New Maps and Graphs - Limited Beta

[david]

Announcing a limited beta test of our new maps and graphs system:

http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwhere.iws?regionID=1088

This new system should look much the same as our current system with familiar maps, graphs and forecasts (meteograms). But it's designed for very easy creation of new regions with lots of wind reports and the ability to generate forecasts for any point on the earth.

As soon as we work out the kinks (we are timezone-challenged) we will expand the beta test to include lots of regions we don't currently cover. Your feedback is much appreciated during this phase!

Thanks,

iWindsurf team

[vims]

Looking at the tidewater virginia region...

I'm glad to see the York River Coast Guard Station and East Rear Range Light sensors included in the new version. That fills in a big gap between Gloucester Point and New Point Comfort.

[vims]

There's no way to look past the current day in the new "model tables" forecast.

[david]

thanks for the feedback! Actually, the time navigation is still there, but it's zipped up under the "customize" tab. We added the tabs in an attempt to reduce clutter, but it doesn't work perfectly. Specifically, we realized putting the time drop-down under "customize" doesn't make a lot of sense, so we're probably going to pull it back out of the tab soon. We also plan to add the little "play" "pause" "forward" "back" controls back in there.

[Shirin]

Please include Berkley and Treasure Island in the SF south map as it was in the old map. Many of us in Bay Area, usually check all the sites and make decision on where to go. Right now we have to go back and forth between SF south and north , or look at the SF map which looks extremely crowded. Thanks

[djcovarrubias2]

The global wind data is sooo awesome! I travel to Chile a lot-- born there, parents still live there-- and every time I go sailing there it feels like a crap shoot to make the 3 hr drive to the beach. I can't tell you how hard I searched the net for the sort of info you've just added to your website. Now I can use the same technology I use at the Gorge when I sail at Matanzas! How cool is that?

Thanks again,

Diego Covarrubias
Portland, OR, USA

[SWE106]

awesome, somebody must have put a lot of time and effort in compiling all these data. I always like to check out the wind in my home countries: sweden and holland, and now i don't need to surf to 10 different websites anymore! keep up the good work! when are you going to set up windsensors in each country?

I can hook you up with some realtime windsensor data from beaches around south sweden, that give the same data as iwindsurf's sensors. Let me know if you're interested: soulsurferusa@yahoo.com

aloha,
arnie

[ssoule]

lots of work, but my jet plane in in the repair shop... so I don't go to europe to sail much anymore!!

[david]

thanks for the feedback!

Arnie, we're not going to set up our own wind sensors in sweden any time soon, but we're always interested in other sources of data - someone will contact you soon.

Shirin, that's a great suggestion - consider it done. In fact, that's exactly the sort of feedback we're looking for:

1. region boundaries not quite right
2. missing regions (not zoomed in or out enough)
3. missing wind data
4. missing forecast only spots (we can generate forecasts for any point on the planet
5. poorly named locations or regions

Thanks - keep it coming!

[ccyne]

The New beta is cool. Will be even better when all the features such as myIW are incorporated. In the Tidewater area the coverage is now excellent especially if the First Colony station comes back up. If It doesn't there is another "public access" sensor located on a buoy in the James River at Jamestown that could replace it. The link is below.
http://www.buoybay.org/site/public/data/status.php
Thanks for the free full trial in conjunction with the Beta test. I typically use the free version because in the past there were stations not covered in your system that I could get from other sites on the web or mobile phone for no cost. In the beta a good bit of those sites are covered now. I am still torn on the cost to value aspect of a subscription. It might be worth your while to poll your current subscribers and free users to find out specifically what they feel the value of your current subscription service is.

[mluckner]

The new beta design looks good.

I could not find the tide charts for the Bay Area locations. Will they be available in the final version? The tides and the current help decide where and when to go sailing and may turn a good day in the bay Area into a very good day.

[rschu]

I know the last guy just mentioned it - but ... knowing the tide is as important as the wind for my choice of when and where to sail. I'd like to see the tide on a second y axis on the individual wind charts, sort of like the wind prediction is shown

[stevesekhon]

I like the cool global map this system starts with. i sail in the SF Bay area and in order to check the sites I might sail at, I now have to click on three different areas: South SF Bay, North SF Bay, and I didn't mess around to find the third that would show Sherman Island because I switched back to the old system.

[juk1]

For the San Francisco Bay Area is prefer the old map.
To see the same sites as the old map I have to look at three different maps, or one very large one that covers much more than I care for and required multiple click to get individual site data.

Old map (the one I like, non-beta version)
http://www.iwindsurf.com/windandwhere.iws?regionID=125&geographicalAreaID=4

When switching to the new map system the above link only shows the north-west side of the bay, I am losing the sites down to 3rd ave and up to Sherman island.

Yes, I can see all the sites at once by selecting a bigger map but this shows much more than I care for. I addition, when clicking on a site in the bigger map it first loads the smaller map, then I have to click on the site again to get the wind graph.

JUK

[slavik]

Even though the number of sensors has increased - thank you for that, the ease of use actually got much worth. It takes so many screen refreshes to get to the desired region of the map. Can you just use something like google map interface instead, where the user can select the area he/she would like to see him/herself instead of forcing people to make 5/6 screen reloads just to get to desired area. Now with increased number of sensors on the map - it is hard to find an empty place on the map to select a region to zoom into without getting into specific sensor page. Don't limit the map size to 550x545 pixels. I have a huge monitor - let me use it please, just dynamically resize the map and let the people zoom in with out reloading entire page.