Forums > Kitesurfing Gear Reviews

tracking devices

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Created by Percvil > 9 months ago, 3 Oct 2015
Percvil
QLD, 16 posts
3 Oct 2015 10:26AM
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Hey So i have been kiting for a little over two years now and the big questions i always get asked ;"How far out do you go?""How high did you boost?""Did you catch many waves?"These are all fair and reasonable questions for anyone to ask, but we all know that we add up to 45% on to our answers
because we're all shredders, and of course i boosted 10m high and caught 40 waves and went 10km offshore What im after is; is there something out there that can tell us for sure how: high, far, and other important irrelevant info?ive had a little look and these are the ones i think look pretty goodthe ripcurl search watch:
searchgps.ripcurl.com/welcome/the-watch.php

the woo:
woosports.com/
or the traceup:
www.traceup.com/


Has anyone got any thoughts, reviews, likes, dislikes on any of these or is there something better that i'm missing that is better again?

Brohan
VIC, 528 posts
3 Oct 2015 8:56PM
Thumbs Up

I got a garmen Fenix 2 to track how far and how fast I go, works really well but it doesn't tell me how high I jump. I wouldn't go a rip curl watch as I've heard bad things. If you want something to track your distance and speed and where you went I'd go a watch. Just a quick glance at your wrist and you can see all the data when your out there.

bigtone667
NSW, 1502 posts
3 Oct 2015 11:32PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
Brohan said..
I got a garmen Fenix 2 to track how far and how fast I go, works really well but it doesn't tell me how high I jump. I wouldn't go a rip curl watch as I've heard bad things. If you want something to track your distance and speed and where you went I'd go a watch. Just a quick glance at your wrist and you can see all the data when your out there.


Fenix 3 is great as well, but no elevation capability like the woo.

Kozzie
QLD, 1451 posts
4 Oct 2015 7:47AM
Thumbs Up

www.blueflyvario.com/buy/

easy to build and just wack it in whatever case you use to keep your joints dry for that half time rest when mid way island hopping

Puetz
NT, 2172 posts
4 Oct 2015 10:22AM
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https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/wearabletech/watches-wearable-technology/quatix-/prod120680.html

I got this as a Christmas prezzie from the missus and love it,,,, completely feeds my inner nerd giving me all the info I want and is even a cool watch for day to day use.

It does all the simple GPS tracking stuff, speed distance blah blah but other cool stuff like tides or a compass to help you work wind direction so no more guessing. It does waay more stuff than use that racers would love like port/starboard tack angles so you can work stuff out for speed efficiency. When I'm in a nerd mood I try different trimming of the kite to feet positioning and then watch if there are any speed changes or better upwind angles,,,,, like I said more blah blah than I would use.

On a negative, the one thing that does annoy me though is the beep/alarm is too quiet and useless but it does vibrate too so you kind of get some feedback that your alarm is going off.

Also, if you have a full day of tracking and do millions of button pressing, you should charge it up at the end of the day especially if you plan to do a second day of the same. Mind you, if your concerned then just leave it alone and you get 2 days of tracking easily. I found if you just use the watch as a watch then you don't have to touch it for a couple weeks,,, maybe more, I have found out yet.

Below is a little example where I put my 2 sessions track on google earth (58km and 18km with average speed 15.5 knots).





edit: you get heights data too but not convinced its accurate enough for kiting especially for jumps, I think the sensor needs to be calibrated before you get anything accurate.

Percvil
QLD, 16 posts
4 Oct 2015 1:21PM
Thumbs Up

found this photo after i posted the topic
it seriously out does the ripcurl watch but im not sure how accurate it is going to be and this is not a watch which kinda sucks

i

Pemba
18 posts
4 Oct 2015 1:56PM
Thumbs Up

There is also, or hopefully soon will be, Xensr (Xensr.com). Looks similar to trace.

piccio
25 posts
4 Oct 2015 1:57PM
Thumbs Up

we are kiting.......not fishing

Lambie
QLD, 738 posts
4 Oct 2015 7:31PM
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KiteTracker is another option ?? Hasn't the height thing of the Woo but just download the App and put it in a water proof case ( ur phone I mean) ???

deanrobi
VIC, 641 posts
4 Oct 2015 8:56PM
Thumbs Up

That Traceup looks to good to be true, thats pretty well covered everything, even editing your GoPro footage

Alysum
NSW, 1024 posts
5 Oct 2015 10:36PM
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Puetz said..
https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/wearabletech/watches-wearable-technology/quatix-/prod120680.html

I got this as a Christmas prezzie from the missus and love it,,,, completely feeds my inner nerd giving me all the info I want and is even a cool watch for day to day use.

