APP CULTURE
Plan your perfect day at the beach
Heading to the beach? Well, along with that bucket and spade, oversized parasol, novelty beach towel and cool box with enough snacks to feed a family of 58, you might want to pack these apps.
Sure, they can’t apply suncream to that impossible to reach part of your back or keep sand out of your sandwiches, but they can help you have more fun in the sun.
Ride the wave
Yo, dude, if you want to hang 10, check out Surfline, which tracks wind speed, wave height and tide levels. Video feeds let you see the surf, and pros rank the conditions and fill you in on everything from the direction of the swell to whether it’s worth your time to get out there. Gnarly.
Go fish
If saltwater fishing is your passion, Fishbrain lets you track what other seafarers are reeling in and, crucially, where. In addition to helping you figure out which spots are worth visiting, the app lets you upload and check out photos of catches and connect with locals for tips. Fishing locations even have leaderboards where you can boast about your haul.
Workout in the water
Ready to take your dip to the next level? MySwimPro provides expert-guided swim-training regimens. The Open Water plan takes you through ocean-friendly workouts, syncing with your Apple Watch to measure everything from times and distance to routes and strokes. Handy videos also introduce drills and challenges for swimmers of all abilities.
Catch some rays
All that swimming taken it out of you? When it’s time to kick back and bask in the sun, don’t forget about skin safety. After you enter a few details – like your location, skin tone, height and weight – Sun Index will let you know when to apply sunblock and how long you can be out before you start to burn.
Snap a beach pic
A beautiful day at the beach needs chronicling, and as well as featuring hundreds of existing photo filters, VSCO gives you all the tools needed to come up with your own image-enhancing combination of settings. You can save your new influencer-worthy style to the Recipes tab for future use or lean on those presets whenever you like – the G1 filter really brings out some gorgeous orangey reds for those sunset snaps.