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Forecasting

Apple Watch

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How can I install or customize the forecasting Watch Faces?

You can install our official Dawn Patrol Watch Faces from the iPhone app or from this website. You can find the Watch Faces on the on the app when you go to Settings > Forecasting. Or follow this link on your iPhone to install them.

Please note: For our surf forecasting you need to have a Soul Surfer subscription.

To customize your Watch Face to configure your own perfect Surf Watch:

Press the Digital Crown to go to the Watch Face.
Firmly press the display.
Swipe left or right to choose your favourite Watch Face, then tap Customize.
Swipe all the way to the left. You can now select the position where you want the Dawn Patrol complication to appear
Use the digital crown to scroll through the available complications and select DAWN PATROL

After you installed the complications on your Watch Face, it may take several minutes for the complication to load the forecast. Sometimes this can be forced by tapping the complication (which will open the app) or by changing the “Forecasting settings” in the app (i.e. change the water level unit)

Check out this video showing how to set it up.
For more info see this article: Change the watch face on your Apple Watch.

Forecasting

My fingers are wet, how do I stop or start a surf session?

Wet fingers make it difficult to operate the screen of your Apple Watch.

Therefore we have created a 'rotate to start' and 'rotate to stop' function in the app. When you are on the Start Surfing screen, simply rotate the digital crown to start a surf session. Similar, when your surf session is running, simply rotate the digital crown of your Watch to end your current surf session.

Alternatively you can use SIRI to "Start/Stop surfing with Dawn Patrol". Please be aware that you need connection for SIRI to work, so you need to be either near your phone or have a Cellular Watch for this to work.

Apple Watch Ultra users can also use the Action Button to start a surf session.

Surf Tracking & Sync

Can I use the Action Button on Apple Watch Ultra to start surfing?

You can configure the use of the Action button from the Settings App on your Apple Watch:

On your Watch, open the Settings App ⚙️
Scroll down and Tap "Action Button" from the menu
Under "Action" select "Workout"
Under "App" select "Dawn Patrol"
Under "First Press" you can select your preferred action. "Open Dawn Patrol" or "Start a Workout" (Surfing)

Alternatively you can also configure the Apple Watch Ultra's Action Button from the Watch app on your iPhone:

Open the Watch app on your iPhone
Tap “Action Button” on the menu
Under "Action" select "Workout"
Under "App" select "Dawn Patrol"
Under "First Press" you can select your preferred action. "Open Dawn Patrol" or "Start a Workout" (Surfing)

Surf Tracking & Sync

What is the best strap for surfing with my Apple Watch?

NOMAD Straps

We love the NOMAD GOODS straps for surfing! They're rugged and stylish at the same time.

Also Apple does some great wrist bands that keep your Watch snug on your wrist during your surf.

Make sure the size of the band is compatible with the size of your Apple Watch.

‍All Watch Sizes
We have tried and tested many straps and truly believe we have found the very best Apple Watch straps for surfing, adventure and day to day life. The NOMAD Rugged Strap is a design formal enough for any occasion, yet strong enough for the toughest ocean conditions.
NOMAD’s Rugged Straps are available for all Apple Watches in all sizes.

Watch Bands by Apple
44mm, 45mm and 49mm Apple Watches
Also Apple’s Ocean Band is great for surfing. The Ocean Band is molded in a high performance elastomer with a tubular geometry allowing it to stretch for a perfect fit, even over a wetsuit. The corrosion-resistant titanium buckle and adjustable loop secure the band during high-speed water sports. A band extension is sold separately to fit over your thickest wetsuit.
For extra length, an extension band is sold separately, enabling you to wear the Ocean Band even over your thickest wetsuit. The Ocean Band us compatible with 44mm, 45mm and 49mm Apple Watches.

All Watch Sizes
If you’re wearing a smaller Watch (38mm, 40mm, 41mm, 42mm Watches) we can also recommend Apple’s Solo Loop or Braided Solo Loops. They are also available for other Watch sizes, so you can get one for every Apple Watch. They come in two styles: Silicone or Braided.

