In our first blog post, I would like to talk about how the WavesTracker idea was born and how it evolved to what it is today.
It all started when a good friend of mine purchased a “Surf Tracking Device” and shared a few of his surf sessions with me. I was hooked, the details and ability to keep track of my surf sessions and my progression on the sport is something that I felt that I was waiting for. However, I did not want to attach a ‘dongle’ to my surfboard.
After a couple of weeks of waiting on a price drop, I watched a TV ad (from a big mobile phone maker) where a group of people jumps in the water with their phones. That right there and then was when the idea struck me, phones do have a lot of sensors, I could use that! And this is how the WavesTracker Version 1 was born.
After about 6 months (perhaps less than that) and less than 50 downloads of the app, I had to rethink the idea of using a smartphone/mobile device. At that time my previous watch had just died on me (water), that’s when I thought about getting a Fitness Tracker with GPS and giving that a shot.
With the way the app has been designed (to process the data collected after a surf session), it was easy to create a prototype to check if it would be possible to make the most of a watch that was GPS enabled and waterproof. The initial results were good, WavesTracker Version 1.5 was then developed.
Since then, a renewed focus with a platform choice, design and fine-tuning of results and data processing led to the creation of WavesTracker Version 2. It certainly would not be possible without the help of many people and I leave here my thanks to all of you.
Thanks for reading and until next time, cheers!
Gui