What watch and app are people using for foiling? Old watch died, looking for replacement. Seems like it’s between Garmin vs Apple Ultra. Prone and downwind. Currently doing DW SUP runs with phone in Vaikobi running Waterspeed app. The Apple Ultra 3 can make emergency SOS calls via satellite if not in cell signal which is appealing for DW runs.
Thanks!
I develop a foiling app for the Apple Watch, so I’m extremely biased toward the Ultra. That said, I have to be honest, making a phone call from it while on the water isn’t great.
Siri with a pair of Shokz headphones kind of works sometimes, but it’s nowhere near as reliable as pairing the headphones directly to your iPhone. You can always hold both buttons for ten seconds and the Ultra will call 911, which is good as a last resort, but not ideal if you just want to call a friend to come pick you up with a jet ski or boat. The latest Garmin Fenix 8 Pro also supports satellite emergency communication, so in that sense they’re pretty much equal.
Because of that, I’d look at other features instead.
Garmin watches are made to be operated with buttons (or touch), which makes them much easier to fiddle with on the water. You can also wear them on the outside of a wetsuit without them locking themselves like the Apple Watch does. I also think the Garmin looks nicer, but that’s personal taste. And the battery life is in a completely different league, easily a week or two.
What the Apple Watch has going for it is a much more polished and intuitive user interface. Things that should be quick, like setting a timer, actually are. Built-in apps like Weather start faster and feel smoother and nicer to use. Reading emails and messages works perfectly.
Personally, I tend to switch between Garmin and Apple Watch now and then. If developing apps for Apple Watch wasn’t my job, I think I’d lean toward Garmin. Keep the iPhone in the Vaikobi for communication and emergencies (newer iPhones also do satellite emergency comms).
I would personally go with apple watch ultra. I have had Garmin watches for the last 5 years and they are truly great piece of technology if you are into marathons, triathlons etc and also need a 10 day battery life. My problem with Garmin was their complete disregard towards water sport activities. Their surf app is a total junk compared to dawn patrol on apple - totally random wave counts - unacceptable imo. The same with wind sports tracking - the last year or so Garmin fkd up their windsurf activity (that is what I used for tracking winging) so bad that I would get total distance in feet. I have had everything configured in miles and so on but still Garmin app would give me a 500k ft distances. Fn stupid. Waterspeed app on apple watch is miles ahead of Garmin. But the worst part is heart rate accuracy - with Garmin you kinda always need to have an external hr monitor - I sup foil and have my heart rate go to 170s-180s pumping back out to line up and Garmin shows my hr as 90 :))) Not good.
Overall the only benefit of Garmin for me was just an excellent battery life - other than that it was just meh experience. So I ended my Garmin journey in 2025 and enjoy a much better product in Apple Watch. Yes - you gotta pay subscription fees for apps but what you get is Garmin can’t even touch in their wildest dreams.
Totally agree on Garmin and their app being rubbish for water sports. I should’ve been clearer. I don’t use it for analysis at all. Either I record with my app on the iPhone in a watertight case, or I record on the Garmin watch and then pull the GPX data and import it into the app. The first option is by far the easiest if you already have the phone with you. If you don’t, an Apple Watch might be the better choice.
I use an Apple Watch Ultra (combined with dawn patrol for most sessions), fantastic device… until it gets wet. Can echo the above comment that making or receiving calls when the screen or speaker is wet is a pretty poor experience.
Having said that I like every other aspect of it (battery could be better) and can confirm in an absolute emergency the SOS function works sending out your location and a text to a group you’ve pre-selected (can also confirm it does this when you’ve just accidentally leant up agains the button in a non emergency and was greeted with many panicked calls and messages from loved ones when I returned to shore)
I got a garmin epix pro 2 for $300, my surfing app accurately measures my dock start distances as waves, my windsurfing app gives me distance in miles and a custom satellite map / image which I can use to navigate through underwater oyster bars or setup a sunset photo session. The screen is daylight readable.
The heart rate is really accurate maybe 75% of the time seemingly based on where it is on my wrist. I just ordered the garmin atm5 waterproof heart rate strap for $15 after doing a survey.
Pros: Battery life. You don’t need to connect it to a phone or make an account to use it or pay anybody anything ever beyond the base price. Multiband GPS tracking works when it’s out of the water. Here’s a map of my 2025 foil tracks on a photo I took, which wouldn’t have happened without the watch.
Cons: I wish dawn patrol and all the cool foiling apps worked for it! Also, garmin keeps buying and destroying other mapping companies, which is pathetic business behavior.
What about Android users, is there anyone using and recommending a watch for foiling, regarding apps and communications?
I have a Pixel watch, and I haven’t found any great apps. I mostly use the Fitbit app and select surfing, so it at least shows where I have gone and you can see Heart Rate and Speed in general terms. It has been an improvement in tracking fitness and seeing some good runs in review, over nothing at all before. I have made calls and texts from the beach for pickups from shore runners. The speaker for audio isn’t very good. There are a few sailing apps I might try for Navigation if I do any longer downwinders, but they are not really for foiling. It would obviously be much better is someone made some foiling apps for Android.
I have taken the heart rate strap (hrm 600) out for a few runs. It seems to be much better at heart rate than a watch squished between a glove and a 5mil wetsuit, it’s recording that I’m burning perhaps 1.5-2x the energy that I’d previously recorded - or maybe that’s due to the good winging conditions and smaller foil.
After a run you can download the heart rate data to the watch, which fixes any missed connections when your watch is under water.
I download the .fit files to gpxsee (freeware https://www.gpxsee.org/), which lets me visualize data, but it’s not really setup for foiling. I may code something up to show heart rate + speed on the tracks simultaneously.
I’m using an Apple Ultra. Great multisports device and perfectly integrated in my the Apple ecosystem
I use it above my wetsuit with an external HR monitor around my arm. The trick is to disable wrist detection and then the watch stays active and works properly on top of your wetsuit. I typically disable wrist connection before a session and reenable it when I get out of the water.
Same comments regarding using it for calls when wet on the water. It’s not a great experience and it’s hard to hear with the wind and water noises.
Keep in mind the difference between a dual band GPS (Apple ultra or high end Garmin/Suunto) and a normal GPS. The dual band are far more accurate and make a big difference for surf or pumpfoil.
Personally I used a cheap Garmin for a while but the buttons kept sticking making it useless after a year. 2x warranty replacements same thing.
Now I use a cheap Suunto (Peak Pro 9) and it’s got better buttons and gets the job done.
