After last weekend’s debacle of a surf forecast from every major player in the market, I feel like it’s high time everyone took off their training wheels and learn how to make your own call. The great thing about being your own Sean Collins is that all the information is free and easy to find, you’ll impress your friends (or depress depending on the situation) with this new found knowledge, and most importantly, you’ll know when the waves are good, not when a Web site says the waves are good…

Bombora charges a nominal amount for putting all this wonderful ocean data together, and it’s only going to get better and more feature-rich with time. We’re adding more stations, more forecasts, and more tidal stations; and don’t think for a second that we’re not looking for ways to include swell models in Bombora, too!

Knowing the surf will arrive just got easier.

We think his article is a great resource and we’re delighted to share it with you. The network of buoys that NOAA has established is a remarkable scientific achievement and an incredibly useful tool with a multitude of applications.

On the surface buoys are pretty simple to understand. They are basically floating sensor platforms…part weather station and part ocean measuring system. They give us near real-time observations of ocean and weather conditions, usually for a fixed point near a coastline or sometimes in the deep ocean water …

For the average surfer the buoys are a great way to paint yourself an accurate picture of what is happening swell-wise and wind-wise in our local waters. Armed with that knowledge you can make good choices on where and when to surf, keeping yourself safe and, almost equally important, helping you score some quality waves.

Check out the full article at the Southern California Surf Forecast blog

A sneak peek of the Bombora 'Nearby Buoys' screen

Using this fantastic technology, Bombora is able to figure out where you are, and display a comprehensive list of the nearest buoys!

We’re releasing this beautiful screenshot of the Bombora location-aware services, in action, so you can get an idea of the magnificent glory that’s coming your way soon…

It’s called Bombora, and buoy data just doesn’t get any better than this.

A sneak peek of the Bombora buoy screen

As you can see, we’ve filtered the buoys to provide quick and efficient access to the buoys that are important to you. Curious to see what’s going on in the entire buoy network? Browse through the “All Stations” section; or mark your ‘Favorite’ buoys and get one-tap access to a wealth of excellent information.

Here we also reveal an exciting feature of Bombora… support for directional swell data, provided by CDIP at Scripps. We’ve created a section for just these buoys, being as supremely useful as they are.

Other aspects of the buoys tab are pretty self-evident; we’ve used the location-aware features of iPhone to present the buoys that are closest to you, and also filtered the buoys into regions to make for easy navigation. To top it all off, our beautiful icons make it impossible for a reasonable person to take their eyes off the screen.

Stay tuned for more sneak previews, screenshots, and the upcoming release of Bombora in Spring of 2009!

NOAA maintains a network of buoys, tidal stations and satellite measurements...

This information, in addition to assisting surf forecasters, is vital to the operation of international shipping, marine safety, and global oceanographic research.

Bombora uses buoy, tidal station, and swell model data provided by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center (NDBC.)

We also use data from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography’s Coastal Data Information Project (CDIP,) and NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS.) That’s about as many acronyms and large words as we care to use in one sentence.

The Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) collects, analyzes and distributes historical and real-time observations and predictions of water levels, coastal currents and other meteorological and oceanographic data.

This is part of an integrated National Ocean Service program supporting safe maritime navigation, more productive water-borne commerce, and the needs of the National Weather Service, coastal zone management, engineering and surveying communities.

The Center manages the National Water Level Observation Program and the national network of Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems in major U.S. harbors. It conducts its programs through university, industry, Federal and State partnerships as appropriate. CO-OPS resides within NOAA’s National Ocean Service.

There have been no known capsizings of 6-meter NOMAD hulls.

There have been no known capsizings of 6-meter NOMAD hulls. The relatively small size of the NOMAD allows for superb transportability via flatbed trailer, rail, or ship. Like the 3-meter discus, they are less likely to corrode and the magnetic effects on the compass are slight.

An example of a C-MAN platform

The development of C-MAN was in response to a need to maintain meteorological observations in U. S. coastal areas. Such observations, which had been made previously by USCG personnel, would have been lost as many USCG navigational aids were automated under the Lighthouse Automation and Modernization Program (LAMPS). In all, approximately 60 stations make up C-MAN.

C-MAN stations have been installed on lighthouses, at capes and beaches, on near shore islands, and on offshore platforms (see the NDBC station location map for all station locations).

C-MAN station data typically include barometric pressure, wind direction, speed and gust, and air temperature; however, some C-MAN stations are designed to also measure sea water temperature, water level, waves, relative humidity, precipitation, and visibility.

These data are processed and transmitted hourly to users in a manner almost identical to moored buoy data. In addition to the conventional method of data transmission, certain C-MAN stations are equipped with telephone modems that allow more frequent data acquisition, data quality checking, and remote payload reconfiguration or restarting.

Source: National Data Buoy Center/ National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration