Welcome to the second installment of the Save The Waves App blog!
I am thrilled to deliver our quarterly Save The Waves App project updates. We’ve had an exciting last few months meeting with old and new Coalition partners, socializing the App and empowering coastal communities, and improving this tool to meet our community’s needs. We also hosted the Coalition Summit, our 20th anniversary gathering to celebrate 20 years of work and chart the next 20 years of wave saving. From this experience, we defined a vision and key objectives for the App, and coastal stewardship more broadly, that integrate the various programs at Save The Waves in hopes of more effectively protecting surf ecosystems in the coming years.
So, let’s get into the updates. We continue to grow! In the past few months, we have partnered with Movimento ALP based in Ericeira, Portugal, and The Clean Wave, based in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. These organizations are working at the local level to be effective stewards of their coastline through beach clean-ups and advocacy, among other activities, and are using the App to better identify where to focus their efforts. Help us protect Europe’s first WSR and my home coastline of Costa Rica by reporting on the App if you live or visit either of these zones (spoiler alert: they both have great surf). We also established strategic partnerships around outreach with the Uruguayan Surf Reserves Program and the Plastic Pollution Coalition in hopes of continuing to empower coastal stewardship from all around the world. These partnerships help us reach new users while also supporting local efforts to reduce or eliminate coastal threats.
On the tech side of things, we have continued to work alongside our technology development team to push a few more rounds of improvements to the App in both the Android and iOS versions. We pushed an Android update that fixed some important issues and ensured a smooth user experience, while the latest iOS versions launched are focused on backend fixes and improving our App’s ability to integrate with partner apps. Looking forward, we have several more updates scheduled for this year and hope to include key feedback we received from the App Survey, included in the first App blog, and the Coalition Summit in our development train to launch new features in the next 6 to 12 months. Some of these larger updates will include providing users with the ability to give feedback on App reports and track positive outcomes of stewardship projects to address App threats. If you have more thoughts or ideas, please let us know through the App Survey.
To wrap up, a few reminders and an exciting opportunity. First, I wanted to remind everyone that App data can be viewed on a computer (full-screen!) and downloaded at no cost in spreadsheet format on this page. I’ll let you in on a little secret: the data on the App only includes the last few years of reports, while the map and data on our website include all reports since the inception of the App. Drop me a line if you have any questions about how to use these data or if you need any mapping support at diego@savethewaves.org. The same data web page provides you with information on all of our data-sharing partners and key resources you can explore to be a more effective coastal steward, including a global beach clean-up database and a brand audit toolkit to hold large plastic-makers accountable for the single-use plastic they create that ends up polluting the places we love. So check it out! You might be surprised by what you can find.
Last update: don’t miss out on the opportunity to win an Apple watch and a free subscription to Dawn Patrol. Starting mid-August 2023, we will be hosting a month-long giveaway. All you have to do is report a threat to your local coastal environment and you’ll be in the running to win a brand-new Apple smartwatch to track your surf sessions (among many other capabilities!). Every report counts as an entry unless deemed spam* – in other words, no gaming the system by taking photos of individual pieces of trash or other sneaky tricks to get more entries. We’re super stoked to partner with Dawn Patrol on this giveaway, inspired by a similar successful contest we organized in July with our paddling community partners at Paddle Logger, and we want you to show our partners (and supporters) some love. So, tell your friends and help us spread the word. You’re helping us protect surf ecosystems and might end up winning something for it!
That’s everything for this installment of the App blog. Thanks for helping us protect surf ecosystems around the world through the Save The Waves App. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, suggestions or ideas!
Pura vida,
Diego
diego@savethewaves.org
*we reserve the right to choose which reports are eligible to participate in any and all Save The Waves App giveawaysA
