I’ve been developing a foiling app for the Apple Watch for a while now, and it’s getting close to completion. The app features recording modes for wing foiling, dock starts, and prone surfing (downwind coming soon). Since there aren’t any good prone surf spots where I live (and I suck at it), fine-tuning the algorithm for prone surfing has been pretty challenging. If you’re interested in testing the app or have suggestions for features you feel are missing from the apps you currently use, feel free to send me a DM!”
I’m interested to hear how your app deciphers wave start and wave end. I’ve been using dawn patrol and the weakest part of that app is the accuracy in terms of start/stop.
At the start of a session, you set the direction of the waves, which is then used for the calculations. It’s been quite accurate so far, but I could use some help validating and fine-tuning the algorithm. Think of it as an opportunity to get an app tailored to your riding style.
The dock start algorithm and user interface are now ready for real-life testing. If you’re dock starting, I’d be super happy if you could give it a try.
Interested. I’ve been using the Waterspeed app, but it’s better for winging. Yeah, I’ll use it for surfing and for prone, but it doesn’t track wave count.
I recently received this prone foil session from a tester in Waikiki. Do you think any data might be missing for prone foiling? If you’d like to test it yourself, feel free to DM me your email, and I’ll send you a TestFlight invite.
maybe too niche, but I wonder about tacking angles and the VMG. Do you think there is a way to make an approximate VMG? Would be useful for the parawing/wing efficiency convo
The watch app will retrieve the current wind direction from the nearest weather buoy or station when you start a new session. If this data is unavailable or inaccurate, you can set it manually. This could be used to calculate VMG, but as soon as the wind direction changes, the calculations would become slightly off. The math is straightforward, so implementation should be quick—if there’s interest, I could do a test run.
For the iPhone app, one possible feature could be a tool that lets you mark two upwind legs. The app would then calculate the angle between them and determine the VMG achieved during those tacks. This method would be extremely accurate and might better align with what you’re looking for. What do you think?
Yes I think setting wind direction or upwind manually and approximately would be best. I am not winging so wouldn’t be able to test it.
Maybe more useful would be a quick GPS track upload feature that shows the relative tacking angles, and checks which have the smallest angle between them, meaning better upwind?
The app is finally live on the App Store! Still on the lookout for testers though — so if you’re keen to make sure it picks up your style of riding, drop me a DM.
No way to connect to a Foil Drive at the moment. It might be possible in the future, but unless they get a flood of customer requests, they’ve got no reason (and rightly so) to spend their limited resources on it. (Unless, of course, their remote already exposes a BLE interface—but I haven’t found any sign of that on the internet.)
At the moment, there’s also no wave-power-assisted recording mode in the app—but I think there should be. The problem is, it won’t be very accurate unless we know whether the motor is actually running or not.
We could assume you’re under power if you’re moving against the wave direction for a certain number of seconds, but there’s no reliable way to tell the difference between riding a wave and powered riding with the waves. Still, maybe a rough estimate is better than nothing?
I prone surf nearly every day as there’s always waves. I’d love to help if still needed. I use a Garmin for surf and it fails pretty bad. Some days it tracks perfect. Some days it must think i rode a wave and then paddled back out REALLLY fast and doesn’t track.
I put my watch into “BOAT” mode to get a more realistic picture but it doesn’t count waves or speed for each wave. ALL valuable info when comparing waves and foil setups.
