# Urge Surfer: Ride the Wave

> Urge Surfer: Ride the Wave (iPhone/iPad app by Abhay Katheria.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/urge-surfer-ride-the-wave/id6767003624 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Abhay Katheria](https://appshunter.io/developer/1896345295)
- Category: Health & Fitness, Lifestyle
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.1 · 27 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-08-11
- Data updated: 2026-09-17
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/urge-surfer-ride-the-wave/id6767003624/reviews.md

## What is Urge Surfer?

Cravings are waves. They rise, they peak, they pass. Urge Surfer teaches you to ride them out instead of fighting them.

Most quit-and-recovery apps shame you for feeling the urge — broken-streak alarms, red banners, 
guilt calendars. Urge Surfer does the opposite. When you feel the pull, you open the app, name the urge,
set a timer, and ride the wave. Every craving has a half-life, usually under five minutes if
you don't act on it. That's a mindfulness technique called urge surfing, and this app does one thing well: it helps you wait the wave out.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Pick what you're surfing — 12 presets (cigarette, vape, alcohol, coffee, sugar, weed, social media, shopping, and more), or add your own.
• Set a timer — 1, 3, 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Most waves pass before the bell.
• Ride it out — an animated breathing circle guides a calming 4-7-8 cycle. Adjust the intensity slider mid-surf. The timer keeps running even if you background or force-quit the app.
• Cave without shame — one tap logs it, asks what pulled you under (stress, boredom, habit, after
a meal…), and offers a retry. No judgment.
• Celebrate — capture a victory selfie with five overlay styles, save it to a private album, and s
hare it if you want.
• See your patterns — a heatmap by day and hour, your top triggers ranked, and a success rate for
every urge.
• Honest streaks — days since your last slip, not a fragile "log every day or lose it" counter. Silence never breaks your streak.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
No account. No sign-up. No backend. No analytics, no tracking, no ads. Everything — your name, you
r urges, your logs, your photos — stays in your device's sandbox and never leaves it. The app does
 not call home.

FREE AND OPEN SOURCE
Urge Surfer is free and fully open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. You can read every line, fil
e an issue, or contribute.

Whatever you're trying to quit — cigarettes, vaping, alcohol, sugar, doomscrolling — the next wave
 is coming. Learn to surf it.

Urge Surfer is a self-help tool and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental-health
care.


## Version history (last 1 release)

### 1.0 — 2026-08-11

No release notes.

## Apps similar to Urge Surfer

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Urge Surfin](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/urge-surfin/id6780775028) | 5.0 (1) | Free | Health & Fitness |
| [Sprout Wave](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sprout-wave/id6760043472) | — | $0.99 | Health & Fitness |
| [Surf: Urge Surfing](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/surf-urge-surfing/id6797871509) | — | Free | Health & Fitness |
| [Bramble: Website & App Blocker](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bramble-website-and-app-blocker/id6772760741) | — | Free | Health & Fitness |
| [Hold - Pause Cravings](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hold-pause-cravings/id6777215270) | 4.3 (4) | Free | Health & Fitness |
| [Maureen](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/maureen/id6763734038) | 5.0 (2) | Free | Health & Fitness |

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-17.*