Albano 1 Matt Albano Dr.

Erin Dietel-McLaughlin WR 13300 7 October 2011 Forecasting the Future Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, co-authors of the book They Say I Say, highlight the importance of emphasizing the severity of ones argument and claim: Again, it bears repeating that simply stating and proving your thesis isnt enough. You also need to frame it in a way that helps readers care about it (99). Thus, it is important to understand the relevance of my topic in the realm to which it applies. Surfing is a sport that is largely dependent on Mother Nature in that waves are crafted by numerous swell factors as well as weather. For this reason, surfers rely on forecasts in order to find the best locations as well as times to paddle out. Over the past decade, both Surfline.com and Magicseaweed.com have grown to control the market for forecasting due to their accuracy as well as their consistency. For both sites, professionals analyze numerous factors of swells including swell directions, swell heights, tides, wind, and reefs in order to predict surfing conditions. This being said, similar to weather forecasts, both sites often disagree on their predictions and sometimes misread conditions. Thus, in order to maintain interest, both sites offer a variety of other avenues to explore the world of surfing. This includes surf photos, videos, contest results, and travel recommendations as well. They also earn profit via numerous advertisements located throughout the sites. Although a slew of other surf forecasting websites exist, Surfline and Magicseaweed are the most commonly used and consequently the most comparable.

Albano 2 Despite their similar aims, Magicseaweed and Surfline present their material in different fashions. Magicseaweed appeals to the surfing community as a comprehensive aid in predicting and sharing surf whereas Surfline is more so a news site despite its claim to be a surf forecasting body. Magicseaweed is far more user oriented and focused on precise predictions while Surfline is very commercial and professional, leaving little room for user input. Firstly, the Magicseaweed splash page emphasizes forecasting above all else and shows a list of forecasting options that emphasize this. Surflines splash page, on the other hand, appears more so as a magazine that highlights surfing news. Also, Magicseaweed is an interactive community in which users cannot only view surf forecasts, but can also share surf related photos and videos. Surfline is far more professionally run and for that reason, user photos and videos are crowded out by those of professionals. Lastly, Magicseaweeds forecasting page is extremely detailed, which allows users to fully understand incoming swells. On the contrary, Surfline provides a simplistic forecast meant for surfers who do not wish to spend a great deal of time analyzing swells before paddling out. Although it is true that Surfline is somewhat of a business recently, these comparable sites present their forecasts in different manners and magnitudes. Firstly, Magicseaweed is largely focused on its forecasting and limits its news casting to a minimum. The site emphasizes its forecasting above all else on its splash page and fills the majority of it with forecasting tools. For example, the entire right column of the main page is consumed by links that direct users to specific surf spot forecasts. This large section leaves little room for advertisement and thus emphasizes Magicseaweeds dedication to forecasting above all else. Also, Magicseaweed does not

Albano 3 attempt to woo users with fancy color schemes. Instead, the site provides a very simplistic background that does not divert users attention from the forecast. Specifically, the background is an opaque white and the font is a bold black. In this way, users are able to focus more so on the purpose of the website and avoid the advertisements that many websites provide in their backgrounds in order to earn money. Finally, forecasting is further emphasized by a lack of storylines on the splash page. In fact, current events on Magicseaweed can only be accessed by clicking on the magazine tab on the navigation bar. This lack of story lines shows a disinterest in current events and suggests a dedication to traditional forecasting. Thus, because forecasting dominates the main page of the website, it is apparent that Magicseaweed focuses on forecasting swells above all else. Much unlike Magicseaweed, Surfline provides users with a slew of surf related articles, which disguises the forecast. Surflines splash page is largely crowded by numerous headlines, most of which are unrelated to surf forecasts. In fact, the only forecasting tools on the main page are located in a miniscule column on the bottom left hand side of the page. This appears in great contrast to Magicseaweeds main page in that Magicseaweed filled their main page with forecasting links rather than surfing headlines. Because of this, one can determine that Magicseaweeds website is more dedicated to forecasting than that of Surfline. Surfline also adds flare by using an appealing blue color scheme throughout the site. This includes a blue background, blue header, and often blue text as well. This greatly differs from Magicseaweed in that Magicseaweed uses a mundane simplistic color scheme that is far from the commercial nature of Surflines. This attention to minute details shows an overall focus on

