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Besides our wave forecast, Windfinder also offers wave reports from buoys around the world. You can find all buoys on our wave report maps, covering wide regions of the world, e.g. Southwest Europe, Northwest Europe, California, Hawaii, Florida and many other more.

On all detailed buoy wave reports (e.g. Hanstholm), you also have the possibility to view the past wave reports. Just select your preferred date from the "Past weather" - box in the left column.

Did you ever want to know where your next surf shops, schools etc. are? Or are you planning a trip or vacation and want to see what local surf-related businesses are there?

Now you can browse through our Directory of Windsurfing, Kitesurfing, Surfing and Sailing via Google Maps. You can see all entries conveniently on a map, and zoom in, pan or zoom out as you are used to. Of course you can also filter to categories, e.g. if you only want to know which surf schools (but no shops) are near your. There are already over 5000 entries listed there.

If you own a shop, school or some other business and you are not already listed in our Directory (please check this using our search function), you can add yourself to our Directory at no charge! There you can provide information about your business, give a description, an image, a link to your homepage etc. As this service is available for free, please include a link to www.windfinder.com on your page if you add your business.

If you experience any problems using our new Directory or have some questions or any feedback, feel free to send a mail to jonas -- at -- windfinder.com.

Besides the normal way of opening a browser and pointing it to www.windfinder.com, there are also other ways to stay in touch with the wind while you are at your computer. If you have Firefox running, you perhaps already know about our Firefox extension Windfox, but we also have so-called "Widgets" or "Gadgets" available for almost any computer platform there is.

With every widget, you can view the current wind speed and the wind forecast for the next days. It updates frequently, so you can be sure to never miss the wind again. The widgets also can alarm you when the wind speed extends beyond a certain configurable threshold.

If you run Windows Vista, the Windfinder Gadget is available for your sidebar. For Mac OSX, the Widget sits in your Dashboard. If you have Windows XP or Linux, you must install Google Desktop first before installing our Google Gadget. And if you are using the Yahoo widget engine, we also have a widget available for that.

Windfinder added wind reports and forecasts for Edmonton City Airport, Lac la Biche, Springbank/Calgary, Lake Keho, Strathmore/Eagle Lake, Wabamun Lake, Pincher Creek/Oldman River Dam, Sylvan Lake/Red Deer in Alberta/Canada, for Elbow/Lake Diefenbaker in Saskatchewan/Canada, and for Victoria Beach/Lake Winnipeg and Gimli Harbour/Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba/Canada. If you want us to add more spots please e-mail us at info (at) windfinder (.) com.

We have added some new features to our Swellfinder front page! Similar to the previously announced Quick Spot Navigation on the Windfinder front page, we have added the quickest way to get to you local Wave Reports or Wave Forecasts. Just select your continent, country and spot and select whether you want to see the Wave Report or Wave Forecast - and you're done

In addition to that, you can find the five spots with the highest waves around the globe. If your local spot is in there, don't waste time and go out to enjoy the swell!

You can also see the current Wave Reports from over 300 buoys worldwide on our various Wave Report maps, e.g. for Northwest Europe, Southwest Europe, California or Hawaii.

If you are still waiting for swell, you can check out our new high resolution Wave Forecast map for Europe or our various Wave Forecast maps for North America, e.g. California, Florida and the Carribbean.

In addition to our previously announced high-resolution wave forecasts for North America, we now also have wave forecasts for Europe including the Mediterranean Sea available.

Forecasts are available for three days in advance, so all wave addicts can see wave height, wave period and wave direction and see if any big swell trains are coming in! So have fun using our new European high-resolution wave forecasts!

The final video of the 2008 PKRA Kitesurf World Tour has been released showing you the action of the 2008 Kiteboarding World Champions in Freestyle Gisela Pulido (Spain), Aaron Hadlow (Great Britain) and Wave riding Guilly Brandao (Brazil) at the last tour stop in Matanzas/Chile. Windfinder congratulates the winners, the riders, the organizers, and wishes them all the best for the next season.

We added a new feature to our front page: the Quick Spot Navigation. With this tool, you can easily select your preferred spot by continent and country. After you found your spot, simply click on the button for Wind Report or Wind Forecast and you will be directed to the corresponding page.



Please note the difference between our existing map-based navigation for Wind Reports and Wind Forecasts and the new spot-based Quick Navigation. If you know your preferred weather station (e.g. Tarifa), it is easier to use the Quick Spot Navigation. But if you want to see the wind for the whole country (e.g. Spain) to get a bigger picture for the weather situation in general or if you want to decide at which spot you want to go and to compare the wind speed readings, the map-based navigation is the right tool for you.

Do you like this new feature? Do you have any improvements or feature requests? Any feedback is welcome via mail to jonas -- at -- windfinder.com

On Saturday the PKRA Kite World Tour 2008 ended after 10 events at the last tour stop in Matanzas/Chile with the awards ceremony. There was not enough wind for a double elimination in the wave riding discipline. The single elimination was held a few days earlier and the winners were awarded now:

1st and Wave Riding World Champion 2008: Guilly Brandao (Mormai/Brazil)
2nd: Kevin Langeree (Naish/Netherlands)
3rd: Dreu Beavis (North/Australia)

Congatulations to the winner and see ya on the 2008 Kiteboarding World Tour.

It was a great weekend in Kiel/Germany, where the Kiteloopcontest 2008 took place. We saw a great sunny sky with winds around 20 knots and warm temperatures. All riders had a great time on the water and everyone could show off their latest Kiteloop moves or simply chill out at the beach. The riders judged each other in the following categories:

Highest Kiteloop: Lasse Schneppenheim
Most technical Kiteloop: Rick Jensen
Most powerful Kiteloop: Franz Olry
Best wipeout: Tim Kummerfeld
Best rookie: Pascal Rutsch
Best girl: Nicole Schönekäß