Parterships

Entering the activation code

For all watch models, the activation code is entered directly from the application menu:

long press to the UP key (or swipe left on touchscreen devices) then go to "Tools -> Activation Code -> Unlock Code"

When your activation code is not already set and saved into the app, you will find, within this menu, your ID number instead.

Trial period / Testing the app

Users without a registered license have the possibility to start a session and test the application for a maximum of 20 minutes, each day. During this period, all data and metrics are properly calculated, and will therefore be saved into the FIT file.

Arrived at the end of the 20 minutes, the application will then automatically switch to pause / stop session mode: here, you will always have the possibility to browse all the screens (to see the results on the screen), or to leave the session, either saving it or ignoring it.

The duration of 20 minutes can be combined on the same day: 1 session of 20 minutes, or 2 sessions of 10 minutes, etc.

When starting / launching the application

You will be first greeted with a welcome popup screen. This screen, which will be displayed during about 5 seconds, also shows you the current version number of the application, which allows you to see, at a glance, whether it is up to date or not.

Preparing and using the app

- launch the application, like any other application

- first, you should set the application to your needs (background color, units, etc.). To do this, enter the application menu (long press the UP button) and select the parameters at your convenience. All the choices made in the menu are permanently stored on the watch so there is no need to re-enter them each time the application is launched.

- in you select the Surf Foiling activity, the application offers you two surf detection modes, an automatic mode and a manual mode (these two modes are not used by the Pump Foiling, E-Foiling and Downwind foil activities):

• automatic mode -> as its name suggests, this mode allows the automatic detection of each surf performed. Note that in this mode, you will not have access to the weather web service since useless here. This mode is currently only available for models with at least 124 KB of useful memory for applications
• manual mode -> this mode allows you to manually define a surf detection, by entering the minimum speed from which a surf will be detected (entry in the menu - press the UP key - then, "Surf Speed ". You then have the choice between 2 options:
• • either enter the speed value directly ("Set Surf Speed" menu) in the currently selected unit (km/h or knots), because you already know it or easily estimate it
  • either by calculating the wave periodicity ("Set Wave Period" menu). It's very simple: watch the waves and count the number of seconds between each wave (for example, take a landmark for the first wave, and count the number of seconds between the arrival of the next wave at this same landmark). Enter the calculated value, in seconds, using the selector and confirm. The application will then automatically deduce the speed of the waves.

in the 2 modes -> you will finally have to determine a threshold duration from which a surf will be detected as is by the application. Depending on the spot where you practice, the waves can be higher or lower, last longer or shorter therefore, some waves will be able to generate surf of 6-7 seconds, others with a duration greater than 20-30 seconds . So not all spots are equal. This trigger duration allows you to adapt this threshold according to the spot conditions. Note that on models with only 64 KB of useful memory, this threshold cannot be modified by the user, it is therefore fixed hard, by default at 6 seconds.

Usefulness of this threshold: avoid counting false positives (start of surf interrupted by the surfer, fall just after the start, etc.). To access this option, it's here, in the "Surf Detection -> Trigger Point" menu

- once all the parameters are fixed (activity, detection mode, surfing speed, trigger duration threshold, etc.), you can exit the menu to return to one of the application screens

- depending the selected activity:

• surf foiling: point the north of your watch facing the waves to recover their course in degrees (at the top right of the main screen, you have a red area indicating the current course); this setting will allow you to determine and record all of your surfs for each surfed wave). You will notice that the value indicates a heading increased by 180 ° compared to in front of you, in fact, the waves going towards you, they follow an opposite heading by 180 ° compared to in front of you
• pump, e-foiling and downwind foil: the heading of the waves is not used here so the axis of the waves displayed in the small rectangle at the top right is replaced by the display of the "Loc." label. Before the start of the session, the rectangle is red (no starting position has been retrieved), and when starting the session, the position is retrieved, the rectangle turns green

- for the Surf foiling activity, the surfs are calculated and retrieved automatically, nothing else to do! Each surf is saved as a new lap in the FIT file.