The silicone version of the Solo loop is made from liquid silicone rubber. It features a unique, stretchable design with no clasps, buckles, or overlapping parts, so it’s ultracomfortable to wear. Each band is specially treated with UV to give the band a silky, smooth finish. It’s also swimproof and sweatproof, so it can go just about anywhere you want to wear it.

The Braided Solo Loop band features a unique, stretchable design that feels ultracomfortable on your wrist. Created by weaving 16,000 recycled polyester yarn filaments around ultrathin silicone threads using advanced, precision-braiding machinery, then laser cutting the band to an exact length for a custom fit. The band offers a soft, textured feel and is both sweat and water resistant.

Apple Watch

How can I synchronize surf sessions from my Apple Watch to my iPhone?

After you finished your surf session on your Apple Watch, the synchronization should happen automatically when your Apple Watch is within reach with your iPhone.

Are you missing sessions on your iPhone?
There is a way to manually recover sessions that have not synced to your phone:

Open Dawn Patrol on your Apple Watch
Scroll to the screen on the right called "PREFERENCES"
Go to "SURF TRACKING"
Scroll Down, and you see an option called "SESSIONS"
Find the session you're missing and try to resynchronise this to your phone

Still not synchronizing? Make sure your Apple Watch and iPhone are connected. You can do this by swiping up from the bottom on the home screen of your Watch. A green iPhone icon indicates your Watch is connected, a red icon indicates it's not connected or paired correctly.

If you’re experiencing connection or pairing problems with your Apple Watch or iPhone, please read more instructions on the Apple Support page.

Surf Tracking & Sync

How do I select the spot for the forecast on my Watch Face?

Open the App on your Apple Watch
Swipe to the right most screen (Preferences)
Tap Forecasting
Now you can select your favourite spot for the Forecast on your Apple Watch, or choose "Closest to me" which will snap to the closest known spot to you (in a straight line).

You could also change this setting from your phone. When you open Dawn Patrol on your iPhone and then go to Preferences > Forecasting you will have the same option there. Please note it may take a few minutes for the Watch to reload the Forecast for the newly selected spot.

Forecasting

Do you need cellular on the Watch or will GPS be enough?

Dawn Patrol works on all Apple Watches from Series 3 and later.

You don't need cellular for Dawn Patrol to work.

Apple Watch

I paddled out, and it seems not all of my waves were recorded

Or maybe too many waves were recorded?

Have you tried adjusting the sensitivity setting? Sometimes changing the sensitivity to slower or to faster waves can help…
We do advise the medium sensitivity setting, as this setting works in most conditions.

Having said that, we do rely on the GPS information the device you use in the water provides. Most of the times this works well, but in some beaches or some occasions the GPS info is less accurate than others. With every release we improve the app and the accuracy of the measurements. We keep learning from the data we’re getting onwards.

Surf Tracking & Sync

What are the sensitivity settings, and which sensitivity should I use?

The sensistivity settings determine how easily waves get picked up.
These are the options to choose from:

‍SLOW - Use this when the surf is really small, and waves don't have a lot of power. Also if you're a beginner surfer you might find Dawn Patrol picking up more waves on the SLOW sensitivity.

‍MEDIUM - In general we advise you to keep the sensitivity on MEDIUM, as this works for most conditions. Start using the MEDIUM sensitivity.. If you feel Dawn Patrol is not picking up any waves, try Dawn Patrol on SLOW sensitivity. And vice versa, when you feel Dawn Patrol picks up waaayyy too many waves, try whether the FAST sensitivity works better for you.

‍FAST - Use this setting in bigger surf and on faster breaks. Small or slow waves may not be picked up on this sensitivity setting. Advanced surfers may benefit from using the FAST sensitivity.

‍

Surf Tracking & Sync

The battery of my Apple Watch seems to drain faster than normal when I am using Dawn Patrol. Can I do something to limit the battery usage?

