WindChaser
Know when the wind is right. Never miss a session.
Know when the wind is right. Never miss a session.
WindChaser checks the wind forecast for your favourite kite spots and alerts you automatically when conditions match your preferences — so you can spend less time checking apps and more time on the water.
The app was created and is maintained by Ken Hampton. If you have any suggestions, feel free to contact him at admin@windchaser.info.
Save the kite spots you actually ride, set your personal wind range.
Wind speed, gusts, direction and tide levels updated regularly.
Get notified when conditions are right — by push notification or email.
WindChaser is personalised — everything is tied to your spots, your wind range, and your schedule. An account lets us:
We don't share your details with anyone. Ever.
We'll send you an email when conditions look good at your spots. Just register with your email address and you're set — no phone number needed.
Install WindChaser on your home screen (see below) and enable alerts. You'll get an instant notification the moment conditions are right — no email lag, no SMS charges.
WindChaser works as a Progressive Web App (PWA) — you can add it to your home screen like a native app, without going through the App Store or Google Play. This is also what makes push notifications work.
Open windchaser.onrender.com in Chrome
Tap the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner
Tap "Add to Home screen"
Tap Install — the WindChaser icon appears on your home screen
Open the app, go to your dashboard, and tap "Enable alerts on this device"
Open windchaser.onrender.com in Safari (not Chrome)
Tap the Share button ⬆ at the bottom of the screen
Scroll down and tap "Add to Home Screen"
Tap Add — the WindChaser icon appears on your home screen
Open the app, go to your dashboard, and tap "Enable alerts on this device"
Hi. My name is Ken, and I am the creator of this application. It started as a passion project, just for me. I live on the North East coast in England, and the wind blows offshore almost all of the time. So much so that I gave up scanning weather apps to see if the wind was right for my beach. And then one day I went for a walk on the beach and the wind was stonking onshore, the lagoons were perfect and the sun was shining. And I almost missed a fantastic session. So I thought that an app that could generate an alert to me when the conditions are right would be great!
Building it has been more complex than I originally thought. It needs a couple of cloud-based servers. It needs to regularly access complex sources of data for weather and tides (APIs, for the technically minded). And building it needs tools. I really wanted it to be free, but as I have contemplated expanding it for an international user population, that just isn't possible.
So I commit that it will NEVER be infested with ads. And it will NEVER cost you more a month than a single cup of coffee at my local coffee shop. I hope that's a reasonable price to pay.
(If you are interested, there is an interesting theory about how so many apps that start free eventually turn to shit — it was christened "enshittification of the internet".)
What's next for the app, I hear you ask?
I plan to build a chat facility that will allow users who receive alerts for a particular spot to chat to other users who also receive alerts for that spot. But it will of necessity rely on users playing nicely with each other because it won't be moderated. The fact that you pay a small amount for the use of the app will hopefully mean only friendly kiters are here! This will allow communities to grow at local spots where currently kiters don't seem to interact very much with each other.
I also plan to add a "what size kites should I take with me" capability, but not sure how useful that will be. I just take them all, and decide when I get there, anyway.
If you have any other suggestions, or just want to make contact, please reach me at admin@windchaser.info