Bodysurfing And Data

I’ve been using Dawn Patrol (Dawnpatrol.cloud) during my bodysurfing sessions for about a year now. I don’t use it the way most of its users use it. I tag my posts with dawnpatrol.app when I am able to use the app to get interesting ride data or when it helps me find videos of my rides in Surfline.

Most users use a surf watch, or Apple Watch, plus a stand-up surfboard.

I use my actual phone with the Dawn Patrol app to track my bodysurfing.

Warning: This is not surfing advice. It is risky to use your phone like this. My phone has been okay, but there’s a risk of damage and loss to both ones equipment and ones person. There is always risk in a physically demanding activity like bodysurfing in the ocean, which is the wilderness.

After a session, I can see the waves that were captured by the app. This morning I went to OB here in San Diego, produce an export that looks like this.

That’s a map of rides that were captured. There are settings in the app that determine what movement data constitutes “a ride.” Most of our phones these days detect movement, they detect direction of movement. Dawn Patrol turns that recorded data into rides.

Yesterday I added a subscription to “Soul Surfer“–a paid upgrade to Dawn Patrol that lets me send the recorded data to Strava. I signed up for Strava just yesterday. I’m not sure what I can do with that data yet, but I’m fascinated to see how people track their runs, workouts, hikes, and bike rides in it.

Here’s the first session, from this morning, I am able to share from Strava:

That visualization doesn’t look like wave riding. It might be like swimming. My use case is unusual. I’m not quite a swimmer, but I do swim during my sessions. I paddle out and fight the oncoming waves. I reckon with rip currents and drift. I’m not quite a surfer, but I ride individual waves. My rides are not as long as those of a surfer on a surfboard (or a bodyboarder, or a surfer riding an inflatable mat). But in my mind the session is s set of rides, not a single extended path.

The Dawn Patrol export looks more to me like how the session felt. When I see long curved lines, that represents longer, better rides. I was able to follow the breaking wave. Shorter rides more perpendicular to the beach less desirable but also fun.

Here at IndieWeb Camp San Diego yesterday we discussed locative and motion data. I think the Strava and Dawn Patrol data might also work as Activity Streams (https://activitystrea.ms). Activity Streams are an open data format–a JSON based data format–to share activity information. This data was collected by these services, but in a very real sense it feels to me like data that belongs to me. At the moment though, it doesn’t feel like those data are portable. “I’ve got to get my steps in” people understand. And it would seem crazy for measurements of my steps would only be owned by some company. I like to think that more people will feel the same way surf data.

I find myself drawn to doing more programming, visualizations, and about this kind of data, and I’m hopeful I’ll get the chance.

Thanks for reading, and if you feel so inclined, feel free to leave me a comment or suggestion about this.