We are aware of the fact that the app consumes a lot of battery. Usually on the Watch you can surf somewhere between 2 and 3 hours on a full charge.
The reason for that is that the Watch is constantly monitoring your GPS position, your heart rate and energy burned as well as all of your movements in the water.

One thing you can do to optimize your battery life is to enable the low power mode. Apple gives some other tips on how to Maximize battery life and lifespan of your Apple Watch.

Don't worry about your surf session when your battery goes flat. If you have any pending sessions that were not synchronized to your phone because your Watch battery went flat you may want to restart your Apple Watch and open Dawn Patrol on both your iPhone and Apple Watch. When you do that, the pending session should synchronize to your phone.

Apple Watch

I wear my Watch over my wetsuit, why does the Watch go back to the Watch Face after I started Dawn Patrol?

By default, your Apple Watch locks automatically when you’re not wearing it. Therefore, when you wear the Watch over your wetsuit, by default it would return to the Watch Face during your surf session.

This is called wrist detection. You can turn this on and off in the Settings app on your Apple Watch.

To change the wrist detection setting, do the following.

Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
Tap Passcode, then turn Wrist Detection on or off.

Turning off wrist detection affects these Apple Watch features:

When you use Apple Pay on your Apple Watch, you’ll be prompted to enter your passcode when you double-click the side button to authorize the payment.
Some Activity measurements are unavailable.
Heart rate tracking and notifications are turned off.
Apple Watch will no longer automatically lock and unlock.
Apple Watch wonʼt automatically make an emergency call even after it has detected a hard impact fall.

See the Lock Automatically section on this article.

Apple Watch

I am getting a new iPhone!! 🎉 How can I transfer my Dawn Patrol data to my new iPhone?

Make sure your old iPhone is logged in in the Dawn Patrol app. You can log in using your email address or using Facebook. Log in with the same account on your new iPhone, and your data will automatically synchronize.

If you don’t want to log in you can simply restore a backup of your old phone to your new phone, and your Dawn Patrol data will be transfered.

Do you want to make sure your Health and Activity data also is transfered to your new phone? Switch on “Health” app date in iCloud settings on your iPhone or use iTunes backups. (see Apple’s support page)

Surf Tracking & Sync

Can I delete a wave or surf session?

Yes you can. On your iPhone open the surf session on the map. Use the “…” icon to delete the session.

To delete a wave, swipe to open the bottom panel go to the waves tab. Select a wave to see the wave detail screen. Now swipe through your waves to find the wave to delete and use the “…” icon to find the option to delete the wave.

Surf Tracking & Sync

How do I change units for wave speed, distance etc.?

You can change the units shown in your surf sessions on the Dawn Patrol app on your iPhone.

Open the app on your iPhone.
Go to SETTINGS > SURF TRACKING.
Scroll down and select the units you’d like to use.

Surf Tracking & Sync

My heart rate or calories burned are not being measured or shown. How do I activate that?

Possibly you did not give Dawn Patrol access to this data. In order to do so:

Open the “Health” app on your iPhone.
Click on your Profile Picture in the top-right
Scroll down to “Privacy” and tap on “Apps”
Allocate and tap on “Dawn Patrol”.
Now make sure all categories are ON on this screen. Dawn Patrol will start to measure and register your heart rate, calories burned and other health information

Surf Tracking & Sync

What do I get when I subscribe to Soul Surfer?

The Soul Surfer upgrades your Apple Watch into a full Surf Watch.

