Support

You set the location when you create a spot. Find it on the map and place the pin exactly where you surf, then save. A few hundred metres inland can mean a very different wind, so precision matters here. A spot's location cannot be changed afterwards. To move it, create a new spot and delete the old one.

Yes. On the map, tap the locate button under the info and star icons. The first time, your phone asks whether SurfSignal may use your location. SurfSignal only asks when you tap that button, never when you open the map. It uses your approximate location purely to move the map, and it does not drop a pin for you: you still choose your spot yourself. Your location is never stored by SurfSignal and never sent anywhere. If you said no and change your mind, tap the button again, or turn location on for SurfSignal in your phone settings.

Yes. Different disciplines call for different conditions, so add a set for each, for example one for kitesurfing and one for wingfoiling. They sit on the same spot and are evaluated separately. There is no need to add the same spot twice.

Yes. Press and hold the menu icon on a spot, then drag it to its new position and release.

Conditions tell SurfSignal when a session is worth it for you. Every hour is evaluated against them, so the overview shows exactly which days and hours match, and notifications are only sent when they do. Leave some room rather than setting them too tightly: the forecast will never match your ideal exactly, and the aim is to see what is coming.

Every hour within your forecast range is checked against every condition you set. An hour matches only when all of them are met. Values you leave empty are not tested, so they never block a match. Match tolerance can widen the bounds slightly if you also want to see near misses.

Match tolerance widens your bounds slightly so you also see near misses. If your minimum wind is 20 knots and you set tolerance to Low (5%), a 19 knot forecast still appears, marked 🟠 instead of ❌. Directions work the same way: a tolerance match sits one compass step outside your preferred range, which is 22.5 degrees. A tolerance match never overrides a full ✅ match. You can turn it off at any time in Settings.

The shortest run of matching hours that makes a day worth marking. Set it to 3 and a day only becomes ✅ when at least three matching hours follow each other. Individual matching hours stay visible in the table, they just no longer make the day itself a match.

Each condition set needs its own run. Hours from different sets are never added together. The run is counted within your relevant hours, the daylight filter and the weekdays you allow, so hours excluded by those never count towards it.

Tap a day in the table, for example 'Tu' or 'We', and it expands to show the hourly forecasts and graphs. Tap the outlined area again to close it.

The number of days shown and evaluated. You set it in Settings, up to 10 days ahead depending on your subscription.

A fixed window of hours to show and evaluate. Anything outside it is ignored, whatever the forecast says. It applies on top of the daylight filter.

Sunrise and sunset are calculated per hour for each spot's own location. An hour counts as night when the sun is not up at the start of it: if the sun rises at 08:01, the 08:00 hour is night. Times are shown in your device's local time, like all other data in the app.

SurfSignal is not tied to one weather model. We work with the professional models available worldwide, from the high-resolution local models that national weather services run over their own territory to the global models that cover everything in between, plus live readings from official observation networks.

Which model you end up with is a deliberate design choice, and it is ours to make rather than yours. Knowing which model holds up in which region, at which range, and how to read the differences between them is a job in itself. So for every spot the most relevant combination is chosen for you, weighing resolution, update frequency and regional accuracy at that exact location. A spot in one country can therefore run on a completely different model than a spot a few hundred kilometres down the coast.

The result is one forecast you can act on, instead of a jungle of models, interpretations and quality differences to referee before you load the car.

As soon as new model data is published. We check as often as every 15 minutes and tune the interval per spot to the update cycle of its primary model, which runs from 15 minutes to a few hours.

When a weather station covers your spot, the table gains a 'now' column with the latest live measurement. Tap that column to expand the live wind graph and the wind direction at your spot.

Stations are listed closest first. To use a different one, tap the pin next to its name and it becomes your default for this spot. One exception to the ordering: for coastal spots, coastal stations take priority over inland stations that happen to be slightly closer, because a reading taken over open water matches what you feel at the spot better than one from a few kilometres inland. If you have marked the spot as a lake, that preference is dropped and the nearest station is used.

