SurfShot.com Surf Report Help

• How does the SurfShot.com Surf Report work?
• What time is the first Surf Report updated?
• What time is the Photo Surf Report updated?
• What is the “Early Bird” report?
• What is the difference between the “Early Bird” report and the Morning Surf Report?
• What is the Afternoon Surf Report?
• What time is the Afternoon Surf Report Updated?
• Why don't you offer the Afternoon Surf Report on weekends?
• What are the Forecast Panel Links?
• How often is the information on the Forecast Links updated?
• What Forecast Links are Available?
• Where does the Weather information come from?
• Why doesn't SurfShot.com create a…?

1. How does the SurfShot.com Surf Report work?

SurfShot.com offers 25 daily surf reports for surf spots in San Diego County.

Everyday, we have photographers who drive up and down the coast from Sunset Cliffs to Oceanside to take pictures and make videos of the current surf conditions. Aside from photos and video, the surf report includes text information, transmitted straight from the beach with a cell phone.

Surf Reports are posted in the morning and afternoon during the workweek. On weekends the report is posted only in the morning.

2. What time is the first Surf Report updated?

The SurfShot.com Early Bird Report updates the surf reports literally at the crack of dawn. The "Early Bird Report" is updated live from the beach as soon as our reporters get there.

After taking pictures and videos of the current surf conditions, the reporters call the office to pass along the updated report so it can be posted on the Web site. The pictures are then posted online about one hour after sunrise.

3. What time is the Photo Surf Report updated?

Our photographers get to the beach when there is enough light to start taking pictures. On average it takes 60 minutes to drive through each region.

Selecting and uploading the pictures and videos on average take 30 minutes. It takes almost one and a half to two hours from the time the surf reporters get to the first spot until the surf report with pictures goes live. Depending on the season and daylight savings variables, the reports go live between 7:00am and 9:00am.

4. What is the “Early Bird” report?

The "Early Bird" report is a text report detailing the conditions of each of the surfing spots that SurfShot.com currently covers.

The "Early Bird Report" is updated live from the beach as soon as our reporters get there. After they check the surf conditions, take pictures and make videos of each spot, the reporters call the office with their cell phones and a SurfShot team member in the office types in the Early Bird Report info for each spot on the Web site.

5. What is the difference between the “Early Bird” report and the Morning Surf Report?

The Surfing information is the same. The difference is that the Morning Surf Report has photos and videos. After driving through the spots and updating the Early Bird report, our reporters upload all pictures and videos of each spot.

6. What is the Afternoon Surf Report?

Just like early in the morning, we send our reporters to our 25 surf spots again in the afternoon to check the surf conditions. The conditions from morning to afternoon change often. The wind blows, the tide changes, etc. By checking the surf conditions again we help our users and members decide if they should go surfing after work or school.

7. What time is the Afternoon Surf Report Updated?

The surf check is done between noon and 2pm and the site is updated at around 2:30pm. Again, depending on daylight savings variables, we will work towards making the afternoon surf report later so it provides our users with an even better idea of how the surf will be late in the afternoon. If you would like to suggest what time you would prefer to see the afternoon reports updated, please send email to comments@surfshot.com.

8. Why don't you offer the Afternoon Surf Report on weekends?

We don't do afternoon surf report updates on Saturday and Sunday due to the heavy traffic during weekend afternoons on streets and freeways. Traffic is already a big problem, but the real challenge is to find a parking spot on eight consecutive beaches. After numerous parking tickets and hours of wasted time in heavy traffic jams, we decided to eliminate the afternoon reports on the weekends.

9. What are the Forecast Panel Links?

The Forecast Panel was created to give our users up to date, timely information throughout the day. We gather important data from both weather.com and from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The pooled information is displayed on the right column of the surf report pages at SurfShot.com.

10. How often is the information on the Forecast Links updated?

The control panel is updated every 20 minutes.

11. What Forecast Links are Available?

Swell Model
The swell model image is a small version of the swell model information provided by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO) found at http://cdip.ucsd.edu/models/socal_now.gif. If you click on the swell model image it will take you to our Forecast Links Window and will display the original version of the swell model straight from the SIO site.

Tide Information
The control panel displays the current day’s tide information for San Diego in both a chart and a table format. Clicking on the tide image causes a pop-up window to show with a larger version of the tide chart that displays the tides for the current and next days. Below the table of the tide information we also display the current tide at the time you are checking the Web site. This particlular feature is updated every 20 minutes.

Water Temperature, Wave Period, and Height
This information is gathered from the SIO Pier readings, available at http://meteora.ucsd.edu/weather/observations/sio_pier/display/latest_pier obs. The water temperature is the Sea Bottom Temperature at the Pier.

The wave period and height are also readings at the Scripps Pier and should not be confused with what our reporters’ information in our surf reports regarding how big the waves are.

12. Where does the Weather information come from?

The weather information comes from the current information displayed on http://www.accuweather.com/

13. Why doesn't SurfShot.com create a…?

We would love to hear your suggestions!!!

Please send emails to webmaster@surfshot.com and let us know how can we create a better site for you!