Hi all,

For a while now we have been using an online leaderboard for 1 of our local downwind runs here in the Netherlands. This to compare our speeds and have a 'virtual' competition. Based on uploaded gps/gpx tracks it shows:
- time to complete the run (going through virtual start/finish gates)
- fastest km
- extra distance compared to straight line (how much was surfed)
- max drift (max meters deviation from straight line, basically how far out at sea).
- etc. (see below)

Recently I made the website so that it supports multiple runs. So I thought I share it here in case any crews around the world want to use it as well. You can suggest your own run with start/finish gates and thereafter you can upload gpx tracks and have a local leaderboard.

race.downwind.app

Let me know if you have any suggestions/comments!

Hey Taak what a super cool app. I'm out of the water ATM new knee but as soon as I'm back I will definitely use this . I'll share with my DW crew as well . Thanks so much for doing this it's great . What's the drift column for .

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Piros said..
Hey Taak what a super cool app. I'm out of the water ATM new knee but as soon as I'm back I will definitely use this . I'll share with my DW crew as well . Thanks so much for doing this it's great . What's the drift column for .

The Max drift or max deviation is the maximum distance you were from a straight line between start/finish. So basically how far out at sea you went. Sometimes a nice challenge to see who can get furthest out while still acing the run. Red arrow below.

Very cool - Sibren for President

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The Max drift or max deviation is the maximum distance you were from a straight line between start/finish. So basically how far out at sea you went. Sometimes a nice challenge to see who can get furthest out while still acing the run. Red arrow below.

Ahhhh that makes sense thanks .

Cool site I just submitted our local south wind run on the Gold Coast, snapper to mermaid.

I'm in Perth Western Australia and I see you have Fremantle to Sorrento which is great (when/if I finally do the complete run ??)
However how do we determine the virtual start and finish gates?
It could probably be in line with the last groyne before Sorrento Surf Lifesaving club for the finish
However the start is harder to determine as people are starting at various spots at the moment.
North Mole, The Elbow, Dutchies etc
What do people that do the run think?

The original Drummers run starts at the elbow and goes to the beach at City Beach.
At the moment I'm happy doing North Mole to City or City to Sorrento but hopefully start doing the full run more often this season.

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Cygnify said..
Cool site I just submitted our local south wind run on the Gold Coast, snapper to mermaid.

Thanks a lot! The run is now activated so ready to test the start/finish gates with any old GPX files.

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tightlines said..
I'm in Perth Western Australia and I see you have Fremantle to Sorrento which is great (when/if I finally do the complete run ??)
However how do we determine the virtual start and finish gates?
It could probably be in line with the last groyne before Sorrento Surf Lifesaving club for the finish
However the start is harder to determine as people are starting at various spots at the moment.
North Mole, The Elbow, Dutchies etc
What do people that do the run think?

The original Drummers run starts at the elbow and goes to the beach at City Beach.
At the moment I'm happy doing North Mole to City or City to Sorrento but hopefully start doing the full run more often this season.

On any run you can click menu --> Course information. Then you will see a map with the gates. For the Perth run it is currently: race.downwind.app/course/freemantle-sorrento . Let me know if that works and is the run done by most.

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Taak said..

tightlines said..
I'm in Perth Western Australia and I see you have Fremantle to Sorrento which is great (when/if I finally do the complete run ??)
However how do we determine the virtual start and finish gates?
It could probably be in line with the last groyne before Sorrento Surf Lifesaving club for the finish
However the start is harder to determine as people are starting at various spots at the moment.
North Mole, The Elbow, Dutchies etc
What do people that do the run think?

The original Drummers run starts at the elbow and goes to the beach at City Beach.
At the moment I'm happy doing North Mole to City or City to Sorrento but hopefully start doing the full run more often this season.

On any run you can click menu --> Course information. Then you will see a map with the gates. For the Perth run it is currently: race.downwind.app/course/freemantle-sorrento . Let me know if that works and is the run done by most.

Ok, yeah that would probably work, that is pretty much the original Drummers Run start.

(Drummers Run is a local virtual race mainly for surf skis and regular dw sups, that's been running for a few years , Fremantle to City Beach)

I'm an old bloke, still finding my way downwind foiling and usually just doing the second half of the run so I'll leave the leaderboard for the young guns, good concept though.

Thanks Sibren, South Africa is officially on the (m)app! Michael "Turbo" Klos (Wookie7771) and myself have added a few Cape Town runs.

Epic. I was thinking about how you could do this, and I think it's great! Will submit a run as soon as I can be sure it will get another entry.

