As a newbie into the world of windsurfing I was asking what equipment to use and what should I buy to everyone that cared enough to listen.
With time I got more experienced and started to be on the receiving end of this question. People would come to me and ask me what sail they should take, if they should try a smaller board, what fin to use. This made me happy (I was helping the new windsurfers) but also afraid of getting it totally wrong.
I'm a software engineer and joining this two passions to create something that would help me get the answer to these questions was obvious.
That was how the idea of Windsurf Buddy came to be.
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Features
Equipment advice
Windsurf Buddy provides the sailor with advice of what gear to use, aiming for comfort, easy planning and control. It does this by taking into account the weight of the sailor and the wind conditions. Mobile phones have yet to incorporate a wind meter so the wind speed must be provided by the user.
Windsurf Buddy provides this advice for three main pieces of equipment: the board, the sail and the fin.
The board advice comes from using the sailor input on how much floating he needs from the board (from beginner, longboard to serious and radical sinker). The display of boards that fit that volume is then viewable and the sailor can choose any of them know that it fits his needs.
The sails available are dependant on the selected board and wind speed. Each board has a specific range of sail size it works with and of course the area of the sail is in conformity with the wind. Stronger wind means smaller sail. Light winds require bigger sails.
Finally for the fins. As with sails only the fins that can be fitted to the board are shown and the application selects the best specification of each fin for the wind speed. Multi fin boards are also supported (with two, three or four fins).
Checkout report
Windsurf Buddy provides a report of the selected equipment.
planned features: the list will include other items needed to assemble the entire windsurf gear, such as the mast, mast base, rigging tools, up-haul cable, etc.
Gear Catalog
Windsurf Buddy also has a equipment browser, letting the user have a look at what equipment exists in its database.
planned features: equipment management, such as add a new piece of gear, marking own gear and managing the state of the gear.