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The Internet has been good to surfers and other water-sports enthusiasts, who can check a webcam or online surf report before taking a futile trip to the beach. Smartphones beat a desktop browser, however, because they put the Web in your hands when you have a few hours of free time, a long board on the roof rack and you want to check for waves. And, at least for surfers, the iPhone trumps other smartphones. Take the Surf Watch app ($10), for example. The software isn’t available anywhere on the wider Web, and sadly for BlackBerry and Android users, it’s not available on their mobile platforms. Before explaining, a little warning: for people who have no idea how coastal buoy data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration relates to a favorite surf spot, this app will mean a slight learning curve. But if, like many avid surfers, you know which buoys are bellwethers for your spot, prepare to inhale the catnip. The app will track user-specified buoys, as well as the swell direction and height, the wind speed and direction and the all-important period between successive waves. Experienced surfers will know which mix is producing the best waves. Using the factors set by the user, Surf Watch will send an alert when ideal conditions are imminent. It will even sound a highly annoying alarm. For surfers who don’t know the desired figures for good conditions, some online sleuthing will help, as well as a trip to a surf store, where an employee may help you dial in the specifications. Surf Watch exploits the weaknesses of online surf forecasters like Surfline, MagicSeaweed.com and others. These sites use data to predict surf conditions, as Surf Watch does, but their methodology yields inconsistent results. And because of the sheer number of places to surf they can highlight only well-known spots. To be fair, even if the estimates sometimes fall flat, Surfline at least signals whether a swell is coming or going and whether it is big enough to track. And Surfline has improved its wave reports in recent years, by listing wave heights that have been verified by a human at many spots. That improvement is one of the hallmarks of Surf Report, a free app that Surfline developed with Oakley, the sports apparel and gear manufacturer. Surf Report is ideal for those who get headaches thinking about buoy readings and swell periods. Read More