

Any surfer dudes here? Check out this surf-reports app I developed - shaharsol
http://SwellPhone.com

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jbee
There's definately a market for _recieving_ timely surf reports. But don't
expect surfers to _post_ the reports.

As a surfer already at the beach, it's not in your best interest to tell
everyone its pumping. You might call your best mate to tell him to get his
arse out of bed. But everyone else you'll be gladly informing some time in the
future, about the epic uncrowded session you had.

Instead, think of who benefits telling people when there is surf happening
right now. The nearest food shop/cafe would do more trade when the surf is on.
Local surf shops too. They might post reports.

They're are also likely to splice the report with their own advertising...

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fgimenez
I surf plenty. While this idea seems nice in theory, community surf reporting
is very tricky. The entire culture of surfing is an exclusionary one. People
do not want other surfers on their break taking their waves. There is no
incentive to tell everybody that your particular spot has excellent conditions
because you want the least amount of other people around.

The only site that I have seen that is able to somewhat get people to provide
reports is www.stokereport.com, a bay area surf/social networking site. They
had to institute a word filter that masks the specific names of breaks, and
they will ban you if you repeatedly violate calling out spots [1].

[1] [http://stokereport.com/content/what-are-community-
standards-...](http://stokereport.com/content/what-are-community-standards-
follow-stokereport)

~~~
shaharsol
That's not the first time I get feedback in this spirit. And I can somehow
understand the motive. However, it is very narrow-minded, don't you think? You
can look at it the other way around -- let's say I check the site for
conditions in a certain spot and see it's packed. Surf is awesome but it's
already packed. So I go elsewhere... if I hadn't seen this report I would have
come and add myself to the already packed lineup.

~~~
aidanf
App looks nicely done, but I would never use it. I live close to several surf
spots and I surf every day that it's good. Like others have said here it's not
in my interest to tell others when it's good. My ideal surf session is when
the surf is good and there's nobody else out but me. In fact I go out of my
way to surf when it's not crowded e.g. early morning on weekends, mid-morning
on weekdays etc.

This isn't me being narrow-minded, it's simply a matter of waves being a
limited resource. Sharing waves is fine for beginners surfing inside and
heading directly towards shore. But when you're out back surfing green waves
there's not that many waves to go around. It doesn't take many people to
paddle out before your wave-count drops and you have to start competing for
waves. It's just a lot less fun.

As regards knowing when the surf is good, I know by looking at weather
forecast. When I first moved here I put in the time checking the forecast and
checking what the actual waves are like for that swell, wind, period etc. I
know what any of my regular spots will be like just by looking at the weather
charts for the day. I don't need an app to tell me. Anyone who surfs a spot
regularly will similarly be able to tell what it's like from checking the
charts.

I think the market for this kind of app is really just beginning and
occasional surfers. They will certainly be consumers for the app but they will
probably not be much use in providing data for the app.

Just naming surf-spots on the internet is a sensitive subject so putting
almost-live photo updates of spots will be even more so. Don't expect regular
surfers to provide this information.

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clemesha
Cool. I'm building <http://SurfsGood.com> which is basically the same thing.
I've been meaning to put more time into it, and one thing, as dlokshin and
others point out, the public vs private pics is definitely a very real concern
with surfers.

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m0nastic
I'm a reformed surfer (not many good waves in Washington D.C. unfortunately),
but I like the idea.

I can understand the sentiment from folks who don't want to broadcast good
spots, but I suspect there's a good amount of people who aren't so
territorial.

When I did last surf (Steamer Lane mostly), I occasionally checked the
surfline cams, but more often than not would just head down regardless.

If you ever make an iPhone version, I'll happily buy it (even if it's nowadays
mostly for nostalgic reasons).

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Dylanfm
Nice one. Maybe a photo or video of a spot isn't enough. You could allow users
to contribute optional info on the conditions, like how often sets are coming
through, wind etc and maybe a rating.

~~~
shaharsol
No rating system yet... However you can add some textual commentary while
reporting. Thanks for the ideas!

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theroo
I surf, and also build websites. What does this actually do? Store a
photo/video of a surf spot by location. Is that all? What incentive is there
for people to do this?

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shaharsol
If many surfers start doing this, you would soon be able to check [close to]
real-time surf conditions from anywhere in the world by simply going to the
website.

It's kinda crowd-sourcing of surfcams (coz those don't really deliver)

~~~
theroo
Ok, I just really don't see the incentive for most (i.e. 95%+) surfers to do
this, for various reasons including: crowds at their favourite waves and no
mobile signal at remote spots.

In general, surfers don't want to help other surfers find the best spot of the
day. Once you're there it's different, and many surfers are really
helpful/friendly. But hardly any will say "this spot X that you've never heard
of is going to fire today", especially when they know you'll head to the big
town beach break away from them ;)

I know surfers that'd give me a lot of shit if I posted video of a spot
firing. I know I might do the same if I found out ;)

My suggestion would be to make this a private group thing. Create a, ahem,
"circle" of surfers and share reports with them.

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sdfgwergsd
Nice. What backend are you using?

~~~
shaharsol
LAMP.

