Windfinder.com
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| Windfinder.com | |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded |  Hamburg (August 5, 1998) |
| Headquarters | Kiel, Germany |
| Industry | Internet, weather, telecommunication |
| Website | www.windfinder.com |
Contents |
[edit] Intro
Windfinder.com is a commerical online and SMS (short message service) weather service for windsurfing, kitesurfing, surfing and sailing spots which provides free, real-time weather information via the Internet and paid weather information via SMS.
[edit] Business idea
The service was introduced because wind, wave and weather information is essential for the above mentioned sports and the locations for those activities are often quite far away from where most people live. The wind needs to reach a certain threshold before a windsurf or kitesurf board gets on a plane. Waves need to have achieve a certain energy and height before they can be surfed by a surf board. When people go on a sailing trip and stay in the ocean for hours or even day they need to know about the weather for security reasons and for planning of the course. Providing this information in real time any time and anywhere is the purpose of Windfinder.com. The WindSMS service allows users to pull an SMS containing the latest observations from weather stations. Users can also set a threshold for their favorite spots. If a weather station exceeds the wind speed limit a Windalarm-SMS is sent to the user.
[edit] History
Windfinder.com was founded in Hamburg 1998 by Oliver König in Germany. Oliver König was joined in 1999 by Joachim Schanz, Martin Rohlfes, Edgar Widmann. Windfinder was initially set up to provide real time wind reports from coastal and lakeside weather stations in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark via SMS. Windfinder was one of the pioneers of providing weather information via SMS to cellphone users. The website and the SMS service went live in July 1999. Windfinder.com moved to Kiel in the beginning of the year 2000. In the initial phase Windfinder only provided wind observations (wind speed, wind direction, gusts) from weather stations. Later other parameters like air temperature, water temperature, air pressure, cloudiness, precipitation, visibility, wave height, wave direction, wave period were added. Forecasts were introduced in late 2000. Windfinder continuously added more and weather service for more countries (France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Greece, etc.) finally covering watersports locations on all continents. In 2002 an SMS service sailors was introduced which porvided more detailed weather information for sailing areas all over Europe. Tide calendars started in 2006. A directory of webcams (weather cams, surf cams, beach cams, ocean cams, etc.) was added in 2001. Windfinder started a comprehensive directory of windsurfing, kitesurfing and surfing adresses worldwide (schools/rentals, shops, distributors,websites, etc.) in 2006 which nows contains more than 4400 adresses.
[edit] Today
Today Windfinder is used by watersports enthusiasts worldwide. Windfinder also operates the Domains www.windfinder.de to reflect its German origin and the Domains www.swellfinder.com and www.swellfinder.de to recognize the growing number of surfers who are not so much interested in wind information but rather wave and swell (ocean) information. Windfinder runs the website with reports (observations), forecasts, tides, isobar maps, satellite images, the weather cam directory and the windsurf, kitesurf and surf directory. Windfinder also sells webcams and weather stations and supplies installation support. Firefox users can download a little extension called Windfox,which allows them to monitor the current wind speed and direction for free at their favorite sailing spot or surfspotin the Firefox browser. Windfinder covers such famous sailing and surfspots as Kiel, Sylt, Neusiedler See, Hanstholm, Ijsselmeer, Renesse, Marseille, Leucate, Biarritz, La Rochelle, Brest, Solent/Isle of Wight, Newquay, Torbole sul Garda & Riva del Garda, Porto Pollo, Tarifa, Mar Menor, Guincho Beach, Pula, Dalmatia, Rhodes, Kos, Karpathos, Paros, Naxos, Mykonos, Alacati, Bodrum, Datca, Marmaris, Essaouira, Djerba, Ras Sudr, Dahab, El-Gouna, Hurghada, Safaga, Cape Town, Mauritius, Mui Ne, Boracay, Perth, Lancelin, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Sydney, Auckland, Isla Margarita, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Cabarete, [[Jijoca_de_Jericoacoara|Jericoacoara], [[Cumbuco]9, Pichilemu, Topocalma, Miami, Cape Hatteras, Chesapeake Bay, Marble Head/Boston, South Padre Island, Sacramento River Delta, San Francisco Bay, Columbia River Gorge, Maui, Oahu, etc.
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