SwellOracle news and updates

Academy authorship and editorial quality 1.3.6 • 2026-08-17

• Strengthened five Academy lessons with practical examples, common mistakes and source limitations.
• All lessons now show PhD. Jorge Cornejo as author with a review date.
• Updated the About Jorge page with the editorial review process and transparent handling of missing data.

More reliable Australian buoy data 1.3.5 • 2026-08-06

• Fixed AODN catalog traversal and annual dataset selection for Australian stations.
• Preserved AODN timestamps so recent readings from Sydney, Byron Bay and other stations are displayed correctly.
• Validated the complete flow with 14 Australian stations and prevented missing values from appearing as real measurements.

More reliable buoy readings 1.3.4 • 2026-08-05

• Fixed missing-data presentation so 0 m, blank periods and 32°F are not shown as real measurements.
• Added a direct NOAA/NDBC fallback for buoys missing from the aggregate feed, including Hawaii.
• Improved AODN source refreshes to reduce stale readings in Australia.

SEO and Surfability Score™ attribution improvements 1.3.3 • 2026-08-03

• Simplified the Killer Surf Links integration with one attribution block using its official logo.
• Improved California SEO titles and the homepage social description.
• Prioritized useful editorial content and avoided repetitive buoy pages.

Killer Surf Links partnership pilot 1.3.2 • 2026-07-31

• Published a bilingual Orange County hub connecting seven breaks with their NOAA/NDBC buoy pairs and specific Surfability Score™ pages.
• Added the direct links provided by Killer Surf Links for Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Salt Creek, Strands, Doheny, San Clemente and Trestles.
• Added the Surfability Score™ icon to the break cards and editorial guidance on using SwellOracle alongside KSL.
• The page separates offshore observations, SwellOracle context and the Killer Surf Links score layer so each product's role remains clear.

Editorial guides and stronger content quality 1.3.1 • 2026-07-30

• Published three bilingual editorial guides about Orange County buoy pairs, reading central Chile data and evaluating whether a surf reading can be trusted.
• Added an author profile, strengthened methodology, editorial policy and data-corrections channel, with content reviewed by PhD. Jorge Cornejo.
• Prioritized the sitemap for pages with stronger editorial value and linked the new guides from Academy, the homepage and Resources.
• Added navigable contents, estimated reading times and continuation links between guides.

Expanded real buoy coverage 1.3.0 • 2026-07-29

• Updated Data sources, Status and What's new with the real-station count by country.
• The integrated catalog now contains 76 stations across Australia (14), Spain (11), Ireland (5), New Zealand (1), Japan (23), Canada (19) and the United States (3).
• Connected stations to existing regional hubs and created bilingual national hubs for Japan, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.
• Chile, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa remain pending until stable public endpoints are available.

Coastal Clarity 1.2.2 • 2026-07-24

• Added bilingual hubs for France and the Basque Country, with regional coverage, exposure context and links to nearby references.
• Published a bilingual Mundaka page and connected Mundaka, Laida, Laga and Zarautz to the Basque Country hub.
• Updated the regional index and sitemap to include France, the Basque Country and Mundaka.
• Reorganized SwellOracle Academy by level: removed the standalone Guides block, moved relevant content into Beginner and placed Resources after Advanced.
• Added three bilingual Advanced lessons about building a complete swell view, wind, tide and personal surf-alert strategies.
• Added bilingual comparison pages for Sydney vs Byron Bay, Barcelona vs Valencia and Wellington, with editorial content, internal links and structured data.
• Optimized titles, H1 headings and descriptions for priority pages based on real Search Console queries, including MHL Sydney, Sentry Shoal, Barnegat 44091, Barcelona, Valencia and Wellington.
• The website now selects imperial units for visitors from the United States and metric units elsewhere, while preserving the user's manual preference.

A clearer regional index and more consistent SEO 1.2.1 • 2026-07-21

• Fixed the regional index so it displays all available hubs, including Chile, California, Hawaii, Peru, Australia, Spain, Sweden, Iceland and Ireland.
• Added a permanent redirect to https://www.swelloracle.com while preserving paths and query strings.
• Improved the English homepage title, self-referencing hreflang and Apple Touch Icon for editorial pages.

More regional buoy hubs 1.2.1 • 2026-07-21

• Added bilingual hubs for Sweden, Iceland and Ireland, with coastal coverage, swell context and links to regional references.
• Updated the regional index to bring together all available hubs and automatically detect new regional pages.
• Expanded internal links and the sitemap so users and search engines can discover coverage by country.