- for Pump foiling, E-foiling and  Downwind foil activities, the laps are managed either manually or automatically. The option corresponding to this choice can be found in the "Options -> Auto-Lap" menu: disabled = manual mode, enabled = automatic mode

• manual mode: when the session is active, pressing the BACK / LAP key automatically adds a new lap in the FIT file
• automatic mode:
• • you can set a threshold speed that determines the end of a lap. If your speed drops below this threshold, the lap will be interrupted, but you'll still be able to swim back to your starting point without this "trip" being counted as part of the lap. In other words, a lap will only include your journey on the board! By default, this value is set at 5 km/h (or 3.10 mph). This option can be found in the "Options -> Speed Threshold" menu
• • when the session is active, the recording of a new lap is automatically triggered each time your speed drops below 0.3 m/s, it is considered here that you have stopped; when you pick up speed, the calculations for the next lap start over from zero, and so on. You still have the possibility of adding a lap manually in this automatic mode, by pressing the BACK / LAP button. Every 1000 meters run, a lap is automatically added to the FIT file
  • in the Pump foil and Downwind foil activities, an automatic count of the number of laps is made each time you complete a lap and return to your starting point (within a radius of 5 meters), without having stopped in the meantime. This data is displayed on the "Best Lap" screen, "# cont. laps" ie, number of continuous laps. This data is also saved in the FIT file of the session, in the summary area of your session
• note: when a new lap has just been automatically recorded (speed < 0.3 m/s), pressing again the BACK / LAP button will have no effect, to avoid recording a useless duplicate (lap with no data) ; your speed must go back above 0.3 m/s for the BACK / LAP button to become operational again

- in the Pump foil and Downwind foil activities, the number of pumpings is counted. This new feature, still in the testing phase, is only present on models with at least 124 KB of user memory. For that reason the result obtained may not yet be consistent or reliable with respect to what it should. As the tests are carried out in real conditions, this data will be improved and optimized. If the selected activity is Surf foiling or e-foiling, the display "n/a" replaces the value.

- to start a session, just press the START key the watch

- scrolling between screens is achieved by just pressing the UP or DOWN key. When the wide screen is displayed, UP and DOWN keys change the type of data displayed on the top and bottom fields

- you can pause the session by pressing the START key then "Pause" menu, and resume recording with a second press on the same key then, "Resume" menu

(pause = orange dots, active = green dots, stop = red dots)

- to end the session, you press the START key, a menu appears, proposing you to either reject or save the session. Then, a summary screen will be proposed to you, summarizing the main data of the session

- to quit the application in stop mode (when no session has been started), click on the LAP button, not on the START button

- the current time is displayed in the following 3 modes: when the application is waiting to be launched, in pause mode, and when the session is active, if the time option has been selected (or the hour - stopwatch display in alternate mode).

How to set and use weather web services

First of all, I should point out that this functionality is only available on models with 1024 KB of useful memory for applications, that is to say, applications with mapping and / or music options.

First, go to the website offered by the application (currently only one):

• StormGlass

the link directly brings you to the presentation page of the proposed formulas, the free version is on the left, click on the "Sign Up" button, enter the requested information. Once your account is created, you will be able to access the dashboard, which will then give you access to your API key.

Remember to keep this API key, because it can also be used in the future, in case you have to re-enter it in the application following a replacement of your watch, for example.

Your key received, you will then enter it in the application settings, in the field corresponding to the site you have selected. To do this, connect your watch with your smartphone and open Garmin Connect (or a computer with Garmin Express). Select the Foiling application from the list of your applications, and open the settings: four fields appear at the top of the page. Copy and paste your API key in the corresponding field and confirm your entry. There it's done, the API key is automatically transferred to the Foiling app. Note that yours keys are automatically saved on your watch, in the permanent settings of the application, so you will not have to re-enter them, unless you change your watch.

