Swell Signal

Ship wake, tide & wind alerts

Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.

New: Swell Signal Pro sends a push before a big ship's wake reaches your pin, at your own threshold. The map, pins, tide, wind and widgets stay free. Big ships make rideable waves. Swell Signal tells you which ones, where the wave lands, and what time to be standing on the beach. I built it at Three Tree Point in Burien, Washington, after too many afternoons of guessing. A container ship would go by, the water would come alive twenty minutes later, and I was still in the car. So the app watches every large vessel nearby over live AIS, runs real ship wake physics on each one, and puts the answer on your Lock Screen: the boat, how good the wave should be, and the clock time it passes your spot. WHAT YOU SEE WHEN YOU OPEN IT A dark nautical chart of the Sound with every tracked ship on it, state ferries and their sailings included. Tap one for its size, speed, the wake it throws and a 3D view. The headline is always a time, like "2:20 PM, in 18 min", because that decides whether you grab the board. Nothing coming? It says so. PICK THE SPOTS YOU RIDE Search for a beach, address or landmark, or drop a pin anywhere on the water, and Swell Signal forecasts for that exact point: which ships matter, when their wake arrives, and how good it should be. Save up to twelve. For a pin, your location is read only if you tap the button. TIDE, DONE PROPERLY NOAA tides for the beaches you choose: a curve you can scrub, thirty days of highs and lows, the current and slack water, sun and moon. WIND YOU CAN TRUST Forecast models corrected against local buoys. A beginner view with the short answer, an expert view with every model. WIDGETS FOR EVERYTHING Next Boat, Tide, Wind, and a Swell Board that puts all three together, on the Home Screen and the Lock Screen. Or turn a spare iPad into a wall display. RATE THE WAVE After a predicted wave passes, the app asks how it was: three sliders, ten seconds. Every rating tunes the model for that spot. SWELL SIGNAL PRO An optional subscription that sends a push before a ship is predicted to pass a pin you chose. Set how big a wave is worth a buzz, pick lead times, snooze a pin or mute a ship from the notification, and set quiet hours and a daily limit. Alerts fire where ships are tracked (below). An alert is a heads-up, not a guarantee: never rely on one for navigation or safety. LINEUP, FOR WHEN YOU ARE ON THE WATER Part of Swell Signal Pro. On the tow boat, see where and when each wake reaches you, how big it should be, and a red keep-out zone around every hull. Record saves the boat track, speeds and wakes met to your account. Tick RODE IT on the wakes you rode: a tick matched to an archived wave and met outside every keep-out zone is verified, and ship cards count riders with a verified ride on its wake in the last 30 days. Three monthly plans, all with the same alerts and LINEUP; Supporter and Patron put more toward the live ship feed. The app shows each plan's price for your region before you subscribe. No free trial. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically each month unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in Settings > [your name] > Subscriptions. HONEST ABOUT WHAT IT IS The chart, pins, tide, wind, ferries, widgets, wave ratings and display mode are free and stay free. No ads or cross-app tracking. An account is optional (a handle and a password, deletable any time) and only needed to rate waves, record sessions or sync pins. Ships are tracked along the West Coast from San Diego to Prince Rupert, up the Columbia River to Portland, and along the Texas Gulf. Want ships where you ride? Tell me in the feedback form. A forecast is not a safety system. Ship wakes come from working vessels in shipping lanes. Stay 300 ft off every hull, never cross a bow, read the water yourself, and treat every prediction as a maybe. Data: NOAA tides and currents, ferry schedules, live vessel traffic, public wind models and buoys. Terms of Use: https://swell-signal.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://swell-signal.com/privacy

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New in 2.4: LINEUP, recorded sessions and verified waves. • LINEUP (Swell Signal Pro): on the tow boat, see when and where each ship's wake reaches you if you hold your course, how big it should be there, and the band to wait in, behind the ship. • Every hull carries a red keep-out zone, and LINEUP warns you before your track runs into a stand-off or a bow zone. A safety card comes first. Night mode in red, for the helm after dark. • Record this session (optional, with an account): the boat track while LINEUP is open, then a summary at End with time, distance, average and top speed, an on-the-wave estimate and the wakes met. • RODE IT: tick the wakes you rode. A tick that matches a wave in Swell Signal's archive, met outside every keep-out zone, is VERIFIED. Open past sessions from LOG to tick later, make one public or delete it. • Ship cards show RIDDEN BY and a count: riders with a verified ride on that ship's wake in the last 30 days. • New pins start with search: find a beach, an address or a landmark, see the ships that pass it, then save. • Updated privacy information: limited first-party usage measurement, with no advertising or cross-app tracking. LINEUP is not a navigation aid. Stay 300 ft off every hull and never cross a bow.

The developer, John Hanks, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

  • Data Used to Track You

    The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

    • Purchases
  • Data Linked to You

    The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

    • Purchases
  • Data Not Linked to You

    The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

    • Health & Fitness
    • Location
    • Contact Info
    • Usage Data
    • Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More

Seller
John Hanks
Size
61.2 MB
Category
Weather
Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
  • iPhone
    Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
  • iPad
    Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later.
  • Mac
    Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
  • Apple Vision
    Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
Languages
English
Age Rating
4+
In-App Purchases
Yes
  • Alerts $5.00
  • Patron $20.00
  • Supporter $10.00
Copyright
© 2026 Swell Signal