It does all the simple GPS tracking stuff, speed distance blah blah but other cool stuff like tides or a compass to help you work wind direction so no more guessing. It does waay more stuff than use that racers would love like port/starboard tack angles so you can work stuff out for speed efficiency. When I'm in a nerd mood I try different trimming of the kite to feet positioning and then watch if there are any speed changes or better upwind angles,,,,, like I said more blah blah than I would use.

On a negative, the one thing that does annoy me though is the beep/alarm is too quiet and useless but it does vibrate too so you kind of get some feedback that your alarm is going off.

Also, if you have a full day of tracking and do millions of button pressing, you should charge it up at the end of the day especially if you plan to do a second day of the same. Mind you, if your concerned then just leave it alone and you get 2 days of tracking easily. I found if you just use the watch as a watch then you don't have to touch it for a couple weeks,,, maybe more, I have found out yet.

Below is a little example where I put my 2 sessions track on google earth (58km and 18km with average speed 15.5 knots).





edit: you get heights data too but not convinced its accurate enough for kiting especially for jumps, I think the sensor needs to be calibrated before you get anything accurate.


I was interested in getting this watch for a while however from reviews, the thickness of the watch puts me off.

The tides also only show local tides apparently.

danatgbay
WA, 53 posts
5 Oct 2015 8:20PM
Thumbs Up

Hi

I was interested in trace and wrote to the company about using it for kiting, the response is below. It will work for surfing but not for recording jumps while kiting.

Hi Dan, Thanks for writing in. Trace isn't optimized for kiting. We do provide GPX data which you can use to look at your track, speed, distance, and time of your session. Things like jumps won't work. Let us know if you have any questions. Best, David

deanrobi
VIC, 641 posts
6 Oct 2015 9:29AM
Thumbs Up

Got a message from Trace
Hi Dean, we'll be updating the app to work with Kiting in about 3 weeks!

Puetz
NT, 2172 posts
6 Oct 2015 8:20AM
Thumbs Up

Alysum said..

Puetz said..
https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/wearabletech/watches-wearable-technology/quatix-/prod120680.html

I got this as a Christmas prezzie from the missus and love it,,,, completely feeds my inner nerd giving me all the info I want and is even a cool watch for day to day use.

It does all the simple GPS tracking stuff, speed distance blah blah but other cool stuff like tides or a compass to help you work wind direction so no more guessing. It does waay more stuff than use that racers would love like port/starboard tack angles so you can work stuff out for speed efficiency. When I'm in a nerd mood I try different trimming of the kite to feet positioning and then watch if there are any speed changes or better upwind angles,,,,, like I said more blah blah than I would use.

On a negative, the one thing that does annoy me though is the beep/alarm is too quiet and useless but it does vibrate too so you kind of get some feedback that your alarm is going off.

Also, if you have a full day of tracking and do millions of button pressing, you should charge it up at the end of the day especially if you plan to do a second day of the same. Mind you, if your concerned then just leave it alone and you get 2 days of tracking easily. I found if you just use the watch as a watch then you don't have to touch it for a couple weeks,,, maybe more, I have found out yet.

Below is a little example where I put my 2 sessions track on google earth (58km and 18km with average speed 15.5 knots).





edit: you get heights data too but not convinced its accurate enough for kiting especially for jumps, I think the sensor needs to be calibrated before you get anything accurate.



I was interested in getting this watch for a while however from reviews, the thickness of the watch puts me off.

The tides also only show local tides apparently.


... yeah I suppose it is a bit thick now that I look at it but doesn't bother me especially while I'm kiting, never noticed really.

