Nathan Cool
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nathan Cool is a noted pioneer of long range marine forecasting and surf prediction.[1]
Nathan is the Chief Forecaster for WetSand Inc. and founder of the forecasting service WaveCast. Nathan's affiliations include the American Meteorological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Weather Association.
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[edit] Media Coverage
Nathan is the author of the world’s first comprehensive book on surf forecasting: The WetSand WaveCast Guide to Surf Forecasting.[2]
Nathan is also the author of the award-winning The Four Keys to Successful Design[3], the Cherished Memories, and Rhythm of the Ocean.
Nathan has been featured in various periodicals including the Los Angeles Daily News, Associated Press, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Ventura County Star, and Conejo Valley's Acorn.
Since the mid 1990s, Nathan has been a regular guest on the Surf Talk Radio Network, which has had a listening audience throughout central and southern California (Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Diego) and Hilo, Hawaii, providing long-range seasonal forecasts.
[edit] WaveCast® History
Nathan was as an trained, having lived in the Midwest before moving to California in the mid 1980s. Once in California, he picked up surfing and decided to fill the void of information that could accurately and affordably predict surf conditions to maximize quality time while surfing.[4]
In the late 1990s, Nathan founded his initial forecasting service WaveCast®. Combining his engineering skills and ocean wave principles, Nathan developed an accurate method for forecasting surfing conditions.
Nathan’s approach brought the latest technology on the Internet into the hands of many surfers, just like him. Starting as a pay service, WaveCast® quickly became a popular forecasting service for Southern California, providing members with inexpensive, accurate forecasts.[5]
The WaveCast® service continued to bring accurate forecasts to Southern California surfers, and received accolades throughout various local media including Marc Kent’s Let’s Talk Surfing.
The pay-per-view model that the original WaveCast® service provided was keeping valuable information away from may surfers who could not afford the subscription. Nathan eventually teamed with WetSand, a new portal for the surfing community. The business model was conducive to providing free forecasts, and the combined expertise brought the availability of demographic expansion while placing crucial information regarding coastal conditions to surfers around the globe.
[edit] Forecasting Achievements
During the El Niño weather inclemency of 1997 and 1998, when Internet WAM models were still in their infancy, and of questionable reliability after 60 hours, Nathan forewarned that an ominous system could be headed to the California coast, bringing with it surf that could reach over 20 feet in Southern California. The Port Authority at Port San Luis released its boats, paying heed to Nathan's forecast, and was honored to receive an email of thanks from the Port Authority for his accurate predictions and early warning calculations.
In recent times, Nathan has given fair warning to areas of Central America for damaging surf from unusually large southern hemisphere storms, in particular, one that formed under Easter Island with 40-50 foot seas that brought 20+ foot waves to beaches in Costa Rica, and larger surf around Peru.
Along with these storm forecasts, Nathan has also provided seasonal forecasts, including a State of our Surf report.[6]
Nathan is recognized as one of the first surf forecasters to design and develop unique automation software that can predict wind and wave height information worldwide. Utilizing various buoy data and raw modeling input parameters, Nathan's software has assisted in the creation of various swell models.
[edit] References
- ^ Santa Cruz Sentinel, June, 4, 2006, Section C.
- ^ iUniverse Publishing, ISBN# 059530365X
- ^ Editors Choice Award, iUniverse Publishing
- ^ WetSand author bio, www.wavecast.com/guide/author.shtml
- ^ Marc Kent, Surf Talk Radio Network, interview June 1999
- ^ LA Daily News, June 3, 2006, Summer's looking swell for LA
[edit] External links
- NathanCool.com
- WetSand.com Free surf forecasting serivce providing long range surf predictions, swell models, wind forecasts, and other various surf-related content.
- WaveCast.com One of the pioneering surf forecasting services working with WetSand.com to provide free surf forecasts to the worldwide surfing community.
- Spitcast - Surf reports and forecasting.
