Data Field: Surf Tracker

[FONT=Arial Black]Surf Tracker[/FONT]

Version 1.20
https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/ded87d46-5477-4ca7-a247-847b896393e0

Track your surfing sessions in real time! This data field estimates the number of waves ridden using a speed and time threshold to mark the start and end of a wave ride.

Info shown (from left to right):

  • your total number of waves ridden and the total wave ride time (min:sec)
  • for your latest wave ride: wave ride time (seconds), maximum speed during the wave ride (km/hr or mph) and the distance covered (meters or yards)
  • the numbers in red show the maximum values for the wave ride time, speed and distance during the activity
  • For square watches, the bottom line shows the time of day and elapsed time of the activity. For round watches and the Vivo HR, the top line shows the time of day and the bottom line shows the elapsed time.




Notes:

1) This data field must be used in a 1-field data screen and should be set up before starting the activity. I use an Activity > Other > Paddle, but any activity with GPS ON should work. Open water swim will work but the GPS tracks are noisier since the sampling rate is lower, but it may be the better option for surfing when your arm is in and out of the water. Some activities smooth the speed data more than others and will give less accurate results (eg. a walking activity will not work as well as paddling or cycling). Vivoactive users try the Cycling activity, the Run activity will smooth the speed values to much to even out the Pace and this won't work well with the wave detection.

2) The summary stats and a speed plot are saved to Garmin Connect once the Activity is ended and saved:


3) This has been tested many times with standup paddle surfing. It has taken a while to get the thresholds working accurately. The detection thresholds can be changed using the Garmin Connect Mobile app (see https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?332843-How-to-App-Settings for help):

There are four settings to mark a wave ride based on speed, time and distance.


An event starts when the speed is >= 9 kph, it must last at least 6 seconds (above 9kph) and have a max speed of at least 13 kph to be counted. The event ends when it falls below 9kph. The min distance is set to 0m, but this can be changed to avoid false detections. These thresholds work well for standup paddle surfing, but try changing them and post your results. It should work for: standup paddle surfing, surfing, kayak surf, surf ski and maybe standup paddle downwinding.

Threshold ranges and defaults:
1) Start/stop threshold: default 9kph, range 5-50 kph
2) Time threshold: default 6s, range 2-60s
3) Max speed in event has to be >= 13kph, range 0-50kph
4) Min distance: default 0m (disabled), range 0-1000m

Typical values:
Standup paddle surfing: general setting for all waves
9kph, 6s, 13kph, 0m

Standup paddle downwinding (Hood River)
10kph, 10s, 12kph, 20m

4) The stats from each wave ride can be saved to a text file using the instructions at the bottom of the page (advanced users only, unsupported).

----------------- Planned Updates------------------

1) none hopefully


----------------- Version History ------------------

0.2 datafield now updates even when not visible.

0.3 added min distance to threshold test (now min 9km/hr for 5s and 15 m) to avoid paddling out/false wave counts, especially for SUP (eventually these values will be user selectable).

0.4 more tweaks after on-water tests (now min 9km/hr for 6sec), 19 waves and only 2 false readings and that was when I was chucked over the falls...

0.5 changed totdist and elapsed time to use the last good point of the event, instead of first one below the threshold, since when falling in it might take a while to get gps fix again and this will add to the waveride time. This should only decrease the wave ride time. The threshold test is now: >= 9km/hr for >= 6 sec and maxspeed >= 13 km/hr, redesign screen, add total wave ride time in min:sec

0.6 add fenix support.

0.7 bug fixed- crash when data field is in view and GPS just becomes active

0.8 D2Bravo, Epix and Vivoactive (separate app) support, compile using SDK 1.1.4. Latest numbers are green during an event (shows green if above speed threshold, even if below time threshold).

v0.9 new SDK 1.2.1, support for fr230/fr235

v0.95 new SDK, 2.1.3, support for Vivoactive HR

v1.0 added GCM settings for thresholds, changed distance calculation (should be shorter and more accurate), added 1 field Vivoactive support (got rid of the separate version)

v1.20 Garmin Connect summary stats and wave speed plot output
_________
** Advanced user only+unsupported method to save each wave ride to a text file on your device:

Place a *.TXT file in the /GARMIN/APPS/LOGS folder on your device, where * is the name of the .PRG file in the /GARMIN/APPS folder. Look for a file that is ~12 kilobytes. On my device it is 69SI5820.PRG, so I would create an empty file in /GARMIN/APPS/LOGS/69SI5820.TXT

To find out the filename, uninstall Surf Tracker, make a note of the *.PRG files in the /GARMIN/APPS folder, install Surf Tracker then note which PRG file is new.

Sample output format:
Wave# TimeofDay WaveRideTime(sec) WaveRideMaxSpeed(kph) WaveRideDistance(m)
1 07:26 20 28.8 113.4
2 07:28 13 27.6 76.8
3 07:33 21 30.2 122.2

Copy the file to your computer after a few sessions. I copy and paste the details into the notes section of the activity on Garmin Connect. The file will be appended to until it gets too big (10KB), then it will be overwritten. I had 3 days of sessions saved and it was only 1.8KB.
  • + 1 for Vivoactove HR support

    Hi,

    Another HR user who is very interested in a version for it.

    Not noticed any excessive battery drain in salt water, spent three hours out yesterday and all as normal.
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    Great APP!!

