A small waterproof device that shows your paddling group's direction and distance to each other — plus a one-press SOS. No cell signal required.
Fog rolls in. The sun drops. You're paddling low to the water, and the person who was next to you five minutes ago is suddenly just... gone. It happens more than people realize.
No landmarks on open water. Fog, glare, and low-sitting positions make it easy to lose sight of your group without realizing how far you've spread out.
A phone in a waterproof bag is useless the moment it gets wet or you're not looking at it. Satellite messengers are built for solo emergencies, not for knowing where your own group is.
Satellite messengers run $300+ plus a subscription, and only help once something has already gone wrong. Nothing on the market lets a group just see where each other are — before anyone needs to press SOS.
Attach the device to your PFD or wrist — waterproof, no phone required.
The screen shows the direction and distance to everyone in your group, in real time.
One large button. Long-press to trigger — vibration and a signal light confirm it went through.
Same core experience — direction, distance, SOS. Different comms for different water.
Daily paddling, lakes & near-shore
Open water, multi-day, out of sight of shore
See the direction and distance to every teammate on the screen, updated in real time.
Get warned automatically when someone crosses a distance threshold — before it becomes a problem.
Devices broadcast a periodic signal; lose it for too long and the group gets a "signal lost" warning.
Large physical button, long-press to trigger, vibration + tone confirms it went through.
Wind and waves make talking across the water useless. A couple of large buttons send simple preset messages instead — "regroup here," "heading your way" — right to your teammates' screens. Physical buttons on purpose, not a touchscreen: wet fingers cause false touches or no touch at all, exactly when it matters most.
Motion sensing flags a sudden fall; auto-triggers SOS after a countdown (cancel anytime).
A bright flash + tone when SOS triggers, to help passing boats spot you.
Cloud-synced route history, family sharing so someone on shore always knows where you are, community route-sharing and leaderboards, fine-grained tide and wind forecasts, and custom presets for your quick-signal buttons.
IPX7+ rated and self-floating if it comes off in the water.
Any group activity where you can drift apart and lose signal has the same problem — we're validating on the water first.
Groups spread out over distance; remote areas make finding someone harder.
Different speeds split groups fast, often in poor visibility.
Teams spread across terrain need to know where everyone is to stay safe.
Lead and tail riders lose track of each other on long routes.
Tell us where else you'd use this — reply to any update email.
A few months ago I read about four paddleboarders on a river in Washington State — the group included an 8-year-old girl. Wind and waves pushed them steadily away from shore, and before anyone realized how far they'd drifted, the group had come apart. Two of them ended up in the cold water. Sheriff's deputies had to launch a rescue boat through rough conditions to bring everyone in, and by the time they reached shore, the kids needed treatment for cold exposure.
Nobody in that story did anything reckless. That's what got me — a normal group paddle, calm enough water that an 8-year-old was along for it, and it still went sideways in a matter of minutes. Because once a group spreads out on open water, there's no way to know how far apart you actually are until it's already a problem.
I looked into what's out there to prevent that. Satellite messengers like the Garmin inReach are built for solo emergencies — they don't tell you where the rest of your own group is, and they run $300+ plus a monthly subscription. Everything else is a phone in a waterproof bag, which is useless the moment it gets wet or you're not looking at the screen.
There's no small, affordable device that just tells a group where each other are — before anyone needs to press an SOS button. That's the gap Squadwave is trying to close.
I'm building this in the open. If you paddle with a group — even just one other person — I'd love your input on what we're building.
— Galen, founder
Inspired by real incidents reported in local news.
We're in early development — right now we're building and testing the first prototype. There's no fixed ship date yet, and we'd rather get it right than rush it. Join the waitlist and we'll email you at every real milestone (prototype, pre-order window, first units) — no spam, just actual progress.
No. Joining the waitlist is free and doesn't commit you to anything. We'll tell you well before any pre-order window opens.
Satellite messengers are built for solo SOS — they don't show you where the rest of your own group is, and they run $300+ plus a subscription. Squadwave is built specifically for a group to see each other's direction and distance, at a fraction of the cost.
Phones and watches check in over cell service or Bluetooth. Cell towers don't reach most of the water you're on, and Bluetooth tops out around 30 meters — nowhere near enough once a group spreads out. The short-range version talks device-to-device directly: no phone, no cell signal, no server in between. It keeps working exactly where phones and watches stop.
Touchscreens misread wet fingers — water on the glass causes false touches or just stops registering, which is exactly why car safety regulators are pushing back on touchscreen-only controls (Euro NCAP's 2026 rules require physical buttons for the horn, hazard lights, wipers, and emergency call to earn a 5-star rating). A safety device shouldn't get less reliable the moment it's actually wet. SOS and the quick-signal buttons are large and physical on purpose — they work with soaked, gloved, or cold hands.
One per person in your group — knowing where everyone else is only works if enough of your group has one. We're planning multi-packs for exactly this reason.
Join the waitlist — we'll only email you when there's real progress to share.
We're especially interested in talking to early group and organization partners.
Get in touch →