Seanic User Guide
Beach conditions at a glance
Seanic is a beach condition forecasting app for Irish coastal locations. It provides 8-day hourly forecasts, activity scores, tide charts, and real-time weather data — available on iPhone, Apple Watch, and home screen widgets.
Getting Started
When you first open Seanic, you’ll be asked to accept a safety disclaimer. This reminds you that forecasts are for informational purposes only and should not be used for safety-critical decisions. The disclaimer reappears every 30 days as a reminder.
Seanic has four main tabs along the bottom of the screen: Favourites, All Beaches, Near Me, and Map.
Favourites
The Favourites tab is your home screen. It shows the beaches you’ve saved for quick access.
- Adding favourites: Browse beaches in the All Beaches or Near Me tabs, open a beach, and tap the heart icon in the top-right corner.
- Reordering: Drag and drop beaches to arrange them in your preferred order.
- Activity scores: Each beach card shows the best activity scores for the next 24 hours. Tap a beach to see the full forecast.
If you haven’t added any favourites yet, you’ll see a prompt directing you to the All Beaches tab.
Your favourites automatically sync to the Watch app and home screen widget.
All Beaches
A complete, alphabetically sorted list of every Irish beach in the app.
- Search: Use the search bar to find beaches by name or region.
- Facilities: Each beach shows icons for available facilities — Blue Flag, lifeguard, parking, toilets, accessibility, and more.
- Water quality: Beaches display their water quality classification (Excellent, Good, Sufficient, or Poor) when available.
- Coming soon: Some beaches are listed but not yet available. You can request new beaches using the link at the bottom of the list.
Near Me
Find the best beaches near your current location, ranked by conditions.
- Location permission: Seanic needs “While Using” location access to find nearby beaches. It searches within a 75 km radius.
- Activity filter: Use the activity picker at the top to select what you want to do — Swim, Surf, Walk, Photo, Paddle, Wind, or Beach Day. Beaches are ranked by how good the conditions are for your selected activities.
- Distance: Each beach shows its distance from you in kilometres.
- Scoring: Beaches with at least one activity score of 7 or higher appear at the top. Those with lower scores appear at the bottom with a note.
- Refresh: Pull down to refresh your location and reload forecasts.
Map
An interactive map of Ireland showing all beaches.
- Pin colours: Yellow pins are your favourites. Red pins are regular beaches.
- Navigation: Tap any pin to open that beach’s forecast.
Beach Detail
Tapping any beach opens the detail view with comprehensive forecast data.
Current Conditions
The top card shows conditions for the current hour (or the next available forecast):
| Data | Description |
|---|---|
| Air temperature | Current temperature in °C |
| Feels like | Adjusted for wind chill or heat index |
| Humidity | Relative humidity percentage |
| Water temperature | Current water temp with historical average |
| Wind | Speed (with Beaufort description), direction, gusts, and classification (Onshore, Offshore, Cross-Shore) |
| Swell | Height in metres, period in seconds, direction |
| Breaking waves | Height at shore and break type (spilling, plunging, surging) |
| Tide | Current height in metres and state (High Tide, Low Tide, Rising, Falling) |
| Other | Pressure, visibility, UV index, precipitation chance |
Weather Warnings
When Met Éireann has issued a weather warning for the area, a colour-coded banner appears at the top of the detail view:
- Yellow: Be aware
- Orange: Be prepared
- Red: Take action
Activity scores are hidden while a weather warning is active.
Tide Chart
The interactive chart shows an 8-day hourly forecast that you can scroll through:
- Tide curve: A visual wave showing tide height over time.
- Score bands: Coloured bands show how good conditions are throughout the day.
- Green: Excellent (7–10)
- Yellow: Good (5–7)
- Orange: Fair (3–5)
- Red: Poor (1–3)
- Night shading: Darker areas indicate nighttime hours.
- Moon phase: Icons at the top show the current moon phase.
- Tap to explore: Tap any point on the chart to see detailed conditions for that hour.
Activity Scores
Seanic calculates scores (1–10) for seven activities based on current and forecast conditions:
| Activity | Key Factors |
|---|---|
| Swim | Water temperature, wave height, wind, air temperature, water quality |
| Surf | Wave height, swell direction, wind direction, tide |
| Beach Day | Air temperature, precipitation, wind, visibility, UV |
| Walk | Precipitation, wind, air temperature, visibility |
| Photo | Cloud cover, golden hour timing, visibility, wave conditions |
| Paddle | Wind, wave height, water temperature, tide, visibility |
| Wind | Wind speed and gusts, direction, wave height, water temperature |
Each score includes a breakdown of what’s helping and what’s hurting the score. Some activities (Swim, Beach Day, Paddle, Wind) don’t show scores during nighttime hours.
