Ahead of the TechStars Sydney ‘Demo the Future’ evening on December 8, Startup Daily is profiling the 12 startups and their founders in the 2025 cohort.
Our next profile is SurfLab – the platform elevating surfer skills and enjoyment, while also enhancing their community connection.
SurfLab
Founder: Ant Arena
One-liner: SurfLab is the world’s first AI-powered surf progression platform, combining coaching, community, and commerce to personalise every surfer’s journey.
What’s the future of surfing – and sport?
“The future of sport will be measured, personalised, and connected. And we’re starting with surfing.” says Ant Arenae, founder of SurfLab.
And that shift is already underway.
“We’re driving two changes in the world of sport. First, AI lets us personalise the learning journey for every single person,” he said
“You get the exact skill progression you need, when you need it.”
But sport is still, at its core, an in-person experience. You can’t surf waves or carve up snow sitting on your phone.
That’s where Arena’s latter point comes in.
“The second change we are seeing is a shift back towards communities,” he explains.
“People want to spend time with each other, train in a community, compete with new people, combine their activities with travel, and connect through sport.”
Together, these forces are reshaping how people learn and participate, Arena said, and “sport will combine the best of both worlds – in person connection, with online progressions.”
What’s the problem and why does it matter?
“If you’ve ever tried to learn to surf, then you probably did those practice pop-ups on a board in the sand. And then they threw you into the kiddie waves in the ocean and said ‘Good luck.’ That was my experience,” he laughs.
Surfing is one of the toughest sports to learn, with almost no coaching, no clear measures of progress, and no method of tracking. Yet 55 million people globally persist with getting in the ocean and trying to gracefully stand up on a board.
“Most surfers plateau early,” says Ant. “They love the ocean, but progress is slow, unstructured and lonely. And what most people don’t understand is that progress in sport isn’t just about skill. Mindset, body, equipment and of course understanding the environment – for surfing that’s the complexities of the ocean – all matter just as much.”
Explain the product to a potential user
“Sign up to SurfLab and you’ll start online – figuring out your current level,” Arena said.
“From there, you’ll get personalised skill progressions that will be delivered through AI movement analysis, and a recommendation engine that sits across our library of 1000+ pieces of coaching content. All our content is created by pro surfers.
“Then we go offline, into our high-performance training spaces where you build strength, coordination and new skills. We have a location on the Gold Coast where we’ve run hundreds of intensive clinics.”
“And finally, we go overseas, to retreats where you bring it all together in the perfect waves for your skill level. You might head to Central America, Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, SE Asia, The Maldives and of course, Australia.”
Surf retreats as part of a tech startup?
Sign us up.
Tell us about your customers
SurfLab has 3,000 paying subscribers, and over 55 million surfers globally have been reached by their content.
They’re based across the US, Australia, South America, Asia, and even countries as remote as Iceland, where one of their members, Alana G, said: “I’ve been surfing for 20 years and have learnt more with SurfLab in the last month than that whole time I was splashing about – wish I had it sooner. Living in Iceland means it’s not always easy to get into the water, but on days I can’t surf I have all the training I can manage between drills I can practice at home in my living room, to skate practice I can do in the local parks. Keeps the stoke high, and gets me excited for each time I can get in the water to see how I’ve improved.”
Why did Techstars invest?
“I first met Ant four years ago when I was an investor at Blackbird. He is a creative visionary – he so easily pictures what the world will look like in a decade, and then brings that forward to today. I actually came very close to investing in his previous company, which he’d already scaled to 80 people,” says Techstars Sydney Managing Director Christie Jenkins.
“So I already knew that I wanted to back him as a founder, especially when I heard he was working on something new.”
As a pro-athlete herself, Jenkins had personal insight to offer Arena.
“I love sports tech, but I believe most of it fails for two reasons: low retention, and high CAC [Customer Acquisition Cost],” she said.
“Ant’s vision for Surflab crossing back and forth between online and offline is a masterful way to create lifelong users. And a sport like surfing has a combination of a cult like following of athletes, and a very low cost to work with those athletes as influencers – that keeps acquisition costs low long term,” she explains.
What’s the most important lesson Techstars Sydney taught you?
“That focus creates momentum. Techstars taught us to distill a big vision into simple, measurable outcomes, and to build fast around real customer feedback,” Arena said.
“You don’t need to predict the future, you just need to iterate toward it, one step at a time,”
What’s your long term ambition?
“Today we have online, offline, and overseas products. We’re expanding all of those at the moment – more content, more coaching, more retreat locations,” Arena said.
“Then, we’re looking at IoT wearables (such as smartwatches and fitness trackers) to enhance data and content collection for AI analysis.”
Ant Arena is a founder with big dreams.
“Ultimately, we will be the global platform for all board sports. These sports have always been about freedom and flow,” he said.
“Our mission is to give every person the tools to find their flow in the most efficient way possible, whilst having a blast along the way.”
- See SurfLab and the Techstars startups in action at Demo the Future, Monday December 8, 5-8pm. Details here.
- Read about the other Techstars Sydney startups here.
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