Sean Collins

Sean Collins may refer to:

See also

Sean Collins (surf forecaster)

Sean Robb Collins was the founder of Surfline and a noted figure in the areas of surfing and surf forecasting.

Biography

Collins was born in Pasadena, California in 1952. His father, Whitney Collins, was a former Navy lieutenant who enjoyed sailboat racing and owned a 45-foot Newporter ketch, "Leprechaun", berthed in the Long Beach marina and biking distance from Collins' Long Beach home. Collins' early experiences sailing with his father instilled a passion for the ocean and meteorology. Much of his knowledge of meteorology was self-taught. While Long Beach has almost no surf because of its breakwater, Collins was part of a vibrant surf culture at Woodrow Wilson high school (class of 1970), where surf film director Bruce Brown graduated earlier, and world-class woman surfer, Jericho Poppler, was a classmate.

In the early years of Collins' surf forecasting he would record weather reports and forecasts from the Southern Hemisphere, which he received via shortwave radio. He also studied charts and data from the National Weather Service library. By comparing these various data sources with his observations of the surf, he devised formulas for predicting how global weather events would affect near-shore surf conditions; these models were eventually combined into a set of swell-modeling algorithms nicknamed "LOLA".

Chris Collins (Canadian politician)

Chris Collins (born June 23, 1962) is a politician from Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, currently the sitting MLA (Liberal) for the riding of Moncton East, having previously served part of one term as a city councillor for Moncton City Council. On October 24, 2014 Collins was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick succeeding Dale Graham.

Collins first entered politics as a New Brunswick New Democratic Party candidate in the 1987 election. He was not active in politics thereafter until his son, Sean, became ill with cancer in 2002. Frustrated by the lack of support by the lack of assistance in travel costs for him and his family to go see his son who was being treated at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he tried to meet his local Member of Legislative Assembly. That MLA was Bernard Lord, who was concurrently serving as Premier of New Brunswick and would not take his meetings.

Frustrated, Collins ran against Lord, a Progressive Conservative, under the Liberal banner. Collins made it a close race and for parts of election night, Collins led Lord, though Lord was eventually victorious by a margin of 10%. Collins sought election to Moncton City Council in the 2004 municipal elections and won. He was widely expected to face Lord in a rematch in what would have been the 2006 election but was travelling to Australia with his son when the election was called a year earlier than expected. Collins was elected however to replace Lord in a by-election on March 5, 2007 after Lord resigned the leadership of his party and his seat in the legislature following his government's defeat in the 2006 election.