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Set your conditions per spot: wind, direction, tide
Your wind range for your level and your gear, the directions that work at YOUR spot, enough water: set it once per spot, and Tide It shows you this week's windows — then lets you know.
If all of these conditions are met, in daylight:
- Wind speed between 12 and 25 knots
- Wind coming from the west-northwest, give or take 45° (247° to 337°)
- From 3 h before to 3 h after high tide (the bay empties at low tide)
Then: a GO window in your week, on the curve, and a notification if you want one.
Why set things per spot?
The same wind doesn't give the same session everywhere. An 18-knot northwesterly can be perfect at one beach and dangerous at the next, where it blows off the land. And on water that empties at low tide, like the Arcachon bay in France, no water means no session.
That's why Tide It keeps your preferences per spot and per sport, in Activities ▸ GO windows. You set them once; the app uses them to show you this week's GO windows, put them on the curve and let you know.
Our example: a kitesurfer at Andernos – Le Betey, on the Arcachon bay. Use your own numbers: yours are the ones that count.
Step by step
- Open Activities ▸ GO windows and switch on Kitesurfing
- Set your conditions: wind, direction, tide
- Read your week, then see the window on the curve
- Get notified: the bell, with your conditions
1Open Activities ▸ GO windows and switch on Kitesurfing
Open Tide It on your spot: its name is in the pill at the bottom of the screen (wrong one? the + at the bottom left finds it). Tap the pill, then Activities, then the GO windows tab (circled).
Below it there's a row: This week, then the sports — Wing, Kitesurfing, Kitefoil, Sailing. Swipe it and tap Kitesurfing: its settings open. The switch at the top right turns tracking on: Tracking on.
These settings only apply to this spot: each spot keeps its own.
2Set your conditions: wind, direction, tide
Leave Automatic off (circled): you set your own limits. Below it, “If all of the following conditions are met:”, one condition per line.
Wind speed, between 12 and 25: your minimum to go out, your maximum to stay on the beach. Set them for your level and your gear. Tap a number to type it, or use − and +. The unit follows your settings: knots here.
Wind direction: the directions that work at THIS spot. The first menu sets the centre (WNW 292.5°), the second the tolerance (± 45°).
Before/after tide: 3.0 h before and 3.0 h after high tide. At Le Betey the bay empties at low tide: outside those six hours there isn't enough water.
Easier to see: tap the small direction dial. It opens full size. Drag the handle to where the wind that works is coming from, and set the Tolerance with the slider: the blue sector is what you accept, and its limits are written underneath (247° → 337°). Tap OK.
Does your spot depend on a water height instead? Tap the + at the end of a line: a new line appears below it. Its name opens the list of conditions: choose Water height, then now, greater than and your value — the height the Today curve shows. The − removes a line.
Don't feel like setting things up? Turn on Automatic and pick your Rider level, from Beginner to Expert: the app fits the windows to your level, but with its own criteria, not your range or your directions. And for sailing or windsurfing it's the same with the Sailing sport and a Water height line for your minimum depth.
3Read your week, then see the window on the curve
Tap This week (circled): the seven days, with the tides (▲ high tide, ▼ low tide). A green block is a GO window: all your conditions met, in daylight. Elsewhere, “no window”. The number next to “This week” counts them: two here, Wednesday and Sunday.
Tap a block: the details open. Wednesday 21, 1:00 to 5:00 PM, hour by hour: the wind and its direction, the Gusts, the water height, and the Best window. Check the gusts: your range is judged on the average wind.
Tap Show on the curve: Tide It goes back to Today, on the right day and hour. The “Kitesurfing” window sits on the wind curve, above the tide.
These windows come from the forecast: they move with it. Take another look the day before, and once there, look at the water.
4Get notified: the bell, with your conditions
At the top right of Activities, the bell: “Enable GO window notifications here”. Tap it, and if your iPhone asks to allow notifications, say yes. It uses your settings for the spot: nothing to type again.
Tide It then lets you know in three steps. “A window is shaping up — Kitesurfing”: a window of at least two hours spotted two to five days ahead, when the models agree. “Confirmed — Kitesurfing tomorrow” (or “Called off”): the day before. “GO window — Kitesurfing”: on the day, when a weather station right nearby measures your wind speed and direction — it only looks at the wind, so check the tide.
These checks run in the background whenever iOS wakes the app: iOS decides when.
Want an alert of your own, with the tide and the wind, and a preview of your week? The My alerts tab builds an alert with the same conditions (wind speed, direction, before/after tide): how it works is in the fishing alert tutorial.
What the app doesn't do (yet)
No kite size, no body weight. Tide It doesn't ask about your gear or your build: your wind range takes care of that. Set your minimum and maximum for the kite you're taking.
No swell for wind sports. Wave height isn't part of the kite settings or of alerts. Only Surfing has its minimum and maximum swell, in GO windows ▸ Surfing, at surf spots. No rowing either for now: the sports are Wing, Kitesurfing, Kitefoil, Sailing and Surfing.
Good to know
Do I need Premium?
Setting up a sport at a spot is free. Reading this week's GO windows, tracking several sports at the same spot and getting the notifications take Premium. When you install Tide It you get 15 days of Premium for free, no payment details needed.
Do my settings follow me to iPad and Mac?
Yes, with the same iCloud account: your sports and conditions, spot by spot, carry over to your iPad and Mac, where you'll find Activities ▸ GO windows too.
What about gusts?
Wind speed is judged on the average wind. Gusts are in each window's details: check them before you pick your kite. Automatic mode does take them into account.
Why no window this week?
Your conditions never come together in daylight: not enough wind, the wrong direction, or the wind drops at low tide. That's often the right answer. Otherwise widen a setting: the preview at the bottom of the sport's settings updates straight away.
Can I rely on it for navigation?
No. Tide It is an aid for your leisure time. Before you go, always look at the water, the actual wind and the spot's rules (kite zones, buoyed channels).