Surf Watch

There are surprisingly few surf apps around for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and most of them are a bit crap (with the notable exceptions of WindGuru and the Oakley surf report). Enter Surf Watch from Tap Tapas; at £5.99 it’s not the cheapest, but I think that’s probably an accurate reflection of the development time that’s gone into it. From the neat little clicks and James Bond-esque sounds down to the thorough help screens and the seamless, uncluttered interface, it’s quality.

Just pick your buoy/s anywhere in the world and you can then view past data including tides, with your top three buoys displayed dashboard-style for at-a-glance checks. But the beauty is the forecasting and alerts. Enter the ideal conditions for surf nearby, and when your criteria are met, it’ll tell you via an alarm or alert between times you specify. Never miss a surf again!

It couldn’t find tide data for any of my buoys which is a bit disappointing as that’s so important in the UK — maybe they need to keep adding data. It’d be quite nice to have a choice of skins as well, but that’s just me trying to find something less than positive to say — this really is a wicked little app. Also, the developer was super-quick with help and advice, which is always a bonus.

So toss out some of the less-than-stellar freebie apps for tide times, buoy data and forecasts, add this, and I think you’ll probably end up using it more than the rest of them put together.

Here is the link for the iTunes store:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300739477&mt=8

Website with video:
www.surfwatchapp.com