Windsurfers need no longer waste precious daylight hours wondering which stretch of water has the best wind conditions: a local website now sorts that out for them.
The Hong Kong Observatory launched a webpage yesterday that provides daily weather forecasts for 10 windsurfing hot spots.
It provides information specifically tailored to windsurfers' needs, such as wind direction and speed for every hour between 6am and 7pm, and real-time weather observations.
'We developed the technology before the East Asian Games,' Sharon Lau Sum-yee, the observatory's senior scientific officer, said. During the Games, forecasts were provided for Tai Tam Bay, where the competition took place.
James Chik Kai-chung, a vice-president of the Windsurfing Association of Hong Kong, said competitors liked the site's accuracy and said it was up to international standards.
The webpage was created after the founder of the Wind Chasers group of windsurfing enthusiasts, Caxton Li Kin-kei, wrote to observatory director Dr Lee Boon-ying asking for such a service.