Waterspeed App Review: Watersports Tracker With Extras

We’re happy to get the Waterspeed app up and running.

Italian Massimiliano Picchi, an avid surfer, has provided us with an app that is particularly meticulous in its data collection for paddling.

With Waterspeed, you can forget about missing a kilometer in the evaluation or cheating on it.

In addition, we also get information about the wind conditions with this app, which we honestly lack with most of the competition.

So if you want to get reliable information about your tour success, Waterspeed is the right place for you. But not only as a stand up paddler… It almost doesn’t matter which sports equipment you are using, Waterspeed tracks most of them. Only on the water you have to move.

Features of the App at a Glance

Structure and Functions of the Waterspeed App

Although Waterspeed has the additions sailing, surfing and SUP in its name, it doesn’t stop there when using the app. In principle, almost all water sports that involve a sports device or boat can be tracked with the free tool.

So also kayaks, jet skis, foils, wakeboards, water skis, powerboats and more. And to make sure Waterspeed knows exactly what you’re gliding across the water with under your feet, you can of course preselect the corresponding sport before the app starts recording.

The Waterspeed app is reserved for iOS users, so it should be an iPhone and/or iPad. Those who still own an Apple Watch can also take it with them on tour to use the app. Waterspeed is in German, so no frustrating language barrier is to be expected at this point.

In the free version, you can already have a good romp here, because the basic data for the rough overview is recorded. This includes the distance, the maximum and average speed and the duration.

The free version of Waterspeed also has a good weather tab. The current situation and the preview contain a somewhat slimmed down information of the air temperature, wind direction and wind speed and the whole thing for 5 days in the forecast – at least.

This is a feature that we like to praise, because many water sports apps do not offer this at all. Neither for free nor for paid versions.

In the PRO version, Waterspeed adds cloud synchronization, a complete weather forecast not only for the individual day but also with an hourly listing, the activation of the countdown (for all those who have set fixed times for achieving their paddling goals), export to GPX files (e.g. Strava, Garmin or Google) as well as to CSV/Excel files, the merging and comparison of individual activities and the display of the best speeds.

You have to invest 2.49 euros (~£2) per month or save 20 percent with 5.99 euros (~£5) per quarter, or 30 percent with an annual subscription of 20.99 euros (~£17.5). It is important to know, however, that only one activity is saved in the free version. A comparison with previous tours can therefore not be made in the app itself, this is only possible in the PRO version.

Design and Usability

Waterspeed is not difficult to understand, only four tabs next to each other at the bottom of the screen we must first overlook. The first is the logbook with the data of the last tours and next to it the statistics on the total distances, the complete duration of the activities, the maximum speed and the average speed.

If you don’t want to see this data for all tours, you can easily specify the time period for display via dropdown menu. This goes from the same day to the entire period in practical 10 choices.

The third tab and thus placed in the middle is the recording option. This tab is also automatically called first every time you open the app. This is an advantage if you are already on the board and have forgotten to start the app. This has happened to us a few times ourselves. That’s why we’re always happy about apps that think along with us like Waterspeed and save us awkward fiddling between the paddle and the app and we’re right where we want to be.

For the recording, you can still set whether you want to have the whole thing recorded with distance or course, live speed or average speed, duration or distance. In itself a nice thing, but requires each option of the total of three a click on very small buttons.

An operation through the waterproof smartphone case becomes quite cumbersome at this point. In addition, you always have to do this again for each recording if you want to deviate from the standard options km/h and duration.

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For this, you definitely hit the “Start”, because you can’t miss it in terms of size. At the top, on the same interface, you have to click on the selection option for the sport. If you can’t find what you’re looking for among the 24 listed here, you can also go to “Other”.

It would be nice if you could save this click and set your favorite sport in the personal settings, to which the recording then automatically refers. Currently, you will always find sailing in the first place when you want to start a new recording.

The developers put the most popular sports at the top of the list in the updates. However, if you don’t want to go sailing by chance, you won’t get around this setting before every activity. If you want the interface for the recording to be less boring and number-based, you can click on the display option at the top right and then get the data nicely embedded in the Apple map version.

Next to the recording we find the weather tab and next to it the settings. Here you can preset whether you prefer the speeds in km/h, knots or mph, the distance as kilometers, nautical miles or miles and the wind also in these parameters or also as m/s. Using a sliding button, you can then specify whether the countdown should be displayed and the workout should be saved automatically afterwards.

User Ratings

Waterspeed achieves a total of 4.6 rating points out of 5 in the Apple App Store. Praise is given above all for the almost without exception flawless functionality and support. One stand-up paddler among the scorers even praises the app as “the only one that enables optimal tracking for stand-up paddling”. Some users have criticized the price and the fact that Waterspeed can only be used in the PRO version.

Of course, it depends on how ambitious you want to track and compare your activities. For a small overview of the current tour, the free version is sufficient in our opinion. Otherwise, however, it makes sense to invest in the PRO version in order to really compare and view your own successes in full.

We personally don’t find the PRO version too expensive. Waterspeed does not really stand out from the competition. However, the excellent support has to be emphasized positively. We agree 100 percent with the reviews. There is no answer to questions or problems, every comment is taken care of and the update in the App Store follows promptly.

There is at least one per month with bug fixes and general improvements, but there can be up to three. So Waterspeed does not sleep. Listening, taking it seriously and putting it into action is part of the philosophy.

Alternatives to the Waterspeed App

The pure recording of paddling tours can alternatively be done via apps like GoSUP or Pudlr. Here, however, you have to do without the wind information, but the use of the Apple Watch and the transfer to the Apple Health Kit are just as possible.

Of course, it also works without the Apple Watch and iPhone. Either with the Go Paddling app for Android, for example, or simply with a waterproof sports watch.

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