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This past weekend I had my first opportunity to windsurf with my new Apple Watch. I was psyched to get the watch and put its GPS and cellular connectivity (to my phone) a go.
In addition to the watch, I downloaded a free app developed by a water sport enthusiast called Waterspeed. It has pay features, but I don’t currently have an interest. The app is somewhat similar to Strava and other tracking apps, but dialed in for water sports.
Conditions for the session were as follows: Montana Beach with winds from the NE with a good thermal bump helping the winds to be high teens to mid twenties if you were in the right place. I rigged a 6.5 Ezzy Lion, and a 116L Freerace Mistral Screamer.
On the watch, the display shows current speed, average speed, and distance traveled, all updating in real time (or as real as possible). It also has a count down timer to be used during races etc…
The app on the phone collects so much more info that is downloadable to the phone when in range (I think it also updates on the phone in real time). The image below is a screen grab from my phone of part of the visual display. You can see my session track (more exact and all my reaches, when zoomed in more) showing speed as colors during each reach. It also shows the speed I was travelling…my jibes are obvious. My high speed for the day is noted. I can even find the spot where I went 20-0 in a crash (knocked my head on the mast with helmet on). you can clearly see that I was in the sweet spot for a NE thermal pull down IBay. You can simultaneously scroll through the speed and track map to see very exact reading of speed, heading etc….
The speed reading is very accurate. I tried it out in my car and 99 percent of the time, the speedometer read exactly what the watch read, with a second delay.
All of this data also works in tandem with the Activity Tracker and heart rate monitor built into the Apple Watch, so you can also see what your body was doing during your session.
Unrelated to session data is the ability to send and receive text messages and phone calls from the watch, while on the water. I was going to do this on Sunday, but my had neglected to charge up my watch after three days of wearing, and the batter was low. I chose to save battery for recording my session.
My text likely would have said “On water at Montana, wind stronger on Webster side of pier. Currently riding 6.5.
I highly recommend the watch and app.
More to come I am sure.
Wd
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