where did all this come from?
I thought i would explain where this whole idea came form of trying to track your surfing. Firstly ever other sport has some sort of statistical analysis performed on it and many sports would not exist without it, try running the 100m sprint and not knowing how far 100 meters is and what time you started and stopped running, you get the idea. This started quite simply by trying to look at surfing conditions in the South West of the U.K and the data received back form surfing with a GPS threw some light on what my own surfing performance was like. I’ve spent the last 8 years involved in coaching surfing in the U.K and abroad to a competitive standard, and i recently was involved in rewriting the national coaching scheme for G.B and combined with a post grad qualification in marine science the development of this idea seamed a logical way forward. Having played around with the idea on a wealth of devices the natural home for the product was the iphone cause 22 millions people world wide own them. The current use of the iphone does have a couple of stumbling points but nothing that can’t be overcome.
So the idea is to use the GPS and other clever bits in the iphone to look at surfing performance. It’s the first time anybodies really tried to do it so its exciting to be walking into unknown territory. The software is isolating waves via a funky algorithm and feeding back stats on the ride. It’s looking at speed and positional data at the moment but we’re already in the beta stages of breaking down each turn with the device, if what appears to be possible is possible with the device it could change the way we look at development of performance and appraisal of surfing (including judging it). The Redbull boys have already played around with this idea but the data processing can be taken much further, the idea is that anyone could do it, well the software gathers all the bits you need to know and sends it back to you in a way you can understand.