Albano 4 appearance while Magicseaweed merely focuses on forecasting. Finally, most of Surflines splash page is covered by advertisements as well as surfing headlines. In a sense, Surfline appears more so a news station specifically focused on surfing than a surf forecasting site. Unlike Magicseaweed, a site that largely focuses on its forecasting nature, Surfline diversifies its aims and covers the whole sport of surfing rather than merely the forecasts. Thus, in summary, Surfline focuses far less on forecasts than Magicseaweed and appears as a news station more so than a forecasting site. Magicseaweed is also very user oriented and invites surfers to participate in the surfing community. To do so, Magicseaweed allows users to upload surfing photos and videos that are then promoted by the site. In fact, these multimedia files are an integral part of the website and consume a large portion of Magicseaweeds main page. For example, the bottom left column of the main page is entirely filled with the most popular user photos while the bottom row is filled with the most viewed user videos. This demonstrates a dedication to communication between users as well as an affinity to user input. Magicseaweed also offers a blog that furthers the notion that the site is a place where users can interact. On the blog, there are a variety of discussions including surfing tips, surf equipment recommendations, and even debates over the best surfers. This prevalence of communication between users highlights Magicseaweeds user oriented nature and allows the site to appear as a community as well. Furthermore, Magicseaweed offers numerous means of connecting to the site through social networks. For example, there is a link to follow Magicseaweed news on both facebook and twitter on their main page. By allowing users to also stay up to date on site updates and surf development through social media sites, Magicseaweed further expands it appeal to users due to its

Albano 5 focus on the users experience with the site. In these ways, Magicseaweed caters to its users and forms an online community. On the other hand, Surflines webpage is far more professionally run than Magicseaweeds in that it offers little room for user input. Firstly, Surfline promotes professional media files throughout their webpage rather than the amateur files Magicseaweed promotes. In fact, user files are rare on Surfline and are somewhat discouraged due to an abundance of sponsored pictures and videos that earn profit for the site. For example, professionally shot Billabong pictures hold precedent over amateur photos. In this respect, Surfline greatly differs from Magicseaweed, which promotes user files instead. Surfline also fails to offer a user blog, which limits the ways in which surfers can interact through the site. The only way users can interact is through photo and video comments. This highlights Surflines disregard for user input and the sites disinterest in user activity as well. This strongly contrasts with Magicseaweed, who thrives off of its user blog and the user interaction that arises from it. Finally, Surfline fails to offers links to third party networking websites such as facebook and twitter. In contrast, Magicseaweed displays two links to both a twitter and a facebook page which encourages users to interact with one another through other mediums. In this way, Magicseaweed is a far more user-oriented site. The above argument further proves the differences between the two forecasting websites, whose similar goals are disguised by contrasting approaches. Lastly, Magicseaweed uses a very complex forecast page that goes above and beyond to provide surfers with every available resource to understand future conditions. The site incorporates numerous swell factors that allow users to truly understand every