    Hi,

    I am happy user of Surf track App. Like others this app was important in order to make the decision to buy the fenix 3. I am happy with the app, but as others would like to see developments in the app. Crow founding could be a good idea, I would be happy to support the development.

    I wanted to share my experience. Although I am happy I guess there is space for improvement :-)

    I share a session I had this morning. You can see wave count and speed in the comments. As you can see there are a few waves that mark too high speeds. Wave number 24 marks a speed of 100 km/h. I am fast... but still no winds ;) there two or three more wave that are too high from my point of view. On the other hand the data field counted 39 waves. And i can tell I haven't ride more than 10, being generous. I do not know if this is the results I should expect but is what I get with my fenix3 :-)

    https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1355880066


    Thanks for the effort!!
  • Hi zigor21:

    Thanks for the comments and for posting your activity. When I plot the results of your TCX file, it looks like you have at least 7 large jumps in speed (>40 kph, up to 100 kph) in your activity (see the 2 plots below). Maybe you are losing GPS? Are you wearing the watch outside of the wetsuit? Also it looks like you have lots of segments at 10-20 kph, I count at least 20 and this is giving you a high wave count. Are you moving around that much and not on waves?

    With my 920XT the speed plots are a lot more obvious when I am on a wave - it is 3-5 kph when I am paddling around and then >~10 kph when on a wave.

    The only thing we can improve is to wait until you can use custom settings for the speed thresholds and then you can select higher values than the defaults.


  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    hi,

    Yes i was wearing the wacht out of the suit. But I have been thinking and I surf with a shortboard and I just realized that I tend to wait for the wave with my hands on the board, that is under water I guess it may be losing gps signal. :roll eyes: I opened the FIT file with Excel and I saw there are quite a few lines with the message "Error at position: LONGSEQUENCENUMBERLETTERS" Could this mean gps loses?

    This session was a hard one, the swell was a mix swell and it was difficult to find the take off zone. So i had to move a lot around looking for waves. Anyway, I use to move quite a lot around.

    About segments of 10-20kph I guess they are attempts to get on the waves. As a said the swell was quite mixed and the wave would stand up but needed to be right under the lip or take of or it would not allow you in.... I guess could be those 10-20 figures.

    I am quite busy next week, but as soon as a have time I will go for another session an try to keep my arm above the water :D and see what results I get.

    My brother just got the Fenix HR, I will tell him to share his session as well...
  • version 0.95: new SDK, 2.1.3, added support for Vivoactive HR (major redesign was needed)

    version 1.0: added GCM settings for thresholds (see the first post in the thread for info), changed distance calculation (should be shorter and more accurate), added 1 field Vivoactive support and got rid of the separate Vivoactive version

    Planned updates: look into saving the wave summary details into the FIT file

    https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/ded87d46-5477-4ca7-a247-847b896393e0
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    Help on changing settings

    version 0.95: new SDK, 2.1.3, added support for Vivoactive HR (major redesign was needed)

    version 1.0: added GCM settings for thresholds (see the first post in the thread for info), changed distance calculation (should be shorter and more accurate), added 1 field Vivoactive support and got rid of the separate Vivoactive version

    Planned updates: look into saving the wave summary details into the FIT file

    https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/ded87d46-5477-4ca7-a247-847b896393e0


    Where do I go on the mobile app or garmin connect to change the settings?
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    Help on finding settings on garmin connect mobile app

    Where do I go to change the settings on the garmin connect mobile app for the new enhancements?
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    data saving

    Hi BWD,
    Im really struggling with saving the data, or viewing it post surf. It all works fine in the water, and I'm very impressed, but getting very confused when it comes to saving the text file from the apps and getting it into the log. Basically there are 14 text files and none of them resemble the size or numbers described. I spoke to the Garmin people and they warned me about saving the wrong text file as it could do some sort of damage to the software on the device... and that was about where their advise ended.
    Maybe the coming FIT file saving will be the answer.
    But for now so I need some better guidance if you are able, thanks
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    Good stuff!

    Hi, so far tried once on the VA HR, seemed to keep count quite well and nice to have an idea of how many waves caught etc in a session. I've just set up the text file so will see how that goes later!

    As others have said it would be great to be able to review session in connect so you could match up waves caught to the mapping stored on the device. I wonder if for normal surfing you could delete out the squiggly paddling etc in between waves caught to leave a nice visual of only waves caught?

    Thanks for the app anyway, look forward to seeing how it develops.
  • Where do I go to change the settings on the garmin connect mobile app for the new enhancements?

    See here for info on App Settings: https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?332843-How-to-App-Settings

    Hi BWD,
    Im really struggling with saving the data, or viewing it post surf. It all works fine in the water, and I'm very impressed, but getting very confused when it comes to saving the text file from the apps and getting it into the log. ...

    Sorry, my fault for not updating the size of the latest version: look for a file in \GARMIN\APPS\*.PRG file that is about 11,255 bytes

    You could try removing the app, then re-downloading it and then seeing which one changed in the APPS folder. Then use the name (eg. on mine it is \GARMIN\APPS\FC662511.PRG so I made an empty text file \GARMIN\APPS\LOGS\FC662511.TXT).

    If that doesn't make sense then use the "Contact developer" link on the Surf Tracker page and send me an email, then we can figure it out.