Tides have been pretty accurate for me but maybe I've been lucky or its been the locations I've been. When the watch was new I wasn't convinced either especially with 8m tides we get here so I used to always check it against other predictions ie BOM and so far so good. It picks the closest station to your location and if its not sure, it turns on the GPS and auto locates or you go through a list starting with the closest city then gives you a more local list to choose from. I do a bit of travelling for my work and recently went to the Kimberlies in WA so I figured I'd check the tides and asked the skipper to check against his tide charts and it was spot on. Good enough for me I thought. Seemed to work well in Bali too.

One thing though, it wont show you previous day data or won't show you tomorrows tide. No biggie though!

In pic above I took off on lowish tide (Buffalo Creek) and while kiting I forgot if tide was coming in or out. Simple, while kiting along I checked the watch and worked out, it was going out, so this info helped me decide to stay out wide of Lee Point which had it been coming in I would have hit the flat water but with all the sneaky hidden rocks and reef which some times you can't see because of the murky water,,,,, it helped me decide if it was safe or not,,,, not on this day btw.

Another cool thing, you can set up the display so when tracking, a quick press of a button and you can toggle between what you want to see like. Some times I like to see just SOG (speed over ground) with one big number on the display or time of session with distance travelled. You can program all sorts of different displays, heaps to choose from to suit yourself.

Oh and another one, I once I lost some fins, hit something submerged log maybe. I quickly pressed the MOB button (man over board) button which records a waypoint. 2 days later when the tide was low enough to look around I went searching,,,,, and found them. I could navigate easily to it,,,,, the only thing is you need to hit the button quick as I didn't straight away and watch took me close but not right on top of it,,,,,but at least I was close enough,,,, found my fins after all.

cheers,

Robbie


Kamikuza
QLD, 6493 posts
6 Oct 2015 9:04AM
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Select to expand quote
deanrobi said..
Got a message from Trace
Hi Dean, we'll be updating the app to work with Kiting in about 3 weeks!


Thats good news...

Sachar
WA, 5 posts
6 Oct 2015 11:47AM
Thumbs Up

Interesting, I've got a trace gathering dust somewhere since it doesn't work at all for kiting (neither in surf or snowboard mode), so this would be great though. However they also mentioned that they would add kite support at some point about a year+ ago, so we will see.

The woo so far looks great though, and tbh don't really miss not having gps on it.

Vicman
WA, 1 posts
6 Nov 2015 3:18PM
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Same here, I was an early backer of Trace as it was featured on Kickstarter, but I lost interest as the development seemed to be halted and the early firmware and app versions were practically unusable. I have serious doubts about the announcement as a month has passed now, but still very curious.

russelldg
VIC, 15 posts
7 Nov 2015 2:22PM
Thumbs Up

I exchanged emails with Co-Founder, David Lokshin before ordering a trace. When I asked about Kiteboarding, he sent me the following:

Date: 28 October 2015

We currently have Kiting working internally, but it's not in the app yet. Should be in the app by the end of Nov.

Best,
David

Percvil
QLD, 16 posts
8 Nov 2015 11:00AM
Thumbs Up

well thats good news i think i might wait for this trace update to work out the bugs then got ones

Kite247
NSW, 48 posts
9 Nov 2015 10:44PM
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Hey Puetz,

I've got the Quatix aswell, find it easy to use while riding and handy to be able to quickly glance at while riding. I use it to gauge my speed mostly but have never worked out how to download my tracks. Have you got any pointers for a non technical mind?

Kite247
NSW, 48 posts
10 Nov 2015 9:15AM
Thumbs Up

Actually figured it out!!

Puetz
NT, 2172 posts
10 Nov 2015 9:32AM
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Select to expand quote
Kite247 said..
Actually figured it out!!


... cool!

I just upload data to GPSies website I stumbled upon, then download the same file back as Google earth file and open in GoogleEarth to see easily!

cheers,

Robbie

loftywinds2
185 posts
11 Nov 2015 8:19AM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
bigtone667 said..

Brohan said..
I got a garmen Fenix 2 to track how far and how fast I go, works really well but it doesn't tell me how high I jump. I wouldn't go a rip curl watch as I've heard bad things. If you want something to track your distance and speed and where you went I'd go a watch. Just a quick glance at your wrist and you can see all the data when your out there.