Score scale:
| Score | Rating |
|---|---|
| 9–10 | Excellent / Epic |
| 7–8 | Very Good / Good |
| 5–6 | Good / Fair |
| 3–4 | Fair / Poor |
| 1–2 | Poor / Flat |
Beach Facilities
Below the forecast, you’ll find information about the beach itself:
- Blue Flag — Meets international standards for water quality, safety, and environmental management
- Green Coast — Recognised for excellent water quality and natural environment
- Lifeguard — Lifeguard on duty (schedule shown when available)
- Toilets — Toilet facilities available
- Parking — Car park available
- Accessibility — Wheelchair accessible
- Beach wheelchair — Beach wheelchair available
- Dogs — Dogs allowed on lead
Map View
An embedded map shows the beach location with:
- Wind direction arrows
- Animated swell direction lines (toggleable in Settings)
- Night overlay during dark hours (toggleable in Settings)
- Precipitation chance overlay
Settings
Access Settings via the gear icon in the Favourites tab.
Offline Mode
- Cache Data: Save forecast data for offline use.
- Cache Size: View how much storage is being used.
- Clear Cache: Remove all cached data.
Display
- Show Map: Toggle the map on beach detail screens.
- Show Swell Direction: Toggle animated swell lines on the map.
- Night Map Overlay: Darken the map during nighttime forecasts.
- Prefer Daytime High Tides: Highlight high tides that occur during daylight.
- Tide Direction: Choose how tide direction is described (Rising/Falling or Incoming/Outgoing).
Activity Scores
Toggle which activities appear throughout the app. Each activity includes a description of what it measures. Changes apply everywhere — the detail view, Favourites cards, Near Me rankings, widgets, and the Watch app.
Tips & Announcements
- Reset Tips: Show all tutorial hints again.
- Reset Messages: Show in-app announcements again.
- Show Disclaimer: Re-display the safety disclaimer.
Widgets
iPhone Home Screen Widget
Add the Seanic widget to your home screen for at-a-glance beach conditions.
- Long-press your home screen and tap + in the top corner.
- Search for “Seanic” and select a widget size.
- Long-press the widget, tap Edit Widget, and choose which beach to display.
The widget shows current conditions including tide, wave height, wind, and activity scores. Tap the widget to jump straight to the beach in the app.
Apple Watch Complications
Add Seanic complications to your watch face to see conditions for your favourite beach. The complication shows temperature, wind, and wave data at a glance. Tap to open the full forecast on your watch.
Apple Watch App
The Watch app shows forecasts for your favourite beaches, synced automatically from your iPhone.
- Beach list: Browse your favourites with current conditions.
- Beach detail: View temperature, wind, waves, tide, and activity scores.
- Digital Crown: Scroll through the forecast timeline to see future conditions.
- Best times: See when conditions will be best for each activity.
- Score breakdown: Tap a score to see what factors are helping or hurting.
Settings for tide phrase style, daytime high tide preference, and enabled activities sync from your iPhone.
Tips
- Scroll the tide chart to see up to 8 days of forecast data.
- Tap the chart to jump to a specific hour and see conditions change in the current conditions card.
- Use Near Me when you’re flexible about which beach to visit — let the conditions decide.
- Select multiple activities in Near Me to find beaches that are good for more than one thing.
- Check wind classification — offshore wind is great for surfing, onshore wind is choppy.
- Watch for breaking wave type — spilling waves are gentler for swimming, plunging waves are better for surfing.
- Report problems using the link at the bottom of any beach detail if something looks wrong.
Data Sources
Seanic uses data from the following sources:
- Met Éireann — Weather forecasts (CC BY 4.0)
- The Marine Institute — Tidal observations
- Office of Public Works — Water level data
- EPA — Beach facility information
- Apple Maps — Mapping
Contact & Support
- Developer: Colin Fitzpatrick
- Email: jam.paddock-9d@icloud.com
- Request a beach: Use the link at the bottom of the All Beaches tab to request a beach that isn’t listed.
- Report a problem: Use the “Report Problem” link at the bottom of any beach detail view.