Note: if the API key has been saved in the field of the settings file, but you can't see the corresponding menu in the web service menu of the application, please proceed as follow:

- activate the bluetooth mode of the watch and connect it with your smartphone then, launch the Garmin Connect application

- launch the Foiling app on the watch, and stay on the main screen

- on your smartphone, in Garmin Connect, go to the list of the applications installed on the watch, select the Foiling application and open the settings tab

- the API key(s) should appear; otherwise, re-enter it (them) and save the modifications

- this time, the API keys must have been sent to the application on the watch

Finally, to be able to use this function, and thus recover the wind data automatically in the application:

1. put your watch in connectivity mode (bluetooth activated)
2. launch Garmin Connect on your smartphone
3. launch the Foiling application from your watch
4. the phone connection notification icon (top right of the main screen) should light up in blue
5. enter the main menu of the application, and go to the "Surf Detection -> Automatic Swell Data" menu.
6. press the START key to connect to the web service and collect weather data. That's it, it's done, the wind speed + wind direction / axis data are now integrated into the application, you should see them displayed on the main screen, in the same way as if you had performed this function manually (like in the past). After a few seconds, a menu opens, offering you whether or not to display the 6 o'clock forecast.
7. finally, if you wish, don't forget to deactivate the bluetooth mode on the watch in order to avoid additional battery consumption

The request collects all the infos displayed on the pic below, and all the necessary data of the app are automatically calculated regarding this request so, everything is automatic. You just need to continue to point your watch towards the waves just when you start your session, like before.

8-hour weather forecasts

From version 1.90 of the application, it manages weather forecasts for a period of up to 8 hours.

If you use the following weather web services StormGlass, you will automatically obtain the weather forecast for the next upcoming 8 hours.

These forecasts are stored directly on the watch disk when they are collected, to be used then, hour by hour, during the session.

This therefore means that, during the course of your session, the weather data such as the air temperature, the wind axis, and its speed will be automatically updated, hour by hour, and in a completely transparent manner, at each change of plain hour (2 p.m. - 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. - etc); so you don't have to do anything other than retrieve the forecast before you start your session, that's it, then the app does the rest!

This new feature is very useful because the change in weather data (wind axis and speed) will have a direct influence on a large number of calculations performed by the application (efficiency of your navigation in relation to the wind axis , etc), and the resulting results, hour after hour, will be automatically reflected within the application.

Whereas previously, when you entered or retrieved weather data manually or through a weather web service, this data did not change during the session, even though the weather conditions could change during the session, that is often the case!

This adds a little more precision and reliability to all calculations performed by the application.

The forecasts stored by the application are checked every 30 minutes, in order to not have any one hour delay.

For example, if you retrieve the weather data at 2:10 pm, the next check will take place at 2:40 pm, no change since it is not 3:00 pm, next check at 3:10 pm and there, any possible change in the weather data, and so on until the eighth hour stored.

If you retrieve the weather data at 2:45 pm, the next check will take place at 3:15 pm and therefore, the weather data may be updated since the time is no longer the same (we went from 2 to 3 pm).

Even better: let's imagine that during the day, you ended your morning session to take a little lunch break, for example. Two hours later, you relaunch the app for your new afternoon session, so two hours have passed in between. Well, at the time of this second launch, the data will be automatically updated according to the new time.

On the other hand, if this second launch takes place beyond the 8 hours of the stored forecasts (for example, you end the first session at 10 am, and you restart the second at 7 pm), you will only retrieve the last data. known at 10 am. If you want to be up to date, you will therefore have to update this data again by reconnecting to the weather web service in order to retrieve the updated data.

Finally, if after having retrieved the weather forecasts you subsequently update the weather data manually, the forecasts file will be instantly deleted from the watch disk, then you will lose all the forecasts stored for the upcoming hours (considering that if there has been a manual modification a posteriori, this probably means that the forecasts were not reliable or stable in relation to the real conditions on the spot). So, if you want to find these forecasts, you will need to collect new data again.

 Note:

•  forecasts are retrieved over a maximum period of 8 hours so, if you start your session at 1 pm for example, the application will have access to forecasts until 8 pm (the eighth hour is also included)

•  forecasts are blocked by default from 10 pm, since no rider is supposed to sail… at night. So if you start your session at 4 pm for example, you will only get the forecast for the next 6 hours

•  you can see how this weather forecasts feature works, and its repercussions within the app, by viewing the following video:

https://youtu.be/dQ2KTxEUGq0

 This video shows the Surfing application in action (which uses the swell data from the StormGlass site) but, it works exactly the same way in the Wind-Kite Surfing application, except that instead of the swell data, here the axis and wind speed data are used instead

Tides forecast up to 48 hours

When you collect automatic weather data as explained just above, you also get automatically the tide forecasts, up to 48 hours.

