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It's easy. Swell.co.za offers simple to follow, colour coded, wave data forecasting for the whole of South Africa.
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You can use swell.co.za's archived hindcasts of SA's coast to help you dial in your future surf travels.
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Best of all you can create a user profile, add your spots and start logging and rating past sessions in the RECORD section. This way you teach 'The Bastard' to pin-point and alert you to the exact waves you prefer. Click Here. to go to swell.co.za and sign up for your personalised account.
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Zigzag needs your help with the beta release of our artificial intelligence swell forecasting site. We'll be providing the widely used swell forecasts, but if you're looking for something more serious, we suggest you take a look at some of our swell.co.za models.
Whether a wave is “good” is completely subjective. If you've got your local spot wired, or you prefer surfing spot X because it suits your style of surfing, or you know a certain tucked away cove that goes off its face even though it looks unsurfable on Google Earth, it's in your interest to work out what the ideal swell settings are for that location. Knowledge is the greatest weapon in your surf report armory. Even better if it's knowledge that is unique to you, and a 2.8GHz Core box behind swell.co.za that goes by the name of "The Bastard" is helping you think about it all day long.
Here lies the secret ingredient behind swell.co.za. Anyone can sign up for a personal account, become a member, and start a wave journal for up to 5 different spots. Using swell.co.za’s hindcasts members can rate the surf conditions at their spots against the wave data provided. After enough logged sessions The Bastard knows what surf you prefer and can then alert you in its forecasts, and through email, when the waves will cook (according to your preference) in the future.
Besides learning what you like swell.co.za also presents forward-looking 168 hour forecasts in a fashion that most people are accustomed to.
Another great feature of swell.co.za is its archive section where members and non-members can look through hindcasts and familiarise themselves with the wind direction, wind speed, swell direction (dominant plus the various ground and wind swell components), swell period (dominant plus components), wave height (significant wave height plus components) and wind vectors that created previous high or low quality swells during the year.
Some patterns are easy to spot, others are not so obvious. It gets truly interesting once you've got enough historical sessions logged - especially if your recordings contain a wide gamut of conditions. Range and variation of historical data are both more important than total number of data. Our initial model took several weeks of recordings to start feeding back genuinely interesting results. The more the machine learnt about the various wave/wind spectra, the more fascinating the results got.
This is very much a "the more you put in, the more you get out" site. Machine learning and accuracy will improve with participation. The more historical feedback the algorithm has to work with, the better it can spot patterns from noise.
Have fun, help us develop it, and let us know about any bugs. The project is a work in progress, we are open to your constructive feedback in the comments section below.
Log on by CLICKING HERE
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Huge:
Blah blah blatant suss.co.za ripoff and poor effort ous. Screwing a fellow SA inventor is small minded to say the least...why not collaborate (win-win) with an obvious superior product and stick to your core business?!
2010-07-27 16:56:26
Matt:
Watching young Rudi obbliterate garvies 2day.Good 2 c.
2010-07-23 14:00:07
B:
Doesn't measure up to Windguru or Magicseaweed in my estimation. But if you make it cell friendly or a cell version, you'll might have the edge. An integrated tide chart will also set you ahead of the pack. (At least have wind direction as letters rather than arrow images, they don't show up on a cell. Also, have the letters show up on mouse-over on this version.) Otherwise, shot for another option!
2010-07-21 14:36:01
sw:
Nuked as requested. Truce.
The answer el gato is because we do our own thing.
2010-07-21 14:35:32
Caveman:
Why the fighting over who copied who, who is the best etc... The more healthy competition we have regarding wave forecasting sites the better these sites are going to become. Meaning I won't be wasting my time driving down to my favourite beach when it is in fact completely kak. You too. So we all win. And El Gato where do you see it billed as a one-of-a-kind thing? Re-read the article and don't see anywhere where it mentions this.