More beaches, more knowledge 1.2.1 • 2026-07-19

• Updated public Premium pricing to US$4 per month and US$40 per year.
• Added a public page to request full account deletion or remove SwellOracle data while keeping the account active.
• Moved WhatsApp alerts to the approved Utility templates surf_alert_utility and surf_alerta_utility to avoid Marketing limits while keeping the Premium summary, station, height, period and swell direction.
• Published new bilingual beach pages across California, Hawaii, Chile, Peru, Spain, Portugal, Australia and Indonesia.
• Expanded Atlantic coverage with pages for Nova Scotia, Tofino, Ireland, Newquay, Nazaré, Denmark, the Canary Islands and other coasts.
• Pages clearly distinguish physical buoys from model points and include tide, wind and local-exposure context.
• Added real Copernicus Marine In-Situ observations for Denmark and the North Sea, separated from model points and shown in the regional comparison table.

Cleaner SEO and a unified legal hub 1.1.8 • 2026-07-16

• Reduced the dynamic sitemap from 824 to 593 URLs by excluding stations without recent readings or interpretable wave metrics.
• Excluded pages remain available in the app and regional catalogs, but use noindex,follow to avoid low-value search content.
• Created the bilingual Legal and policies hub with summaries and links to privacy, terms, refunds, subscription and contact pages.
• Reviewed Academy and buoy-page titles to avoid excessive length and duplicates.
• The full SEO audit now reports 0 errors and 0 warnings across 592 checked pages.

Ocean Insight: more context for reading the ocean 1.1.8 • 2026-07-15

• Simplified public navigation: Academy now brings together lessons and guides, while News is no longer a primary navigation link.
• Paused automatic RSS news updates to prioritize original editorial content while keeping the route available for compatibility.
• Updated the Leaflet map with the CARTO Dark Matter layer and improved favorite-buoy control states.
• Published two bilingual intermediate lessons: how to read a surf buoy and why forecasts can differ from beach conditions.
• Academy now explains that wind is optional data: some buoys measure it, models may estimate it, and local coastal sources can provide additional context.
• Expanded the California and Chile hubs with editorial guidance on references, coastal exposure and physical observations versus models.
• Verified bilingual routes, sitemap, canonical, hreflang, H1 and structured data before the next deployment.

Actionable analytics and a faster-opening app 1.1.7 • 2026-07-14

• Connected the app directly to GA4 and added measurement for navigation, regions, buoys, favorites, alerts, sign-up, login and subscriptions without sending email addresses or personal data.
• The app now opens saved favorite buoys first when a selection exists and takes new users directly to the map.
• Deep links to a buoy or location continue to open the map at the requested point.
• Improved first-screen performance by rendering the interface before remote requests, refreshing data in the background and avoiding Leaflet initialization when the map is not visible.
• Added regression tests for analytics, initial-view selection and alert-settings persistence.
• Added bilingual Mexico and Portugal hubs for marine-model coverage, clearly distinguishing estimates from physical buoys.
• Visible buoy, station and model coordinates now use degrees, minutes and seconds while decimal values remain available for maps, calculations and structured data.
• Published a fifth bilingual Academy lesson about using a marine forecast for surf, combining wave forecast, buoys, models and sea conditions.
• Strengthened hub, buoy, model and Academy metadata for surf, swell, wave, marine forecast and sea-conditions searches.
• Updated the app map with the CARTO Dark Matter layer while keeping Leaflet and a visual treatment better integrated with the dark interface.
• Improved favorite-buoy controls: map, station page and remove actions now have clearer hover and focus states with color, glow and lift.
• Published Academy's first bilingual intermediate lesson: how to read a surf buoy by connecting timestamp, source, height, period, direction, wind and coastal exposure.
• Added a second bilingual intermediate lesson about why forecasts differ from beach conditions, covering model resolution, timing, wind, bathymetry, exposure and mixed wave systems.
• Expanded the California and Chile regional hubs with editorial guidance for choosing references, interpreting exposure and separating physical observations from models.
• Completed a local technical audit of Academy, California, Chile and the sitemap: 200 routes, canonical, hreflang, H1 and structured data verified.