A full surf forecast on your Watch. We offer a few pre-configured Watch Faces, but you can also create your own Surf Watch Face. We do support all complication types, so you can keep using your favourite Watch Face.
Configure your own perfect Surf Watch with our wide selection of surf forecasting complications.
Actual surf forecasts on the Lock and Home screens of your phone using our Widgets.
In-depth wave analytics. See your speed development along the waves for all of your waves and learn to understand why you just keep missing that nasty section.
Actual tide while you’re surfing. Know when it’s time to get in!
An overview of your waves on a tidal chart. Get to know your local beach better by understanding at which tides you surfed the best waves.
"If it's not on Strava, it didn't happen". Synchronize your sessions with Strava.
Our subscription is eligible for Family Sharing

Subscriptions

The Surf Forecast is not loading on my Apple Watch

Make sure you have a valid Soul Surfer subscription. You can see whether you have a valid subscription on the App Store on your iPhone:

Open the App Store app on your phone
Click on your profile image
Click on “Subscriptions”

Still experiencing problems?

Make sure you have a valid Soul Surfer subscription. You can see whether you have a valid subscription on the App Store on your iPhone:

Open the App Store app on your phone
Click on your profile image
Click on “Subscriptions”

If you indeed have a valid Soul Surfer subscription, please follow these steps:

Make sure the subscritpion is working correctly on your phone
Confirm this by going to a spot in the Spots section of the iPhone app, or by adding a Widget to the Home screen of your iPhone.
If you see the forecast is loading, your subscription works correctly on the phone.
However, if you see a “Become a Soul Surfer” message, something went wrong.
Best is then to tap on the Soul Surfer message and tap on RESTORE EARLIER PURCHASE. This will recover your subscription, you won’t be charged again.

If the subscription is working well on your phone, but still no forecast is loading on your Apple Watch. sometimes the Watch and iPhone need to exchange data for the Watch to start fetching the surf forecast. In order to force this data exchange to happen you could follow these steps:

Install the latest Dawn Patrol update on the App Store
Restart your Watch and Phone
Install the complications on your watch face if you haven’t already
Make sure your phone and watch are connected
On the Dawn Patrol app on your phone: Go to SETTINGS > FORECASTING and CHANGE the location to another spot or one of the metrics settings (feet/meter), which will trigger the data feed
Give it a few moments (max 5 min.) for the iPhone and Watch to synchronise data. Opening the Dawn Patrol app on your Apple Watch may speed up this process

This all above should force the Watch and Phone to exchange data and show you the tides. Please reach out to us if you need further assistance.

Forecasting

How do I get the forecasting widgets on my iPhone?

You can add Dawn Patrol’s surf forecasting widgets to your Lock screen, Home Screen or the Today View of your phone.
After you added the Widgets, you can select the spot you’d like to see the forecast for.

For the widgets to work you need to have a Soul Surfer subscription.

Here is how you can add widgets: How to add and edit widgets on your iPhone.

How to add widgets your Home Screen or Today View:

From the Home Screen, touch and hold a widget or an empty area until the apps jiggle.
Tap the Add button (+) in the top left-hand corner.
Select a widget, choose a widget size, then tap Add Widget.
Tap Done.

How to add widgets your Lock Screen:

Touch and hold the Lock Screen until the Customise button appears, then tap Customise.
Tap the box above or below the time to see the widgets you can add to your Lock Screen.
Tap or drag the widgets you want to add.
Tap Done.

Select your favourite Spot in the Widget

Touch and hold the Dawn Patrol widget you’d like to adjust the spot for.
Tap “Edit Widget”.
Tap “Spot”.
Use the Search function or scroll down through the list and select your favourite spot.

Forecasting

How do I manage or cancel my subscription

You can manage your subscription from within the app:

Open Dawn Patrol on your phone
Go to Preferences > Soul Surfer Subscription
Tap the "•••" button in the top right corne to open a submenu with more options
Tap on the Manage Subscription button. This will open a screen where you can change or cancel your subscription.

You may need to scroll down to find the Cancel Subscription button. If there is no Cancel button or you see an expiration message in red text, the subscription has already been cancelled.

Alternatively you can use the Settings App of your iPhone to cancel your subscription:

Open the Settings app on your iPhone
Tap your name
Tap Subscriptions
Tap the Dawn Patrol Soul Surfer subscription
Tap Cancel Subscription..