2010-07-21 14:02:15
el gato:
I dont doubt that the zag were coming from a good place just seems wierd to me how it was billed like a one of a kind thing plus why the competetion thing that works well in huge market economies ala the 1st world but it just seemed that development here on the southern tip of africa should be a shared goal.
2010-07-21 13:48:32
Skunk:
Hahaha, this is too funny. You're all carrying on like this is the end of the world. When Magic Seaweed came around, did Surfline start crying? What did Windguru do? What about the 50 other forecasting sites out there?
It's evolution people, deal with it. Good ideas are meant to be built on. I doubt anybody has been ripped off here.
For what it's worth, Suss is cool, I like it. I've also played around with Swell, and I also like it. Swell is much more of a forecasting site, like having windguru, the navy maps and so-on all in one. Suss does not even go there, but has a groovy community aspect to it.
BTW on the comment below - aren't all these things developed for FREE? I've never paid for windguru, or spike's forecast, and i'm sure all of those also cost some time and effort.
2010-07-21 09:18:49
Random:
HI fbj, ja I think swell is completely personal and selfish - HA. I do not think that sharing any info about when 'your spot' is going off is possible, unless you give someone your log in of course.
2010-07-21 08:58:39
fbj:
Not mad keen on the sharing of personal spot-wired-ness. Will there be a way to only have your saved hindcasts only apply to your own forecasts and not be shared to the massive?
2010-07-21 08:46:46
swell.co.za:
i've had a look at suss and when you drill down they do have a feature that is similar. incredibly deflating. Anyway here we are, doesn't stop our stuff from being good! We'll have to up the stakes on feature #3.
Answer to big 0 : 20 sessions for accurate feedback.
2010-07-21 06:44:34
Big O:
Got a call about this from a mate and was amped to check it out. I must admit i am quite disappointed.
Cap - I am an user of SUSS and will not be moving anytime soon. i have to agree with el gato and say this is seems like a very poor attempt at a copy. I have been using suss for over a year now and it does exactly what you have described below. I surf, i log my sessions, and suss predicts spots i should surf based on what i have logged against the forecasted reports.
Just a question out of interest - how long will i need to use the system before it starts calling sessions for me accurately?
2010-07-20 23:44:58
Dookie:
Toooooo sick. What a great concept. If i can offer any feedback it will be to make moving around the site a LOT simpler. i kept getting lost after adding stars, names etc. But just keeping track of what boards, fins went in what conditions is great for me. Still keen to see this thing working when it figures out what surf I like.
2010-07-20 19:54:43
surf rat:
holy crap - robo surf - this is sick - I dig it that I can develop my own surf prediction. It is like the control from chemistry tests… I'm feeling empowered to make the call . Rad!
2010-07-20 19:52:30
cap:
i don't see this as a blatant copy of suss what so ever - suss stands for Search utility for surf spots. Swell.co.za is a personalized surf prediction platform that learns your favorite conditions for your chosen beach. you get the weather forecast from it, then you surf your wave and rate that surf... then using some nerdy magic in the arse end of your computer it tells you when your favored conditions are coming again. lets face it this is an awesome development in surf forecasting to the individual and their requirements of surf size, type and place. WOW
elgato - i don't see how this doesn't support SA surfing - and competition is healthy - relationships are complex...just a thought...
2010-07-20 19:30:35
sw:
More or less 100% opposite to suss.
2010-07-20 18:59:51
elgato:
Nice idea but it seems to be a pretty blatant copy of the www.suss.co.za website which is already up and running wouldnt it have been better to say maybe hook up with those guys and support SA surfing instead of competing? Just a thought....
2010-07-20 18:22:24
Random:
here is the FAQ's for swell.co.za http://www.swell.co.za/what.php
2010-07-20 16:10:08
Dude where's my car:
Sick idea! I signed up. took me long to figure out how to star rate my last few session at my spot. Think I have the hang now but trying to figure out where it will tell me when the waves will be MY 5 stars again?
2010-07-20 16:09:11
Bruce Viaene:
haha! this is going to be fun! thanks zag
2010-07-20 13:56:02
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