Fenix 3 is great as well, but no elevation capability like the woo.


The Woo is all about jumping and heights (and much more). Where did you get that crap that it doesn't do elevation?

bigtone667
NSW, 1502 posts
11 Nov 2015 11:31AM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
loftywinds2 said..

bigtone667 said..


Brohan said..
I got a garmen Fenix 2 to track how far and how fast I go, works really well but it doesn't tell me how high I jump. I wouldn't go a rip curl watch as I've heard bad things. If you want something to track your distance and speed and where you went I'd go a watch. Just a quick glance at your wrist and you can see all the data when your out there.




Fenix 3 is great as well, but no elevation capability like the woo.



The Woo is all about jumping and heights (and much more). Where did you get that crap that it doesn't do elevation?


Perhaps you should read it again .......

dusta
WA, 2940 posts
11 Nov 2015 10:52AM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
loftywinds2 said..

bigtone667 said..


Brohan said..
I got a garmen Fenix 2 to track how far and how fast I go, works really well but it doesn't tell me how high I jump. I wouldn't go a rip curl watch as I've heard bad things. If you want something to track your distance and speed and where you went I'd go a watch. Just a quick glance at your wrist and you can see all the data when your out there.




Fenix 3 is great as well, but no elevation capability like the woo.



The Woo is all about jumping and heights (and much more). Where did you get that crap that it doesn't do elevation?


english 101 bro go and re-read his post . I am impressed you managed to type a response considering you can't read

loftywinds2
185 posts
11 Nov 2015 1:00PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
dusta said..

loftywinds2 said..


bigtone667 said..



Brohan said..
I got a garmen Fenix 2 to track how far and how fast I go, works really well but it doesn't tell me how high I jump. I wouldn't go a rip curl watch as I've heard bad things. If you want something to track your distance and speed and where you went I'd go a watch. Just a quick glance at your wrist and you can see all the data when your out there.





Fenix 3 is great as well, but no elevation capability like the woo.




The Woo is all about jumping and heights (and much more). Where did you get that crap that it doesn't do elevation?



english 101 bro go and re-read his post . I am impressed you managed to type a response considering you can't read


Oh.

Can be read both ways brooo

dusta
WA, 2940 posts
11 Nov 2015 1:51PM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
loftywinds2 said..

dusta said..


loftywinds2 said..



bigtone667 said..




Brohan said..
I got a garmen Fenix 2 to track how far and how fast I go, works really well but it doesn't tell me how high I jump. I wouldn't go a rip curl watch as I've heard bad things. If you want something to track your distance and speed and where you went I'd go a watch. Just a quick glance at your wrist and you can see all the data when your out there.






Fenix 3 is great as well, but no elevation capability like the woo.





The Woo is all about jumping and heights (and much more). Where did you get that crap that it doesn't do elevation?




english 101 bro go and re-read his post . I am impressed you managed to type a response considering you can't read



Oh.

Can be read both ways brooo


no there is one way for that to be read . pretty simple really

cauncy
WA, 8407 posts
11 Nov 2015 7:37PM
Thumbs Up

Wife tracker , with no clues she'd find me at the most remote pub, unfortunately comes with a lifetime warranty

loftywinds2
185 posts
18 Nov 2015 9:43AM
Thumbs Up

Select to expand quote
dusta said..


loftywinds2 said..



dusta said..




loftywinds2 said..





bigtone667 said..






Brohan said..
I got a garmen Fenix 2 to track how far and how fast I go, works really well but it doesn't tell me how high I jump. I wouldn't go a rip curl watch as I've heard bad things. If you want something to track your distance and speed and where you went I'd go a watch. Just a quick glance at your wrist and you can see all the data when your out there.








Fenix 3 is great as well, but no elevation capability like the woo.







The Woo is all about jumping and heights (and much more). Where did you get that crap that it doesn't do elevation?






english 101 bro go and re-read his post . I am impressed you managed to type a response considering you can't read





Oh.

Can be read both ways brooo




no there is one way for that to be read . pretty simple really



no bro, there is another way - "...but no elevation capability like the woo", can imply that the Woo does NOT have elevation abilities.


