Support

The data

Why does my favorite spot show “No data”?

The most common reason is a temporary outage at one of the public data sources the app pulls from. Pull-to-refresh on the home tab or tap the Retry button when one appears. If the spot still has no data after an hour, the data feed for that spot may be offline; emailing [email protected] surfaces the issue for review.

What do the six tiers mean?

From lowest to highest: Flat, Marginal, Worth a look, Fun, Cooking, ITS ON!. The tier is computed from five factors (wave size, period, direction match to the spot, wind, tide) and a small per-spot exposure model. Tap WHY THIS RATING on any forecast cell to see all five factors and how each one scored.

Where do the forecast numbers come from?

Free, public ocean and weather data. Tap WHY THIS RATING on any cell to see the five factors and how each one scored.

Are there surf cameras?

A few. Account → Live cams opens a handful of free public cams published by third parties such as harbor districts and city sites. Each cam loads from its operator only when opened, as the Privacy Policy describes.

Can I use GhostFingers outside California?

At V1 launch, the curated catalog covers the most-surfed California spots. Custom spots work anywhere the public data sources reach, which is most of the US coast plus a large fraction of the global coast. Baja, Hawaii, Australia, Europe, and Indo are on the roadmap for sequential expansion after launch.

Your account

How do I add a custom spot?

Tap the plus icon at the top right of the Now tab, or tap “Create or manage favorite spots” in the Account tab. Drop a pin on the map, give the spot a name, and GhostFingers auto-resolves the nearest data feeds. The spot lives on the device and starts collecting forecasts immediately.

How do I get alerts for a specific spot?

Favorite the spot first (tap the star icon), then go to Account → Alerts and pick a per-spot threshold. The minimum tier (e.g., “Cooking or higher”) and quiet-hours window are configurable. Default is off; alerts only fire after opt-in.

How do I export or delete my data?

Account → Data → Export data saves a JSON file (or an Excel workbook) of the app’s data: favorites, custom spots, logged sessions, tunings, saved feedback notes, and preferences. Account → Data → Clear all local data deletes favorites, tunings, and logged sessions from the device.

Favorites, custom spots, and tunings stay on the device. Logged sessions stay on the device unless “Sync sessions to iCloud” is turned on in Account → Data, and then they go only to your own private iCloud. A short list of preferences (display name, home region, default board, units, and onboarding state) syncs through your own private iCloud whenever the device is signed into iCloud. GhostFingers runs no server that stores any of this. What does reach a GhostFingers server (anonymous usage counts, and Morning Call, crash reports, and feedback when you use them) is described in the Privacy Policy.

The app

How do I get into the beta?

GhostFingers is in a TestFlight beta ahead of its App Store release. Email [email protected] to request access.

The app crashed. What now?

If crash reporting is enabled in Account → Support → “Share crash reports”, the crash is already on its way via Sentry. The toggle is off by default. Reports include technical diagnostic data (the call stack, iOS version, device model, app version, and an anonymous event ID), and the same setting also reports app hangs. They do not include a screenshot, a view-hierarchy snapshot, or your name, email, or location. See the Privacy Policy for the full scope and the diagnose-only commitment. Either way, a screenshot of any error message plus an email to [email protected] with steps to reproduce, iOS version, and device model helps a lot.

Contact

Report a problem

Bug reports, unexpected behavior, accuracy issues, or anything else that feels broken: [email protected]. Helpful details to include:

• What you were doing when the problem happened
• The spot you were looking at and the time
• Your iOS version and device model
• A screenshot if there was visible weirdness

Feedback

Same address, different subject line: [email protected]. Every email gets read.

Press and partnership

Press inquiries, surf-shop partnerships, ambassador outreach, or anything that is not a support question: [email protected].

Legal

The Privacy Policy covers what data the app collects and how it is handled. In plain words, the App Store privacy label declares anonymous feature-usage counts; crash and hang reports, only if you turn them on; a push token, only if you turn on Morning Call; and, when you send a feedback note, its text plus the app version, device model, and iOS version. None of it is linked to you or used to track you. The Terms of Use cover the liability framework for a forecast tool.