Swellnet Or Coastalwatch?

Ditto, radbone. The surf reports on Swellnet are better, with the rating out of 10 a bonus. But I like Coastalwatch quoting a water temp.

Bit of a weird topic to have on this website, but hey! I prefer Swellnet.

No , tb .
I would not see it as weird . Perhaps feedback and comparison is a way to improvement . ( Not that its needed, from my perspective . )
For example your layout/setup is much better . Especially in relation to ease navigating + editorials & news are given good mix.
Can't comment on the reports or any other links , as i don't use them . ( Old school charts , and occasional access to WW3 via yank site Coastalnet . obviously name withheld (used to start with "w" and end in "d" ) .)
Forum is quite entertaining from time to time . ( But not with this current input of mine {self degradation} )....
Steve is obviously a standout " rookie journo " of the year .....
Keep up the good work , and thanx tb and crew for giving someone like me a forum to dribble in . hehe

Hey Southy, are ya making a point or you just sucking up? Or, trying to do both at the same time? Yep, I frequent swellnet and here's why....
Some of the surfcams are pretty good. Some are pretty shite (or not functional).

I love Onorati's photography. Always professional and creative. Like you Southy, I use neither for surf forecasting. Being from WA, I check SROSurf because Marz has got some pretty good, easy to navigate links eg: local swell bouys, real time conditions etc etc -and the blokes bloody hairy, so a bit of a sympathy vote there... And then there's MSW, SB, SL etc.

However, the other mob have some really good national and international content (not talking about comps) and some sick videos. Their recent series "Chasing the Dream" has had me frothing for more. I enjoy reading about travel related articles and Swell Journals of Indo, Maldives and so on.

But I check both sites and I'd reckon that most surfers would do the same.

So the question of this forum (as weird as it might seem Ben) as to which one is better?

My answer is, who gives a fuck!

Coastalwatch takes along time to load.

radbone, we have live weather and tide information at the bottom of each surf report page.

However, we don't have water temperature information because real data is currently too difficult to obtain daily on a national level.

Swellnet for sure, i've been checking everyday for years! i do check coastalwatch if the swell net forcast isn't telling me what i want to hear for my day of, and then if they both say the west coast is going to be 1 to 2 feet with howling westerlies i think their both mugs!

In all seriousness i'm wondering if everyone else has been cutting down on purchasing their monthly fix of varied surf media publications since the advent of these uber cool forcasting sites? I might only buy one every blue moon or so if that, infact i have a tracks mag in the dunny that dates back to september 2010! In one way i suppose that logging into swellnet is like a fresh new mag with a new front cover everyday!

In closing top job swellnet! as long as you keep up the west oz forcasts honest and a diferent wave of the day every day you've got me!

KEEP THE THE RIPCURL SERCH CONTEST OUT OF WA!

Swellnet = better local reports and pics most mornings. More local ie Oz content, especially my old stomping ground SA, although I imagine some crew wouldnt be real happy about some of the waves in the latest "Out of the Office" being posted. Whatever. Those who are keen will go and those who aren't so keen won't, or will have trouble finding the places or working out the conditions unless they are prepared to stay a while. I was stoked to check the pics out though, fully pumping. Plus another factor is I know Ben (hi Ben - see you in Sydney airport again sometime I guess...) from many years ago and appreciate the work he's put in over the years. That adds an incentive from a personal perspective I guess. It was a pretty innovative thing to do at the time when he set it up I reckon. Plus the whole storm surfers thing.
Coastalwatch seems to have better vids and their coastal cams are more comprehensive - I can easily check my local on Coastalwatch at work and time my runs.
Both seem to be reasonably accurate with forecasts and yes it is a bit of a slack option rather than checking sites with more raw data, but hey I don't always have the time for that. It always takes a bit of interpretation anyway - raw data or spoon-fed surf forecast - as my local has a couple of local factors that often makes it different from the general area forecast anyway.
Cheers Ben, good to see you successful and on the cutting edge of Ozzie and more global surf forecasting. Are you still involved with the ASP forecasting for some of their events?

Thanks for the nice words mundies. Just on your two points re: surf videos and surfcams - firstly, we've been unhappy with our video portal for ages, and will soon be upgrading it - so we'll put a lot more time and effort into that part of the site in the future.

Secondly, surfcams are extremely costly to put purchase, install and maintain. Therefore, a large number of locations (ie where you live) are difficult to justify given that they are unlikely to do much traffic. We are slowly building our network up (recently put in a few new surfcams, and there are more to come) - but it's difficult to cover every beach around the country.

And for what it's worth, CW appear to be in the process of pulling down many of their cameras (85% of their WA cams have been decommissioned, so have 70% of their Vic cams, plus a number of others elsewhere) - I can only assume this is because of the exorbitant costs involved.

Apart from appreciating the surf reports and cams, some of you wax on posters are truly hilarious. Some of the banter on here really lightens my day and for me often embodies the best of aussie humour. Thanks guys, keep it up.

Thermalben - yes I can imagine the surfcams would be expensive. I think my local one is also used for maritime safety purposes so you'd think Coastalwatch would get some kind of subsidy or remuneration for use of that one. Or if they dont they should probably get a better business manager :)