Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Wavewatch.com - Rise of the Machines

I know a lot of you guys were following both my blog forecast and my long-range forecasts over at Wavewatch.com...so this post won’t be much of a surprise.

If you haven’t been to the Wavewatch site in the last couple of weeks...then you probably haven’t seen this notification on the forecast pages.

“Text forecast not available. Please reference the swell chart and automated maps.”

Needless to say you will no longer be able to find human generated long-range surf forecasts at Wavewatch. A few of you sent emails or posted in the comments, wondering what happened with the whole thing, so I thought I would throw this post together.

Here is the Wavewatch/ASG official party line that they posted on the website...

”The current economic recession that has affected each and every one of us in one way or another is now being felt on WaveWatch.com. Because of budgetary restraints the text forecasting provided by Charlie Fox, Adam Wright, Mark Sponsler, and John Andres will no longer be available. It is our greatest regret to lose their services but necessary for WaveWatch.com to remain an operating site. The cameras and automated forecast graphs will still be 100% operational. We thank our loyal viewers for all their support and will continue to provide free wave cameras and the most accurate forecasting on the web.”

When you get down to it, basically we got downsized...not an uncommon thing in this market...particularly with companies tied to the dying print industry. With almost every business hemorrhaging cash nowadays it is hard to take it all that personal. Still the hit to the wallet sucks.

About the only thing that rubs me the wrong way is that we got beat out by machines...seriously WTF...ASG didn’t you guys watch the movies!?! Trusting machines to make your decisions, even surf decisions, never ends well. You let the robots create surf forecasts and next thing you know...skynet.



Fortunately I knew this was coming and I have a large supply of assless chaps, football shoulder pads, bats with nails, and crossbows set aside for the post-apocalyptic future.

All kidding aside...I wanted to give a shout out to the forecast team that I was fortunate enough to work with over the last couple of years. It was awesome working with Charlie Fox, Mark Sponsler, and John Andres...all of whom are great guys and top-notch surf forecasters and meteorologists. Make sure to visit their personal/professional websites when you get a chance.

Charlie Fox - www.cfoxweather.com/
Mark Sponsler – www.stormsurf.com/

Anyhoo I just thought I would share...I really appreciate the emails that you guys have been sending my way...oh and if you hear of any paying surf-forecast gigs let me know :)

15 comments:

seth said...

dude that SUPs...machines can SUP my balls.

Should put some additional ads on your page...I'm sure everyone will click thru.

Anonymous said...

didn't you just have a kid? that really blows. Damn corps. so how you gonna make money now?

Johnny Kessel said...

thanks for everything dude ...you did a great job !!

Anonymous said...

Your not bouncing out on the this blog site too??? That will be a sad day.

Anonymous said...

sorry to hear that. i would pay for your forecasts . . . you going that route?

Unknown said...

sorry to hear adam. i say we just build a megablog, you handle the forecasting, i'll cover the "no-name locals" surfing Newps in photos. Merge our traffic, sell advertising spots, and the rest is history.

Just lemme know when I need to put in my notice at my desk job.

Anonymous said...

click adds for Adam!!!!

Kindon said...

Hey Adam, this blog is irreplaceable. Would you consider a tip jar for those who would like to drop a couple extra bucks in every once in a while. I know I would rather donate here then pay some money grubbing corporate site. Hang tough.

JP from Surfy Surfy said...

Why doesn't Wave Watch just charge $5 bucks a month?

Anonymous said...

The machines have already won....you can create you own short range forecast by looking at the following sites....cdip.ucsd.org, (Adam calls this the sideways forecast) lajollasurf.org (nine band buoy), sailflow.com....This all you need to predict the near future.

Here's my forecast for tomorrow.....summer crap!!!


Have fun

poo on you..........

Louis said...

...skynet. I was gonna tell you awhile back that the wavewatch boxes on the blog don't link to wavewatch but now I say f 'em all.

Anonymous said...

seriously I would pay just as much as surfshot if not more. Or the tip jar.

Anonymous said...

seriously I would pay just as much as surfshot if not more. Or the tip jar.

Anonymous said...

I suck at posting twice

Una Ola Surf Resort said...

Hey guys, Adam has a PayPal donate link on the blog. I'm sending him a little thank you for all the valuable information. I challenge everyone who has benefited from his knowledge and expertise to do the same.