Suggestions
1. Make it possible to change the map to satellite so that it is easier to place the pins
1. Show the map on the run results view (even better to overlay the top 10 results)
1. Show submission count and max pace on the home page for each run
1. Make it possible to add a description, to add whatever details necessary (eg I've been adding runs to map.dwfoil.com, primarily about viable conditions and safety)

Ideas
1.Add something about safety, google The Strava Files to see why (I have some thoughts here www.dwfoil.com/p/safety)
1. Is max deviation the best for optimising for efficient or surf riding? It does mean you end up miles out to sea which isn't great (see safety point..)I wonder if you could do max distance. A shorter run and whoever can do the max distance between start and finish while staying on foil.
1. Make it open source so people can suggest changes (no pressure , but this feels like something that lots of people could contribute towards, eg FAQ, minor features, maintenance)
1. Moderators to help with reviewing new submissions, and maybe even keeping runs "private" (ie off the main page) until there are more than a few entries (this could come later)

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cornwallis said..
Epic. I was thinking about how you could do this, and I think it's great! Will submit a run as soon as I can be sure it will get another entry.

Suggestions
1. Make it possible to change the map to satellite so that it is easier to place the pins
1. Show the map on the run results view (even better to overlay the top 10 results)
1. Show submission count and max pace on the home page for each run
1. Make it possible to add a description, to add whatever details necessary (eg I've been adding runs to map.dwfoil.com, primarily about viable conditions and safety)

Ideas
1.Add something about safety, google The Strava Files to see why (I have some thoughts here www.dwfoil.com/p/safety)
1. Is max deviation the best for optimising for efficient or surf riding? It does mean you end up miles out to sea which isn't great (see safety point..)I wonder if you could do max distance. A shorter run and whoever can do the max distance between start and finish while staying on foil.
1. Make it open source so people can suggest changes (no pressure , but this feels like something that lots of people could contribute towards, eg FAQ, minor features, maintenance)
1. Moderators to help with reviewing new submissions, and maybe even keeping runs "private" (ie off the main page) until there are more than a few entries (this could come later)

nice suggestions - I agree, subtracting the rhumb line course distance from the actual covered distance is a better way of determining how much surfing you've done (higher number = more surfing) rather than how much you veered off course to the one side. On that note, I think all runs rhumb line distance should be included in Course Name/title.

The Dutch Downwind app is also super cool, well done

downwind.app/

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PeterP said..
Thanks Sibren, South Africa is officially on the (m)app! Michael "Turbo" Klos (Wookie7771) and myself have added a few Cape Town runs.

Thank you for the help! SA crew is directly taking over the top5 fastest km. Well done.

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cornwallis said..
Epic. I was thinking about how you could do this, and I think it's great! Will submit a run as soon as I can be sure it will get another entry.

Suggestions
1. Make it possible to change the map to satellite so that it is easier to place the pins
1. Show the map on the run results view (even better to overlay the top 10 results)
1. Show submission count and max pace on the home page for each run
1. Make it possible to add a description, to add whatever details necessary (eg I've been adding runs to map.dwfoil.com, primarily about viable conditions and safety)

Ideas
1.Add something about safety, google The Strava Files to see why (I have some thoughts here www.dwfoil.com/p/safety)
1. Is max deviation the best for optimising for efficient or surf riding? It does mean you end up miles out to sea which isn't great (see safety point..)I wonder if you could do max distance. A shorter run and whoever can do the max distance between start and finish while staying on foil.
1. Make it open source so people can suggest changes (no pressure , but this feels like something that lots of people could contribute towards, eg FAQ, minor features, maintenance)
1. Moderators to help with reviewing new submissions, and maybe even keeping runs "private" (ie off the main page) until there are more than a few entries (this could come later)

Thank you for the suggestions! Will not get to all of them quickly. But will put them on the list.

Please note that the % extra distance compared to the straight line is already a metric. Which we indeed use to track how much extra distance was surfed.

Hi Taak

How can we amend our gates? I made our course shorter than it should be! Re-submit a new course?

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Capt.Gumby said..
Hi Taak

How can we amend our gates? I made our course shorter than it should be! Re-submit a new course?

This is about the Yorkey's to Palm Cove?

Sure, we can do that! Maybe easiest to submit a new one with the right gates. Then I'll copy those to the old one. If you can, please DM me on instagram @sibrent so we can align on what the course. And what we should do with the currently submitted runs.

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Taak said..

Capt.Gumby said..
Hi Taak

How can we amend our gates? I made our course shorter than it should be! Re-submit a new course?

This is about the Yorkey's to Palm Cove?

Sure, we can do that! Maybe easiest to submit a new one with the right gates. Then I'll copy those to the old one. If you can, please DM me on instagram @sibrent so we can align on what the course. And what we should do with the currently submitted runs.

Yeah, that's the one. I've resubmitted a new course. Thanks for your help and great job on the app!

This is epic.