More consistent SEO for buoys and regions 1.1.6 • 2026-07-11

• Fixed the classification of known NOAA buoys so a temporarily incomplete reading no longer turns a valid page into noindex.
• Optimized titles and descriptions across buoy, guide and regional pages to avoid excessive length and preserve distinct English and Spanish versions.
• Strengthened canonical, indexing and metadata signals for priority pages, including buoy 46025, without exposing missing stations or transient sources to the index.
• Cleaned up the dynamic sitemap by excluding transient Copernicus In-Situ stations and reducing unstable URLs reported as 404.
• Completed a comprehensive pre-deployment audit of the sitemap, metadata, structured content, internal links and indexable pages.
• Opened a bilingual Spain cluster with dedicated pages for Barcelona, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Galicia, separating physical stations, models and coastal basins.
• Connected Academy with Mediterranean examples, added a Barcelona station-versus-model comparison, and protected Spain coverage from transient or cross-border stations.
• Organized California into bilingual clusters for the north, San Francisco Bay, Central Coast, Southern California and San Diego, with buoys, models and swell exposure filtered by area.
• The preference to hide settings for a favorite alert now survives reloads and can also sync with the account profile.
• Added regression checks, direct Academy links, localized model names, explained regional overlaps and stable editorial dates for the new clusters.

Academy, regions, history and improved buoy pages 1.1.5 • 2026-07-10

• Published a new SwellOracle Academy lesson about swell period, with practical ranges and comparisons that explain how wave energy changes.
• Created stable bilingual routes and strengthened buoy and station SEO with canonical tags, hreflang, technical facts, FAQs, breadcrumbs, structured data and an expanded sitemap.
• Added regional pages for Chile, Valparaiso, California, Hawaii, Peru and Australia, connecting physical observations and models without presenting estimates as real measurements.
• Added deduplicated seven-day history, accessible 24-hour tables and charts, clear states when samples are missing, and comparisons between physical stations and models.
• Prepared representative hourly production capture through Cloud Run and Cloud Scheduler, with secret protection, limits, retries and health monitoring.
• Improved links between Academy, guides, regions and stations; related pages now prioritize locations from the same country and published regional models.
• Published the third bilingual Academy lesson about swell direction, with examples connected to California, Hawaii, Chile, Peru and Australia, plus educational structured data and lesson navigation.
• Added robots.txt and an automated SEO audit for sitemap, metadata, canonical tags, H1 headings, structured data, duplicates and internal links before each deployment.
• Simplified public pages by removing the favorites button, which remains available inside the app.

Academy and a more dynamic home page 1.1.4 • 2026-07-07

• Added SwellOracle Academy in English and Spanish, starting with a first lesson on reading swell height, period and direction.
• The home page now highlights a real buoy with recent data when a complete reading is available, while keeping a stable fallback if data is unavailable.
• Improved educational navigation so guides, Academy, sources, news and what's new are easier to discover.

More coastal coverage in South America 1.1.3 • 2026-07-03

• Added Peru to the Copernicus In-Situ real-observation scan and registered DHN Peru as an official candidate source.
• Expanded Peru coverage with coastal model points aligned with DHN/Naylamp forecast areas, including Bayovar, Salaverry, Chimbote, Callao/Lima, Pisco, Mollendo and Ilo.
• Added more Chile coastal model points from north to south, including Arica, Iquique, Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Pichilemu, Valdivia, Chiloe, Aysen and Magallanes.
• Extended Brazil coverage with coastal model points in Para, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Bahia, Espirito Santo, Cabo Frio, Santos, Florianopolis and Rio Grande.
• The app is prepared to show real Peruvian buoys when a public source provides wave height, period and direction without inventing readings.
• The public buoy index and sitemap now exclude stations without recent useful wave readings.

More guides and better organized pages 1.1.2 • 2026-07-02

• Simplified the interactive app so it stays focused on the map, favorite buoys and alerts.
• Added new guides about NOAA/NDBC buoys, wave height, direction, choosing buoys, swell components and alert setup.
• Station pages without useful readings are prepared to stay out of the index until they have enough data.

Automatic language and visual continuity 1.1.1 • 2026-07-01

• The home page now opens in English by default when the browser is not configured for Spanish, while keeping Spanish for users with a Spanish language preference.
• When opening the app from the landing page, SwellOracle now carries the selected language into the app for a consistent Spanish or English experience.
• Refined the app interface so cards, guide blocks, colors and the hero area feel more consistent with the new cinematic landing page.

Global coverage, buoy pages and visual experience 1.1 • 2026-06-30

• Expanded coverage with new real data sources, including AODN Australia and Copernicus Marine In-Situ for the Mediterranean.
• Improved map loading: buoys appear sooner, sources update progressively and each provider now shows its loading status.
• Redesigned the landing page and app with a darker, cinematic visual style aligned with the SwellOracle brand.
• Added a full buoy and station index by country, with individual indexable pages and localized country names in Spanish and English.
• Improved the visual distinction between real buoys, model points, DART stations and other marine stations, including more useful map labels.

Navigation improvements 1.0.1 • 2026-06-19

• Removed full buoy directory to simplify navigation.