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Surf Apps

The five best iPhone apps for surfers

Surfers with iPhones have plenty of ways to stay connected to the surf.

ASP To Go
Whether you’re a grom with just a few sessions under your belt or a seasoned pro, watching the best surfers in the world battle for points on Tour is always exciting. The ASP To Go app allows you to keep tabs on your favorite surfers and stay up to date on results from each World Tour event. The most impressive feature of this app is its ability to let you watch events live from your phone. The technology for live streaming content on mobile devices has come a long way since the days of constant buffering and pixilated images. This app features in-depth information about each event during the contest, including event status, results, photos, news, video highlights, and of course the live stream. This is an app that is certainly worth the meager $0.99 price tag.

NOAA Ocean Buoys
The NOAA Ocean Buoys App is essentially your portal into checking current ocean conditions around the world. With access to over 120 buoys spread across North America (including Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii), Europe, and the Caribbean, this app gives you access to buoy information about current swell, wind, temperature, and other weather conditions. Most buoys transmit swell heights, swell periods, swell direction, wind speeds, wind direction, wind gusts, water temperature, air temperature, dew points, and barometric pressure and are updated hourly. Mobile access to these buoys makes it easy for you see what the ocean has in store for you on any given day. Find out if the swell is hitting your local spot or if the winds have switched offshore yet with the touch of a button. The official NOAA buoys are essential tools that pro surfers use, and you should too. This app is definitely a steal at $0.99 to download.

Surfline
To the joy of surfers everywhere, Surfline’s premium forecasting services are now available in an iPhone-specific app. Surfline is the premier surf forecasting site on the web and you can now have the amazing short- and long-term forecasting tools at your disposal, as well as access to current reports and high-quality live cams for surf locations worldwide. Download this app for your iPhone, and you will likely put it to use everyday. The Surfline app is free, but just like their website you’ll have to pay to be a premium member and access certain forecasting tools.

Kayak
Strictly speaking, Kayak is not a surfing app. However, it is an app likely to appear on most pros’ iPhones, and should be on yours too if you’re into traveling. Kayak.com is a service for finding low airfares, hotels, rental cars, and other travel bookings, and now they have condensed their service into an easy-to-use mobile version. The main advantage of Kayak is that it simultaneously searches numerous other travel booking sites, including Expedia, Orbitz, CheapTickets, and Priceline, and compiles them into one comprehensive list. Forget about spending hours looking for a flight or a hotel. Simply launch your Kayak app and get where you want to go in only a few minutes. This app free and essential to anyone making travel plans on the go.

Shralp Tide
Tide books are a lot easier to lose than an iPhone, and knowing the tide is crucial when choosing where to paddle out. The Shralp Tide app can pinpoint your current location and supply you with tide info for the next five days. The strength of this app is it’s simplicity and it’s ability to get you the tide information you’re looking for in just a few seconds. This app displays the tides for each day and with the swipe of your finger you can move through the tides for the next five days to help you figure out the ideal time for your next session. This is another freebie and an essential tool for any surfer.

Honorable Mentions:
Hurley Pro, US Open of Surfing, The Weather Channel, Oakley Surf Report