The proper English I was taught (seems I know more English than those born here!), was to say it like this ...\

"Fenix 3 is great as well, but it does not have elevation capabilitieslike the Woo."

or

"Fenix 3 is great as well, but it does not have elevation capabilities like the Woo does."

And the merry go round goes round and round.

CJ2478
NSW, 482 posts
27 Nov 2015 7:54AM
Thumbs Up

Puetz said..
https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/wearabletech/watches-wearable-technology/quatix-/prod120680.html

I got this as a Christmas prezzie from the missus and love it,,,, completely feeds my inner nerd giving me all the info I want and is even a cool watch for day to day use.

It does all the simple GPS tracking stuff, speed distance blah blah but other cool stuff like tides or a compass to help you work wind direction so no more guessing. It does waay more stuff than use that racers would love like port/starboard tack angles so you can work stuff out for speed efficiency. When I'm in a nerd mood I try different trimming of the kite to feet positioning and then watch if there are any speed changes or better upwind angles,,,,, like I said more blah blah than I would use.

On a negative, the one thing that does annoy me though is the beep/alarm is too quiet and useless but it does vibrate too so you kind of get some feedback that your alarm is going off.

Also, if you have a full day of tracking and do millions of button pressing, you should charge it up at the end of the day especially if you plan to do a second day of the same. Mind you, if your concerned then just leave it alone and you get 2 days of tracking easily. I found if you just use the watch as a watch then you don't have to touch it for a couple weeks,,, maybe more, I have found out yet.

Below is a little example where I put my 2 sessions track on google earth (58km and 18km with average speed 15.5 knots).





edit: you get heights data too but not convinced its accurate enough for kiting especially for jumps, I think the sensor needs to be calibrated before you get anything accurate.


I was just checkin the specifications of this watch on the Garmin website and noticed that its waterproof rating is 5ATM, which apparently equates to 50m waterproof.

I was always under the impression that for sports like kiting you would want 100m waterproof, but ideally 200m for the forces that the watch would be subject to during a high speed wipeout.

Also, what's the deal with charging it and downloading data via a cable? What sort of protection does the port have?

bigtone667
NSW, 1502 posts
27 Nov 2015 8:02PM
Thumbs Up

CJ2478 said..

Puetz said..
https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/wearabletech/watches-wearable-technology/quatix-/prod120680.html

I got this as a Christmas prezzie from the missus and love it,,,, completely feeds my inner nerd giving me all the info I want and is even a cool watch for day to day use.

It does all the simple GPS tracking stuff, speed distance blah blah but other cool stuff like tides or a compass to help you work wind direction so no more guessing. It does waay more stuff than use that racers would love like port/starboard tack angles so you can work stuff out for speed efficiency. When I'm in a nerd mood I try different trimming of the kite to feet positioning and then watch if there are any speed changes or better upwind angles,,,,, like I said more blah blah than I would use.

On a negative, the one thing that does annoy me though is the beep/alarm is too quiet and useless but it does vibrate too so you kind of get some feedback that your alarm is going off.

Also, if you have a full day of tracking and do millions of button pressing, you should charge it up at the end of the day especially if you plan to do a second day of the same. Mind you, if your concerned then just leave it alone and you get 2 days of tracking easily. I found if you just use the watch as a watch then you don't have to touch it for a couple weeks,,, maybe more, I have found out yet.

Below is a little example where I put my 2 sessions track on google earth (58km and 18km with average speed 15.5 knots).





edit: you get heights data too but not convinced its accurate enough for kiting especially for jumps, I think the sensor needs to be calibrated before you get anything accurate.



I was just checkin the specifications of this watch on the Garmin website and noticed that its waterproof rating is 5ATM, which apparently equates to 50m waterproof.

I was always under the impression that for sports like kiting you would want 100m waterproof, but ideally 200m for the forces that the watch would be subject to during a high speed wipeout.

Also, what's the deal with charging it and downloading data via a cable? What sort of protection does the port have?


I had the garmin 910xt.... worked okay but i always struggled with dongle when uploading.

I bought the garmin fenix 3 because it autoloaded using bluetooth and my mobile, direct to the garmin website. Magic!!



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"tracking devices" started by Percvil