surfuje.pl – Technology for wave enthusiasts

Hello! Here’s surfuje.pl – a site I created as a developer to show how advanced technical solutions can support the surfing and watersports community. It’s a project that blends passion for waves with smooth functionality and easy management. I wanted surfuje.pl to be a place where surfers can find info about spots, gear, or reports, and everything runs smoothly like a well-waxed board. If you have a similar idea, take a look at what I’ve built and how I can help!

What is surfuje.pl and who rides here?

The site was created for surfing fans – from amateurs catching their first waves to pros and event organizers. My goal was to create a site that gathers exciting content, makes contact easy, and builds community. It’s a place for those who live for the water and seek inspiration online – and I made sure the technology holds it all together.

What’s powering surfuje.pl?

I added a bunch of features that make the site move:

Responsiveness – the code works on any device, from smartphones at the beach to desktops at home.
Spot and news sections – custom post types to manage spots and reports, with dynamic maps via the Google Maps API.
Contact form – quick contact with server-side validation, anti-spam, and caching responses with Memcached.
SEO blog – surfing posts optimized for phrases like “best spots in Poland,” with fast indexing thanks to GraphQL.
Cloud backups – daily backups to S3 with versioning for security.
Gallery speed – caching with Varnish, asset optimization via Cloudflare, and WebP images on the server.

Technical challenges and how I handled them

Working on surfuje.pl wasn’t a walk on the pier – here’s what I faced and how I handled it:

Database load – too many spot entries and maps were slowing down the site. I optimized the GeoJSON data and added tiling with Mapbox.
Promotion API – external API was lagging. I added Redis with TTL and fallback to static data on timeouts.
Vouchers after purchase – PDF generation was breaking under heavy traffic. I implemented a queue with RabbitMQ and asynchronous processing.
Cache after updates – new reports weren’t refreshing immediately. I used Varnish with purge on webhooks, and data flows in real-time.

Technical solutions in play

To make sure surfuje.pl runs smoothly, I used this tech stack:

Yoast SEO – meta tags, sitemaps, and Google pings for new promotions.
UpdraftPlus – backups to S3 with encryption and rotation, plus database snapshots.
Cloudflare – CDN with Brotli compression and DDoS protection via rate limiting.
Redis – session and API query caching, with LRU eviction policy.
Varnish – server-side caching with custom VCL and edge-side includes for dynamic modules.
Lighthouse – Core Web Vitals and accessibility audits with automatic reporting.
Memcached – light caching for small objects and API responses.
GraphQL – API for loading content on the fly, optimized for frontend.

Technical support – I keep the course

Surfuje.pl isn’t a one-time slide – it’s a site that requires ongoing steering. I perform system and plugin updates, testing them on staging with database snapshots. Backups on S3 come daily with versioning, and Cloudflare with Redis and Memcached ensure smooth traffic, even during peak times. I monitor performance via Lighthouse, clean Varnish cache via API when changes happen, and optimize SQL with indexes if anything gets slow. I can also expand the site – adding wave forecasts via Weather API, live streams, or social media integrations – so it always supports your surfing passion.

Do you have an idea for a site for your water passion? Want it to run fast, stable, and attract surfers? Get in touch with me – let’s talk about your vision and create something that will catch every wave!