Garmin Instinct Surf - Wave count and Forecast

Hello guys,

I just bought my Garmin Instinct Surf Edition, and I’m struggling with the Surf activity, when I paddle to the point after riding a wave, it counts as if I’m surfing. Is there a way to make it more accurate? Last Surf session I got 59 waves, which it wasn’t realistic.

Also, does Garmin Instinct Surf have a wave forecast app for surfing? It supposed to be a smartwatch exclusive for surfing, but it doesn’t have one of the most important features, which is wave forecast, only tides.

Anyone knows a way to solve these problems?

Thanks.

Top Replies

All Replies

0 Tony T over 4 years ago

I was actually going to buy this model but after reading various comments like your I'm changing the idea....

0 3505122 over 4 years ago

I have a ripcurl search gps and recently bought a garmin fenix 6 x pro and to be honest, ripcurl is much more accurate. I recently used both in the same surf session and the results such as number of waves ridden is absolutrely wrong in the fenix 6. They should try to copy the software of the ripcurl search.

0 Tony T over 4 years ago in reply to 3505122

Very bad news then.. Fenix 6 pro was my first choice and I thought it was quite accurate in terms of n. of waves ridden etc...

0 seanoz67 over 4 years ago

Same problem.I had a Forerunner 935 which you could download a surfing data field from another developer on which you could adjust speed,length of ride and time on the Garmin Connect app so it cut most of the false readings and worked really well but with the surf app on the Instinct I can’t find anywhere to adjust the parameters so it registers any time the watch shows you moving a couple of metres.Garmin should install his data field as standard.

0 Rodrigo over 4 years ago

Same issue here. I used to surf with my Apple Watch (Dawn Patrol app) and it was waaay more precise. My last session was the same, more than 50 waves counted, and the problem with this is that you can’t even see your real waves in the middle of that.

When I bought the Instinct Solar Surf I thought garmin had spent some time developing it, but it’s only marketing.

I saw a video on YouTube of a guy using the SUP activity mode for surfing, it doesn’t count the number of waves but at least count total paddle distance. I will try this next time.

0 8486654 over 4 years ago

Correct. I am a surfer in Hawaii and surf everyday. This watch is useless for real tide or swell conditions. And the surf feature is totally inaccurate and useless. Definitely a marketing gimmick that they could easily resolve if they actually gave a crap about surfers by writing accurate software for these functions. They don’t. Don’t waste your money on this watch unless What tou care about only is amazing battery life and biometric tracking like heart rate etc.

0 seanoz67 over 4 years ago

Please make Surf Tracker data field available for Instinct owners as the surf app on the watch is useless.Garmin is where Surf Tracker was 5 years ago.According to this watch I am catching 40 - 60 waves every session and travelling at a top speed of 12 km/h where as Surf Tracker is remarkably accurate with the wave count and normally had me surfing at mid 20 km/h in Australia and mid 40km/h surfing in Indonesia

0 1790845 over 4 years ago

I give it back. The shop refounded all the money and I bought a Fenix 6 solar. I have installed the Surf Tracker 2 and the app is perfect. After every wave the watch vibes and you can easily see what you have done. The last saturday i tried it for the first time in small mushy conditions. Every wave was sharply detected.

0 Nehows over 4 years ago in reply to 1790845

Quick question!!, does the surf tracker works for you with the factory/in built Garmin surf app?? I did not manage it to work, and only with any other app of the watch apart from the surf one, which is totally *** as you loose all the connect features meant to be for surfing...

0 TheCroucher over 4 years ago

Well sorry to report having same issues. I contacted Garmin and did not get the answers I had hoped for . So I sold my RipCurl Search GPS2 and bought instinct surf solar because I wanted a watch with heart rate that I could use for other activities, bike, running, etc. I expected this to kick ass out of the box. But I can't see wave count while surfing, the wave counts are totally messed up like "67 waves" per session and totally inaccurate. and during the session, even if I "lock" the watch, the screen keeps changing and beeping and starting and stopping actdivity because buttons are getting triggered. and very difficult for me to figure out what the tide is (time and height). I had a Garmin forerunner let me lock keys and never came unlocked during a surf session. same with my Ripcurl. you are going to depress buttons on a watch during a surf session, my old forerunner let you customize data fields and crunch surf session with apps and worked better. pretty baffled why Garmin not absolutely nailing this with the surf watch. they told me the watch detects when i sit or stand up and that's how it counts waves....? that makes no sense for an algo to me. I wish i had better results to report. i might look at getting the fenix and running the surf tracker app, but i feel I shouldn't have to do this for a watch marketed as a "surf" watch? i feel like my choices are go back to the RipCurl watch or go Apple Watch. It seems this is an easy fix (software/app update), have a real waves surfed algo, give wave count on default screen, make a combo or sequence key combo to unlock during a session, and give robust tiide data and ability to store "favorite" tide spots. thank you.