End-of-Season Pro Forecast Survey

[bmmiller]

Attention all Pro and Gold subscribers,

As we progress into this El Niño winter, please consider taking a few minutes to provide us with your input into our Pro forecasts by completing the End-of-Season Pro Forecast Survey. Find it here: https://forms.gle/rM9b1XFs6aP8Spbv8

Thanks for making the 2023 season great!

[jse]

[windfind]

[isobars]

Signing in to anything, especially something I use only once or twice a year like my Google acct (I guess I have one), is so much hassle that I seldom bother. Anyone who has a Google acct at his/her/its fingertips is welcome to copy and paste this on Benjamin's survey, with or without attribution. My response would go something like the rest of this post:

Researching the forecasts (I consult 6 to 10 models and interpretations*), loading up enough food for a day or three, driving, rigging a few sails and boards, squirming into a freaking neck-entry wetsuit, and running that whole video in reverse eats up a day not even counting sailing time. (Never mind that a round trip costs me $100 in fuel.)

* I have yet to find any one source sufficiently and consistently accurate to base decisions on it. Every free or paid source wins and loses enough, and I learn enough from each source, that I'm not betting my go/no go decisions on any one source. Sometimes the amateur forecasters beat the pants off the pros, sometimes the pros win.

The most frustrating thing I often see is iW Pro's frequent failure to double check the agreement between their numbers and their words, which sometimes, arguably often, conflict dramatically. Their most useful forecasting contribution is their warnings about northerly wind cants that at least mess with, often outright destroy, the wind quality at many sites. Swimming my gear 500 yards from Roosevelt to catch 30 knots and 5 feet of swell on the Arlington side is no longer the "fun" it once was.

By far the most use I get out of iW is real time wind speeds on the water. Live data tell me far more about whether and what to rig -- sometimes even whether to make the drive -- than a dozen prognostications. Yet after years of begging for a sensor at Roosevelt, one of the Columbia Gorge's premiere launch sites, all we get is the Arlington sensor -- biased by an adjacent cliff and 10-20 knots, 20-30 critical degrees in direction, and 100 yards of dangerously dense weeds distant. I OFTEN see full-sized guys eagerly rigging -- sometimes even launching -- 3.x sails and little sinkers -- at Roosevelt when there's literally not enough wind for a 6.2 and a floater. At best, they just wear themselves out. At worst, they give up, go home, and miss a great day. Either way, a realistically placed sensor would help significantly.

How about raiding your corporate coffee fund and taking better care of the recreational demographic that gave you such a shot in the arm during your corporate infancy?

[prevett]

Hi Mike

> We don't do human forecasts for Maui, hence the lack of a survey.

I agree with this. The computer models provided on Iwindsurf do a good job for predicting the wind here on Maui for near, medium, and long term.

Bob

[gerritt]

Done and not that difficult via Google. Sorry Iso, resistance is futile!

[jse]

[cbknap]

Mike et al: Thanks for reading the survey results and changing the forecast back to 7:30!

[windfind]