Live values are plotted against your spot's own forecast, not the station's. The same applies to the wind direction arrow on the mini map: it shows the station's wind direction over your spot's location.

The live icon tells you how fresh the reading is. Within 30 minutes it lights up bright blue, which is truly now. Older but still within the past 6 hours, the same range as the live wind graph, it stays dark blue and the latest wind, gust and direction are still shown. Your condition sets are evaluated against this same reading. After 6 hours without a report you will see dashes, so you know there is no recent data.

When a camera covers one of your spots, a camera icon appears on that spot. Tap it to open the view without leaving the app, and swipe sideways if more than one camera is in range. No icon means there is no camera near that spot.

The cams are public streams run by others: surf schools, clubs, municipalities and camera operators. We link to the original source and never re-host it, and every camera is checked by hand so it really looks at the water at or near your spot. It also means we do not control them. A stream can go down, move or be switched off by its owner, and when that happens we pause it, so the icon disappears until it works again.

Know a public camera near your spot that we are missing? Send the link to info@surf-signal.com and we will check it.

In Settings, switch Notifications on and allow them on your device when prompted. Then choose a time of day. At that moment we pull the latest model data, evaluate your spots and condition sets, and send one notification if there is a match.

At most once a day. Your spots are evaluated daily at the time you choose, and a single notification covers every match. Switch on 'Notify me when there are no matches' to also hear from us on days without one. You can silence a single spot with its bell icon.

Open the agenda view and tap the pen on a day. Tap the windows you want to plan, adjust the times if needed, and tap 'Save to calendar'. The first time, allow calendar access and choose which calendar to use. Your session then appears as an event with the spot, the name of your condition set, a route link, and a link your friends can use to download the spot.

SurfSignal adds an event when you save a plan, and it changes or removes that event when you update your plan. To change or remove its own events, the app must be able to find them again, and that requires full access. That is the only reason SurfSignal asks for it. Your calendar stays private: SurfSignal never sends calendar information to us or to anyone else. The app creates, changes and removes only its own SurfSignal events and leaves all your other events alone.

Any calendar your phone can write to: Google, iCloud, Outlook and others. You pick the calendar in SurfSignal under Settings, Calendar sync. If you switch to another calendar, your upcoming events move with you.

On iPhone, apps can only use calendars that iOS itself knows. The Google Calendar app does not share its calendars with iOS. Add your Google account to iOS first: open the iPhone Settings, go to Apps, Calendar, Accounts, choose Add Account, pick Google, sign in and switch Calendars on. (On older iOS versions: Settings, Calendar, Accounts.) After that, your Google calendars appear in the SurfSignal calendar picker.

No. An event shows the plan you saved and never changes by itself. If your plan changes, edit the day in SurfSignal and save again. The event then moves with it. Always check the forecast in SurfSignal before you go.

Tap the route link in the event. It opens the exact spot location in your maps app. Keep in mind that this is the spot itself, often on the water. Use it to find the area and pick your own parking or access point nearby. Some calendar apps also make the coordinates in the location field tappable. The route link works everywhere.

Your plans stay in SurfSignal. Upcoming events that SurfSignal created are removed from your calendar. Past events stay where they are.

Yes. Viewing the agenda is free for everyone. Planning sessions and syncing them to your own calendar is part of SurfSignal Super.

Super is the paid version of SurfSignal. Free gives you 2 active spots and forecasts up to 7 days ahead. Super raises that to 50 spots and 10 days, unlocks Match tolerance and Consecutive match hours in Settings, and lets you plan sessions from the agenda straight into your own calendar. If 50 spots is not enough, send an email to info@surf-signal.com and we can raise your limit.

Everything else is the same on both. Same forecasts, same live wind, same notifications, same data sources.

If you go from Super back to Free, nothing is deleted. Spots above the free limit are set aside and come back as soon as you are Super again.