Words: Wavescape PR
Ocean enthusiasts and surfers have welcomed the launch of a network of live beach cameras at selected coastal locations around South Africa.
Viewers of the Wavescape Ocean Watch beachcams in Cape Town and Durban can get free stills images or subscribe to a live video feed at www.wavescape.co.za.
Spike from Wavescape says that free images are updated every few minutes. “However, if visitors to Wavescape would like to see the live streaming, which shows video quality streaming in real time, they can subscribe for as low as R40 per month if they take a year’s subscription up front.
Wavescape acquired the cameras from Beachwatch to enhance the popular website’s surf forecasting and marine prediction services, which include graphics and written reports for more than 40 beaches in 10 regions around the South African coast.
“I offer an analysis of the data, which some people find confusing, on each of the 10 regional pages, but for the purists in the know, all the data is there, from wind speed and direction, swell height and direction, as well as peak interval to low and high tides, moon phase and water temperature.”
Wavescape, which provides data for the Multichoice Beach Reports on DStv, also offers a uniquely South African algorithm that calculates the potential nearshore surf conditions along the coast based on the ambient ocean conditions.
“We download the basic data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US, but use a custom-developed mathematical script that parses the information to determine how big the surf is along a particular stretch of coast, which is valuable to recreational users, such as swimmers, surfers and divers, but also to people in boats, such as fishers, sailors and kayakers,” said Spike.
Cameras are located at Big Bay, Melkbosstrand, Clifton 4th Beach, Noordhoek, Kommetjie, Muizenberg and the Strand in and around Cape Town and False Bay, while the Durban camera pans across various beaches along the golden mile, including New Pier, North Beach and Bay of Plenty. More cameras are in the pipeline.
Visitors to Wavescape can subscribe to the beachcams on a monthly basis for R49, or can take out a one-off membership for time periods of three, six or 12 months.
See http://www.wavescape.co.za for more information.
