Local surfers increasingly skeptical of app’s grading scale after repeated “epic” alerts produce distinctly non-epic actual waves
OCEANSIDE A popular surf forecasting app’s “epic conditions” push notification has once again produced waves local surfers describe as “fine, I guess, certainly not epic by any reasonable definition of that specific word,” reigniting long-simmering community skepticism about the app’s apparently generous grading scale.
What “Epic” Actually Produced This Time
Waist-high, moderately organized swell that several surfers characterized as “a perfectly pleasant Tuesday session” but that fell considerably short of the dramatic imagery the app’s notification, complete with fire emoji, had seemed to promise.
The Pattern Local Surfers Have Noticed
Longtime app user Danny Fitzgerald says he’s tracked “epic” alerts against actual conditions for the past several months and found the label applied to anything “meaningfully better than the previous day, regardless of whether the previous day was actually any good to begin with,” a grading system he calls “relative, not absolute, and extremely misleading.”
The App’s Response
A spokesperson for the forecasting company defended the system, explaining that “epic” reflects “significant improvement relative to recent local conditions” rather than any absolute global surfing standard, a clarification several surfers found “technically true and completely useless in practice.”
How Surfers Are Adapting
A growing number reportedly now mentally downgrade every app notification by one full tier, treating “epic” as “decent,” “great” as “fine,” and “good” as “why did you even bother telling me this,” a workaround Fitzgerald describes as “honestly more accurate than the app’s actual system.”
Whether the App Plans Any Changes
No changes are currently planned, the spokesperson confirmed, noting that engagement with “epic” notifications remains “extremely strong” regardless of how the actual resulting waves measure up. Fitzgerald says he’ll keep checking anyway, “purely out of habit at this point, definitely not because I believe it.” Further Oceanside surf culture coverage continues at bohiney.com.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com