Paddle apps - are they even a thing? OH YES! The Blue Jellyfish SUP team uses them daily, to help plan our trips, be fully prepared and of course be safe on our stand-up paddling adventures.
We thought it was important to share them with you and to help make planning your adventures a little easier.
In this post, we are going to be discussing apps for both iOS and Android, websites we find helpful and other tech tools like GPS devices.
Ready? Let's go!
Deciding where to go?
The first thing to think about when planning your paddling adventure is determining where you want to go and on what type of water. The options are vast, lakes, rivers, oceans….
The decision can be tough - so how do you decide where to go?
Well, let’s make it a little easier for you and give you a great starting point.
A great place to begin is with something like Go Paddling (app and website). This has a database of over 25,000 unique locations across North America and Europe. This helps you determine where your next adventure should start and places you may wish to explore in the future.
Another thing to take into consideration is if you plan on doing a single or multi-day SUP paddleboarding adventure. If you want to make the most of your time on the water and make it a multi-day then combining the Go Paddling and IOverlander app is the ideal combination to determine where quality campsites are along your desired route.
Stand Up Paddle Board Safety Requirements
You have decided where and for how long you want to go for but the next important thing to think about is paddleboard safety and the safety requirements of your trip.
We won’t dive too deep into this as we have several other blogs going more in-depth about requirements, our recommendations and beginner-friendly tips. So we recommend you take a read of them here.
The one thing we do want to stress is the use of paddle board safety leashes, in short, they save lives and should always be used. Depending on the type of environment you will be paddleboarding in, will help determine the type of leash you will require. Check out our full comprehensive guide and remember only one leash per board!!
Paddle Boarding Planner Apps
Ok, so now you have decided where your next adventure will be. It's time to start planning the trip and getting all your ducks in a row. This doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as you first may think.
Paddle boarding planning apps are here to help you and with our experience, they end up coming in VERY handy.
Paddle boarding planner gives you checklists and a list of must-have items that you should take on your journey. As well as the added benefit of helping to plan your route and determine distances to campsite areas.
Once you have a route and a plan of action in place the paddle planning apps give you a gentle reminder to ensure that you share them with your emergency contacts so they are fully in the know about your plan and where you should be each given day.
What do we always say at Blue JellyFish SUP Adventures? - SAFETY FIRST!
We are so excited to share with you two paddle planning apps that we have uncovered that will help you with this endeavour. When they are used correctly and optimized to their potential they can be a very powerful tool in planning your next trip.
The Paddle Planner Website
Paddle Planner is a great web-based app. Due to its popularity, they are updating their website to provide an even better service and user experience and we can’t wait. You can visit the newly updated BETA version here.
By using Paddle Planner it allows you to create a comprehensive plan of times, distances, portages, campsites and arrival times.
They offer a ‘community’ section on their website, that lets you view other people’s photos so you know what to expect, read other paddleboarders’ reports and opinions on their experience and ask any of your questions in their group forum.
It gives you a list of tools to help you create your plan and most importantly ensure you don’t miss crucial information that you need to have in place.
Adventure smart is another trip planning app that we feel confident in recommending. It can be used on its own or alongside paddle planners to create and store the most comprehensive plan you can make.
PLUS you can have it at your fingertips at all times (like we are so very used to with all technology these days). A great feature of the AdventureSmart Trip Plan App is you can create checklists to make sure you don’t leave anything behind. Another function we like is that it allows you to activate your trip plan which will send an automated email to your emergency contacts with your plan so they are fully in the know. Safety first!
Launch Day
Having your trip planned out in your mind is only the start of ensuring you have a great SUP adventure. Once this is complete and everyone at your party is happy, you need to monitor all sorts of factors that are constantly changing.
It’s important to research these things in order to be confident that it is safe for you to embark on your expedition. There is nothing worse than being all excited only to wake up in the morning and realize there is a huge storm outside and plans have to be cancelled - we have been there, believe us!
Some of these factors you should think about taking into consideration are the wind and weather conditions, tidal conditions and if you go out on the river, the water level that you will face that day.
Blue Jellyfish SUP Adventures uses the apps and websites below days in advance to determine whether we will run a trip or not and then follow on decisions throughout our expeditions.
What are the paddle boarding apps, websites and tech tools we use?
Times have changed, technology has developed and so has our mindset. We are used to checking our phone, having access to things 24/7 and our information at a click of a button, so with that being said…
Below are the five apps that the Blue Jellyfish SUP team uses every day to determine what the best course of action is with our clients.
Some of these apps are iOS only, so below we have provided replacement apps you could use if you are an android user.
geoSUP instead of Paddlelogger
My tide times instead of Ayetides
So let’s get into our top five…
Windy is a great weather app for figuring out what the weather is going to be like that day or leading up to your trip.
Windy features include:
wind direction
wind speed
wind gusts
temperature
cloud coverage
precipitation
wave direction
wave height
wave period
tidal height
The thing we love the most
Windy also provides you with a map overlaying wind speed and direction so you can get an idea of how it will change throughout the day. This helps you plan ahead, map out your day and of course be safe!
Ayetides is a great paddle app that helps you get a better understanding of the ocean environment. We are a ‘drop in the ocean’ as they say, so it’s extremely important to be fully prepared and know if you are physically able to paddle in your chosen area.
The pros and cons
Ayetides provides you with all sorts of in-depth information such as:
timings of the tides & water levels
slack tide
high tide
low tide
the direction of the ocean currents including
speed of the ebb current
speed of the flood current
This is a great paddle app for any person considering spending the day on the ocean and we can’t recommend it enough. The only downside is that it is only available for iOS.
Paddlelogger is a great SUP tracking iOS app that allows you to GPS track your paddles, share them with your friends and family or your favourite social media platform. By integrating paddle logger with your apple watch you can monitor your average speed and heart rate.
Why do we use it
Paddlelogger helps you create quick and simple float plans, and update your emergency contact in real-time wherever you are.
It also provides a great function in which you can set a timer. This is a feature we haven’t come across on other apps and what’s the benefit of this? Well, this ensures that if you don’t check the app in X amount of time a distress signal will be sent to your emergency contact. I’m sure you are picking up by now SAFETY FIRST!
Garmin Inreach is a great device that operates using satellites. In our opinion, this is a must for anyone who frequently spends time in areas without cell phone coverage or other remote/ isolated locations.
Some of Inreach’s functions are:
Interactive SOS
Two-way messaging
Apps that integrate with your Garmin to provide you with even more functionality
The thing we love the most about this tech tool
The fact it uses satellites! This is so important and crucial because more often than not you might be in an area with no phone service. With Inreach you don’t have to worry about this, therefore, you will always have access to it 24/7 and your emergency contacts will always know where you are.
#5 - WeatherCAN
We always use this because it can be used in tandem with Windy to verify winds and deeply review the marine weather. You can receive weather updates in your current area as well as any saved locations you may have had previously. Push notifications will be sent to your device for all weather alerts issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada for your location.
The top features of WeatherCAN
They offer a zoomable map background to make things easier as well as a short range weather forecast widget so you can glance quickly at the upcoming weather. It's available in English and in French and it's easy to switch from the two languages.
The app is available for free in the Google Play and Apple stores. - Woop!
To Conclude
As we mentioned earlier in this post, technology is constantly evolving and sometimes it can feel difficult to keep up.
We hope this post helped and gave you a clear direction of our recommendations and what we enjoy using day-to-day.
All of these Apps can be found in your app store and if there are any other apps that you use or resources that you recommend please drop them in the comment section below.
Let’s learn and improve together. As always feel free to message us - we always welcome a conversation!
Happy Suppin’...
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