App: WindPick
Developer: Quyen Ngo
Contact: qngo@icloud.com
WindPick uses your phone's location — or a region you pick — to find nearby coastal spots. For each one, it queries a live wind forecast (speed, gusts, and direction) and rates today's conditions. Every rating also checks wind direction against the spot's shore orientation, since that's the single biggest safety factor in wind sports. You see the best one as the hero, and the rest ranked behind it.
All wind data is fetched live from Open-Meteo, a free open weather API. Forecasts are model-based estimates; always check conditions yourself before launching.
Offshore wind blows from land out to sea. If your gear fails or the wind drops while you're offshore, you can be carried further from shore than you can paddle or swim back. WindPick flags any spot with offshore wind and caps its rating at "Poor" regardless of how good the speed looks — this is the single biggest safety call the App makes. Always verify wind direction yourself before launching; never rely on WindPick alone for a launch-safety decision.
Wind speed drives the rating first — WindPick looks for a rideable band roughly 15–25kt, with speeds below or above that band marked less ideal. Direction relative to the shoreline is layered on top: cross-shore (side-shore) wind is the community-standard ideal, onshore is safe but can push you toward the beach, and offshore is capped at "Poor" as above. Gusty conditions (gusts well above the sustained speed) are flagged separately. The full breakdown is in the App's "How WindPick picks" screen.
The spot dataset — over 13,000 points across the Australian coastline — is generated from OpenStreetMap coastline geometry, with shore-facing bearings derived automatically from the coastline shape. It is not a hand-curated list of known launch sites, and it does not account for launch space, obstacles, other water users, or local regulations. If you spot a spot in the wrong place, tap it and use "Report wrong location" at the bottom of the detail screen.
WindPick is free to download and shows you today's top pick. WindPick Pro is a one-time non-consumable In-App Purchase that unlocks the full ranked list. There is no subscription, no auto-renewal, no recurring charge.
Open Settings inside WindPick and tap "Restore Purchases". This re-applies any previous Apple-verified transactions on the same Apple ID.
WindPick defaults to Google Maps when it's installed, falling back to Apple Maps. Use the "Open in Google Maps / Apple Maps" buttons on the spot detail screen to override per-spot.
The rating is based on the live wind forecast at that coordinate, and nearby spots on the same stretch of coast can share very similar underlying wind numbers. Local microclimates (headlands, wind shadow from buildings or dunes, funneling effects) aren't visible in the model and won't be captured. Treat the rating as a quick filter, not a certified launch report — local knowledge always wins.
The current dataset covers Australia. We plan to expand coverage over time. If you'd like WindPick in your region, email us and let us know.
Email qngo@icloud.com with feedback, feature requests, or bug reports. We read every message.