Albano 6 aspect of the incoming surf. This includes detailed swell height, swell period, and even swell direction. Not only are they listed at the bottom of each specified surf spot page, they are also displayed in graphs that simplify the process of interpreting them. By providing numerous avenues to interpret incoming swells, Magicseaweed demonstrates its elite forecasting abilities. Furthermore, there is a large icon in the top left corner of the forecast page that shows the swell direction relative to the land mass. By doing so, the site allows surfers to understand what reefs will break best according to the direction of the break. This allows surfers to travel to ideal locations for each swell and experience ideal conditions. The graphs make understanding the given forecast far easier for users in this way and simplify the large amount of given information. Finally, Magicseaweed provides a free seven-day forecast, which is very rare in the surfing world. This helps surfers plan trips in advance and even anticipate upcoming swells farther in advance. This is an elite feature for surf forecasting sites and helps users truly read incoming swells to the best of their ability. In these ways, Magicseaweeds surf forecasts are very useful to surfers and forecast readers due to the mass of information it presents as well as the manner in which it does so. Much unlike Magicseaweed, Surflines forecasts are simplistic and brief, leaving surfers with concrete predictions for future swells. Where as Magicseaweed displays every swell factor including swell height, swell period, and direction, Surfline keeps these factors hidden. Rather, it summarizes them for the surfer and provides him or her with a few sentences explaining their significance. This shows a lackadaisical approach to forecasting and an extremely basic approach to it as well. Surfline also summarizes these factors in a color coordinated conditions chart, which simply states the height of

Albano 7 incoming surf as well as its texture. This vague summary excludes many vital determinants that ultimately help surfers chose ideal tides and locations to paddle out in and thus can be deemed insufficient. This strongly contrasts to Magicseaweed, which uses a series of numbers to convey the same meaning in a more informed manner. Furthermore, unlike Magicseaweed, Surfline only offers a free three-day forecast while premium members have access to seven-day forecasts. This lack of free long term forecasting highlights the deficiencies of the site and its forecasts as well. On the other hand, Magicseaweed offers seven-day forecasts for free. These differences in forecasting highlight the contrasts between both Surfline and Magicseaweed and exemplify their diverse identities. As Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein wrote in their book They Say I Say Paradoxically, the more you give voice to your critics objections, the more you tend to disarm those critics (79). Therefore, it is important to explore and explain possible loopholes in this argument. Firstly, it is true that Surfline has developed as a business over the past two years and has somewhat lost its original forecasting identity. According to John Suler, the author of the article Identity Management in Cyberspace We're not always aware of how we dissociate parts of our identity. However, despite the development of Surfline into a business, it has still continued to forecast swells with the same accuracy as it had previously and thus, the sites are still indeed comparable. Also, many would argue that Magicseaweed can stress its forecasting above all else because the site also sells a magazine that stories many surfing events while Surfline is forced to include this information on their website. Although this is true, Magicseaweed Magazine is largely unheard of and receives little to no attention. Because of this fact,

Albano 8 both Surfline and Magicseaweed would be wise to seek profit through online news and advertisements. This leaves no excuse as to why Magicseaweed can operate without surfing headlines and online adds and also makes these two bodies similar enough for interesting comparison. Therefore, despite Surflines growth over the past two years, the two companies are still comparable. Although both websites strive to forecast surfing conditions, Magic seaweed and Surfline go about doing so in different manners. Magicseaweed is far more user oriented and allows the surfing community to interact while also offering concrete swell forecasts. Surline is a far more commercial site that is flooded with advertisements along with its simplistic forecast. Although both sites do indeed forecast the surf, both appeal to different groups of surfers. Those in search of detailed wave reports that offer numerous factors such as swell height and wind direction will prefer using Magicseaweed. On the other hand, those looking for brief and to the point predictions along with a slew of stories related to professional surfing will prefer using Surfline. Although Surfline has developed into a strong business over the past 2 years while Magicseaweed has maintained its status as a dedicated forecasting site, these comparable companies offer surfers vastly different manners to stay in touch with the surfing community and access surf forecasts.

Albano 9 Works Cited Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say / I Say: the Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print. (79, 99) Suler, John R. "Psychology of Cyberspace - Identity Management in Cyberspace." Users.rider.edu. Rider, May 1996. Web. 07 Oct. 2011. Surf Forecasts. Magicseaweed, 07 Oct. 2011. Web. 07 Oct. 2011. Wavetrak. Surfline, 7 Oct. 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2011.