Any surfers here? Get buoy data alerts via text message
I was spending too much time checking buoys at ndbc.noaa.gov so I made a program to text you when a nice swell hits. You can set up alerts based on swell height and period thresholds.
You can try it out here: buoyalert.io
Thoughts?
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That's a great idea.
Diver here. A spin on this based on WindGuru would be very cool. They have their API not sure how to translate that to surfing usage.
Best wishes and strong waves!
Yeah I might add wind speed/direction to alerts. Very important for surfing. Thanks!
100% do this.
I don't know the competition, market, or how you monetize it (probably monthly sub), but if all that lines up... do it. I just remember growing up surfing and this would've been awesome to have. ESPECIALLY, if you can translate that bouy data to some semi-accurate prediction of surf conditions at a given break. Maybe even a premium sub for early notification vs lower tier or freemium
Good thoughts thanks. Definitely not a big market.
Even the best surf forecasts/models (surfline, magic seaweed, etc.) tend to be unreliable. Most of the hardcore surfers I know rely on buoys.
Ah, damn. US only :)
Yeah sorry. There's little or no public buoy data outside the US from what I can tell.
What's the Slack group? The link on the landing page goes to slack.com only.
Here's the invite link:
https://join.slack.com/t/buoyalert/shared_invite/zt-hqn6uxn7-AsnRLb6zJIcNzozqGmrrLA
Normally you'd have to sign up to get a link.
Thanks. I'm in.
What problem are you solving with this? Haven't occurred to me to monitor for this kind of stuff.
Where I am (New England), a swell can arrive without warning and forecasts (e.g. Surfline) aren’t too reliable. So I wanted to get automated alerts instead of checking the buoy website all the time. Do you use a forecasting website?