If there are available, you can view the tide forecasts by entering the "Tools -> Tides - Display Forecast" menu.

Adding a new lap

• Surf foil activity -> a lap is created and saved each time a new surf is made and counted by the application
• Pump foil, E-foil and Downwind foil activities -> the counting of new laps is partly managed via the "Auto-Lap" option in the "Options" menu
• • disabled mode -> adding a new lap is managed manually by pressing the BACK / LAP button (or swiping to the right on the screen)
  • enabled mode -> each time your speed drops below 1 km/h, the application will automatically record a new lap, the application then considers that you are stationary. When you resume speed, and it exceeds 1 km/h, the calculations for the next lap resume, until the next stop, and so on. However, you still have the option of adding a new lap manually, by pressing the BACK / LAP button (or swiping to the right on the screen). However, when a lap has just been recorded automatically (speed < 1 km/h), pressing the BACK / LAP button will produce no effect, in order to avoid recording a duplicate lap with no given. You must go above 1 km/h to reactivate pressing the BACK / LAP button
  • in both cases -> a new lap will always be added automatically each time the distance covered reaches 1000 meters

Each new lap recording triggers the popup below, to let you know that the new lap has been taken into account.

Low battery indicator

During the session, when the battery level reaches 5% or less, the background color of all the screens of the application changes to garnet red, telling you that you only have a few minutes of battery life left, depending your device model...

Scores Menu - View the global statistics

Scores Menu - Reset data/scores

You have the option to reset two types of data:

• only the best scores: your records, better performances. This data is displayed on the "Best Surf" screen
• all values: the best scores + all the data recorded over all your sessions ("Stat" screen)

Note that the reset is an irreversible function, all data will be lost after this action.

Scores Menu - Assign values / scores

This feature allows you to manually assign a value to the data displayed on the ""Best Lap" and Stats" screens. This can be useful for example in the case of a replacement / change of your watch, and you do not want to loose all your global statistics. The data entry follows the same order as the data displayed on these two screens, to simplify your input.

Minimalist screen

This wide screen presents the essentials and the minimum information on screen, with an extended font (time, chrono, current speed, and colored arches - see the meaning of these arcs on the descriptive image below). This screen is easily readable during navigation, especially for surfers with a visual weakness and who can not wear their glasses in navigation.

This screen is activated in the application menu - Wide Screen -> Display on/off

When it is activated, it is displayed when the session is started and therefore active. When you put the session in pause mode, this screen disappears to make room for all other screens, so you can, for example, see your performance / detailed information when you pause. When you restart your session, the minimalist screen reappears again.

When this screen is selected and displayed:

• pressing the UP key changes the data displayed in the top field according to the selection you made in the Wide Screen - Top Field menu. On watches with a touch screen, a long press on the top area produces the same effect
• pressing the DOWN key changes the data displayed in the bottom field according to the selection you made in the Wide Screen - Bottom Field menu. On watches with a touch screen, a long press on the bottom area produces the same effect

GPS constellations (only for SDK 3.2.x compatible models)

If you find that your GPS track is not accurate enough, you can modify, directly into the application, the GPS constellation used by the application. You will have the choice between several constellations, only those which are compatible with your specific watch model, and available on it at a given moment. This option is activated by the menu "Options -> Constellation", and thus avoids you having to do it outside the application, before its launch! Simpler, and faster than ever.

Note: as Garmin updates your watch's firmware, the number and type of these constellations may vary, so check the list in the corresponding menu from time to time.

Features specific to touch screens

On the majority of models with a touch screen (some older models are not compatible with this feature), you can directly access certain common functions via two types of screen shortcuts:

- a short press (just tap on screen) on a delimited area of the screen

- a long press, either on a delimited area, or anywhere on screen

For more detailed explanation of these touch areas and the functions involved, see the descriptive image below.