You may need to scroll down to find the Cancel Subscription button. If there is no Cancel button or you see an expiration message in red text, the subscription has already been cancelled.

Please let us know how we can improve our service, we’re keen to learn from your experience!

If you want to cancel a subscription from Apple

Subscriptions

I can't select any spots for forecasting

The list to select a spot from initially shows your own favourite spots.

Use the search function to find publicly known spots, or create your own spots in the spots section.

To create your own favourite spots:

Go to Spots (second icon down on the home screen)
Tap the + icon in the right upper corner
Locate your spot on the map (using your fingers to drag and to zoom in/out)
Type in a spot name
Tap ADD to complete

Private spots will never be exposed to others.

Forecasting

How do I synchronize my sessions with Strava?

"If it's not on Strava it didn't happen". You can now synchronize your Dawn Patrol surf sessions with Strava.

You will need a Soul Surfer Subscription to synchronize your sessions with Strava. Once you have a subscritpion, please follow the following steps to set this up:

Open Dawn Patrol on your iPhone
Go to your account by tapping your profile icon in the bottom-right of the screen
Tap the “Connect with Strava” button
Sign in with your Strava account

After you have connected your Dawn Patrol account to Strava, you can choose to upload your future surf sessions automatically. When you choose this option, Dawn Patrol will only upload your surf sessions that you surfed on a known spot.

We won't expose your secret spots 🤫

Apps & Integrations

How do I change the units for Water Temperature, Swell, Wind Speeds, etc.?

PleaseYou can change the surf forecasting units used on the Dawn Patrol app on either your Apple Watch or your iPhone.

Open the app on your Apple Watch or iPhone
Go to SETTINGS > FORECASTING
Scroll down and select the units you’d like to use

keep in mind that it may take a minute or two before the new units reflect on both devices. If you make the changes on your Watch, the changes may not take effect immediately on your iPhone after you changed it, and vice versa.

‍

Forecasting

How do I connect my Surfline account to Dawn Patrol

You can connect your Surfline account to your Dawn Patrol account. When you do so, you can watch your waves back on the Surfline’s cam rewinds.Make sure to surf in front of a Surfline webcam!

Make sure you are logged in with your Dawn Patrol account
Tap on your profile image in the bottom bar
Open preferences by tapping the icon in the top-right corner
Tap on Connect to Surfline
A screen to Sign In opens. This is a Surfline screen, sign in with your Surfline account and your Surfline password.
Give your consent to share your Dawn Patrol waves to Surfline, and your done

Happy surfing! Share your best rewind clips that you surfed with Dawn Patrol!

#dawnpatrolapp

Apps & Integrations

Which app should I use in the water after I connected my Surfline account

You can continue to use Dawn Patrol as your favorite Surf Tracker app in the water on your Apple Watch. We will synchronize the waves you surf into your Surfline account. You will be able to view your rewind clips on the Surfline app on your phone.

Apps & Integrations

I am seeing a different camera in Surfline Sessions. Can I select a different camera?

It is possible that the Surfline app allocated your session to a different spot.Another possibility is that when a spot has more than one camera, you prefer to see a different camera. You might have been out of frame for one camera, but in frame for the other.Fortunately often the Surfline app allows you to select a different camera.

When the session was allocated to a different spot
In order to change the Spot you surfed in the Surfline app, go to your session and tap “Edit” in the top right corner. You can then adjust the spot, and get different cam rewinds.

See this article for a full explanation: Why do I have Sessions Clips without me surfing in them?

When you prefer to see your wave on a different camera
Play the video clip of the wave you’d like to see. In the video frame there is a camera icon. Tap this icon to switch to a different camera.

Apps & Integrations

I have a question about the Surfline app. How do I reach out to Surfline?

For questions about Surfline Sessions™ or the Surfline app it’s best to reach out to Surfline’s support team directly: support@surfline.com

Apps & Integrations

Lost out there?

Support

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