Q: Why should I register?
A: to keep you updated with the messages posted by your buddies on the web site.
Q: How?
A: In addition to your login name and password you're asked to give an email and mobile phone number. With that, if you choose to enable the email and/or text messaging for your account, we'll redirect the messages posted by the buddies you picked in registred users list, into your email / mobile.
At the moment, only emails are available, mobile redirection will come soon.
You choose to receive or not emails from the website by ticking or not the fields:
Enable Email
[x]
and choose to receive or not short text messages from the website (not
operational yet):Enable Mobile
[x]
Press [Save] to save the changes and return to the home page, [Quit] to discard the changes.
Q: How do I select my buddies?
A: Once registered, click on the link: Your Buddies: (Edit List) on the account management page.
To add/remove buddies, return to the user management page, click on the Edit List link in the buddy section.
You'll access a page with a list of the registred users, pick your buddies and press [add].
You can also remove people from your list: press [Del] after having selected them.
Press [<<<] [>>>] to navigate in the users list, [Back] if you don't feel like modifying your buddies list.
The 10 minutes average wind force and direction is surrimposed on the bay map at several Beacon locations:
a blue arrow means windforce
lesser than 14 knots
a green arrow means a windforce
within 14 knots to 25
knots
an orange arrow means windforce
greater than 25 knots
The direction the wind is blowing to is given by the arrow (ie. a southerly wind will be represented by an arrow pointing to the North direction)
The maximum wind gust for 10 minutes recorded is given by a pink arrow underneath the average wind force arrow.
The gustier the wind the more you'll see the pink arrow extending at both ends of the average wind arrow
Gusty:
Stable:
For each beacon, a text displays the [average/gust knt] information.
On the main page you can also hover over the center of the arrows to display the corresponding 24H wind chart.
Ok, these chart and graph tell you the best spots where to go riding according to:
- the orientation of the beach
- the force and direction of the beacon related to this beach.
(see
below for explainations).
Example:
Brighton beach is facing the west and it is open from north to south.
The beacon attached to this beach is Fauckner Beacon.
NO GO:
The flag for this beach will turn Blue
(not
suitable for kiteboarding) when:- the wind speed is < 14 knots
GO:
The flag for this beach will turn green
(all
OK) when:1- the direction of the wind given by Fauckner Beacon is N , S or has W in it: N NW W SW S.
2- the wind speed is >= 14 knots and < 25 knts
GO with care:
It will turn orange
(Wind direction OK, but strong wind) when:1- the direction of the wind given by Fauckner Beacon is in the range [N,W,S]
2- the wind speed is >= 25 knots
It will turn orange
(Wind direction slightly off shore, but
wind OK)
when:1- the direction of the wind given by Fauckner Beacon is close to the range [N NW W SW S]
2- the wind speed is >= 14 knots
GO if you dare:
It will turn red
(Not safe for riding) when:1- the direction of the wind given by Fauckner Beacon is in NOT in the range [N NW W SW S]
2- the wind speed is > 14 knots
nb:
This chart is given for information only.
It is your sole responsibility to determine if it's safe or not for you to go riding.
The wind graphs display the wind given by the beacons for the current day:
- The yellow graph gives the average wind force (scale on left).
- The orange graph gives the maximum wind gust(scale on left).
- The blue graph gives the wind direction (scale on right).
The BOM boating Forecast is issued 4 times a day (approx. 5am, 10 am, 4pm and 11pm).
It gives the current warning, [Strong Wind/Gale] which can be translated by "prepare your gear" for the kitebording community.
The forecast for the day and the following days is provided.
Though the BOM does a great job, it's sometimes not accurate enough for us (not to mention those impredictable days when it's blowing at one end of the bay and calm at the other).
The local wind at a spot can be 1/ very different from the forecast 2/ stronger or weaker than the beacon readings.
That's why this section has been created: it allows you to share your live and local observations using the "News feed".
Simply register and start to post.
you can then filter by buddies and/or beach.
If you don't want to register, you can still read the news feed and filter by beach.
Port Phillip Bay Wind Tracker is looking for volunteers willing to report the wind status at thier favorite location!