Tracking your Session

It’s no secret that some of us take our phones on the water. Whether it’s for work purposes or just to log a session. So here are a few apps that might just tickle your taste buds when it comes to recording your speed and tracking your distances, but don’t forget the waterproof bag…

Sports Tracker

Sports Tracker —- iPhone  -  Android

Sports Tracer seems to be the most used app on the Android Platform.  It has an elegant UI and offers many customisable options; however, the “out-of-box” experience is more than adequate. This app seems to be more accurate than its counterparts when it comes to recording speeds and GPS Paths.  It stores all of your activities online, and has a decent maps feature that allows you to see the activities of other users in your area.  When reviewing your windsurf it has nice graphing features.  The altimeter seems irritatingly accurate, proving that I rarely jump higher than 1.5 metres.  I occasionally had a few problems trying to get the GPS to lock, but I think that’s more attributed to my phone being a bit old, there is however an app below (GPS Status) that is good for solving this problem. This App is awesome, try it out.

GPS Status

GPS Status —- Android

If you can’t get you’re GPS to lock on fast enough whether you’re driving or about to go for a sail, try this app out.  It downloads the latest AGPS data to your device, giving it a head start when looking for satellites.  If you’re outside it will lock on in less than 5 seconds.  This is much better that the usual 30 seconds to 2 minutes that I usually end up waiting.  I often find myself opening it to get a a GPS fix, and then moving on to another app like Sports Tracker. This app is one of the most accurate of the apps on offer, and offers an intuitive display.  There’re a couple of other apps out there that do similar things.

Android

Ease of Use: 9/10

Functionality: 10/10

Looks: 7/10

Score: 8/10

Price: FREE

IMapMyFITNESS

IMapMyFITNESS —- iPhone  -  Android

This app has a clean UI, it’s easy to navigate around.  Not quite as elegant as the Sports Tracker app, but it has more features and is a little more geared towards Fitness and health than recording the technical aspects of your activity.  It’s available on both the iPhone, Android and Blackberry.  The UI is the same on each platform.  Every activity gets stored centrally so you can set goals on their website and attempt to meet them.   It’s a useful app, but I’d probably recommend Sports Tracker for Windsurfing with your Android and MotionX (See below) for Windsurfing with your iPhone.

MotionX GPS

MotionX GPS —- iPhone

This app costs, but you get some awesome features for £1.50, too many to begin to list here.  It’s certainly as good as Sports Tracker, but offers incredible functionality and add-ons, such as NOAA marine charts, terrain maps along with all of the standard Google maps.  The accuracy was very good, it’s incredibly feature rich, download the thing and give it a go, just don’t crush your iPhone between yourself and your windsurf kit!

iPhone

Ease of Use: 10/10

Functionality: 10/10

Looks: 9/10

Score: 10/10

Price: £1.50

Apps for everything

Welcome to a new monthly series that will tell you all you need to know about windsurfing related apps. The future has already arrived in this sport and there are a huge number of smart phone owners out there making the most of it. Many of them will even admit to getting a teeny-weeny bit excited about an app or two in their time. So let’s bring everyone up to speed with all the latest useful little tools that might just give you that extra session you didn’t expect.

Before we get started though, for those who may be missing out on this exciting experience, there are literally apps for almost anything you can imagine; games, gadgets, gizmos, it’s all covered. You can get an app that allows you to see what star constellations there are when you hold the screen to the night sky, or how about one that allows you to use your phone as a remote for your computer (allowing you to turn it off from anywhere in the world, or just skip that embarrassing track that comes on at a party). For the web world, you can get an app that will allow you to update your website, directly from your phone and if setup correctly, this in turn will automatically update your social media feeds. For the traveller, there are apps for free internet texting, free internet calls and language apps. The possibilities are almost endless…

So this is where we need someone with a little more knowledge.

Steve ‘SJ’ Jarvis is well known in the wave scene, having competed for a number of years on the BWA and UKWA wave tours. During this he managed to spend a huge amount of time studying at Southampton University where he also found even more time to create his own App for Android. Whats-more, he is currently working on an iPhone version. So we are pretty confident that he will give sound advice, in this new series that should bring everyone up to speed with the latest in’s and out’s of these software snippets. It’s not all about the ordinary apps you may find on anyone’s phone but ones that will be useful in someway or another for windsurfers. Comparing roughly five apps a month, we happily (pun not intended) hand over to SJ…

Live Weather Apps

Weendy - iPhone/Android

Weendy —- Android —- iPhone

An app that’s really taking off at the moment, Weendy has been designed by windsurfers for any wind sport enthusiast.  It’s basically a social network; you go to a beach take a 10 second video, select the conditions (from a list of options) and upload.  Being able to check a video of the conditions at a spot before you head there is a luxury I’d like to have, for somewhere like K-bay it would be brilliant.  This app is user driven and at the moment it’s not living up to its full potential because it doesn’t have enough regularly posting users.  That’s where you come in, if you have an iPhone or an android phone Weendy is absolutely free, so you have no reason not to download it and use it regularly to help out fellow windsurfers and the Weendy community!

Firstly, I will say the iPhone version is more refined than the Android version (it was originally designed for iPhones); despite this, all of the functionality is still there, and it does still look pretty nice on Android.  It’s very easy to use, absolute plug and play. I have had some problems trying to upload videos when I’m in the middle of nowhere with crappy signal, an option to just upload a photo would be good in this situation.  Weendy also has a nice map feature that shows all reports in the last 12 hours; it looks a little sparse at the moment, but with the growth of the Weendy community I can see this being a great way to navigate the reports.

Wind Meter - Android

Wind Meter —- Android

An anemometer, it doesn’t get more live than this. Most of us don’t get to sail as much as we’d like and if you’re not sailing regularly it can be quite tricky to gauge how windy it is when you arrive at the beach. This is when you’ll notice a lot of recreational windsurfers approach the water and give it a salute for a full 60 seconds. The anemometer is a great tool if you can remember what sail size you use in different wind strengths, it’s also just a fun toy to have. Wind Meter on Android gives you a great low cost alternative to