeing the judging tower.
“Our partnership with Apple helps bring an interface to [athletes] that gives them more certainty around areas that can be really hard to communicate when they are 500 yards offshore ... The athletes have jumped at this chance of gaining any slight advantage in knowing exactly when they have priority, what score they need and knowing exactly what it is that’s happening. They make far fewer mistakes because of the information they’re getting off the watch.”
Crosby added that the WSL is using iPhone 17s to capture “almost everything” the league creates for its social media channels -- and even replacing some broadcast camera infrastructure with the devices, which include 48MP Fusion cameras and 8x optical-quality zoom. The activation has also led to Apple adding to “official mobile phone” of the WSL to its sponsor designation, according to Crosby.
Apple’s work with WSL will also be featured in an upcoming edition of “Apple at Play,” a content series about how professional sports organizations use Apple products (that has previously featured England Rugby).
