Surf City's big kahunas

If there was ever any doubt as to which city should have the "Surf City USA" moniker, the 10 names included here provide a good example of why Huntington Beach comes out on top.

These members of the Huntington Beach surf community include giants in the global surfing industry and locals who have left their indelible imprint on surfing. They've changed the way surfers find waves and taught scores of surfers how to drop in. Sure, there are others who have had an impact on the industry, but these individuals stand out: They are the top 10 most influential members of Surf City's surfing community.

Feel free to fire back, Santa Cruz.

1. Sean Collins, 54, owner of Huntington Beach-based Surfline

Favorite surf spot: His secret spot in Mexico

Influenced by: His dad, Corky Carroll and Dale Dobson

Seal Beach resident Sean Collins surfed all his life and, like every surfer past and present, was constantly in search of an amazing swell in places that were not always consistent. In the 1960s and 70s, the avid sailor began using some of the weather forecasting tools on his dad's 50-foot sailboat to find the right time to hit certain surf spots.

"It just kind of grew into me, trying to find better and better information, especially for Southern Hemisphere swells," he said. "We'd have all these storms happening in the Southern Hemisphere off Antarctica and these were the storms that would create the perfect swell for summertime south-facing spots we liked to go to in Mexico, but it was hard trying to figure out these storms down there. There were no surf forecasts or weather services around."

He found a New Zealand shortwave radio station and was soon printing out weather charts and using a weather fax machine, and began keeping immaculate records of when swells would arrive. He then reverse-engineered the information so he would know how fast each swell was traveling ? all without extensive meteorology or oceanography training.

"It was my passion that got me started; it was purely just for myself ? I just wanted to get really, really good surf," he said. "In the late '70s and early '80s, I was the only person who really knew these swells were coming, so we'd take off and go to a secret spot in Mexico. People would be driving out saying, 'We've been here for three weeks and there's nothing,' and then the surf would come and the guys there would just go, 'You're so lucky. You guys drove up and the waves came.'"

"Yep, just lucky," Collins remembered responding.