# RipCat: Tides, Buoys & Marine — Surf, Fish & Boat with NOAA > Professional tide charts and forecasts for marine activities and coastal exploration. (iPhone/iPad app by Ben Williamson.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ripcat-tides-buoys-and-marine/id6760085664 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Ben Williamson](https://appshunter.io/developer/1882551921) - Category: Weather, Utilities - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 5.00/5 from 6 App Store ratings · 3 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.0 · 21 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-03-11 - Data updated: 2026-08-11 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ripcat-tides-buoys-and-marine/id6760085664/reviews.md ## What is RipCat? Stop checking three screens before you head out. RipCat brings tide predictions, buoy observations, marine advisories, active hurricane tracks, and customizable Ocean Alerts into one fast, Apple-native app. A SERIOUSLY USEFUL FREE APP Start free with one favorite station and one complete custom Ocean Alert recipe. Tide predictions, station search, the map, buoy observations, marine advisories, and hurricane tracking are available without a subscription. HURRICANE TRACKING Follow active Atlantic, Eastern Pacific, and Central Pacific systems from official NOAA/NHC/CPHC guidance, including Eastern Pacific storms off Mexico. • Turn Hurricanes on or off; RipCat remembers your choice • See observed and forecast tracks, the center-track uncertainty cone, and category-coded fixes • Compare wind, pressure, movement, and official 34-, 50-, and 64-knot wind fields • Play or replay the progression, frame the full track, open Details, or use the accessible Storms list CUSTOMIZABLE OCEAN ALERTS Tell RipCat what your ocean window looks like. When an on-device check finds a match, RipCat sends a local notification. • One complete custom alert is free; Pro unlocks up to eight • Combine multiple conditions and up to three tide or buoy sources • Choose tide, wave, swell, wind, or water-temperature criteria when the source reports them • Press and hold for Ocean Aperture: trigger, threshold, direction, height, period, recent trend, wind, and water temperature • Alert recipes, history, and notifications stay on device. iOS controls background timing TIDES AT A GLANCE • Official NOAA CO-OPS predictions for stations around the U.S. coast • Scrubbable 48-hour curve with exact heights, high and low times, and rising or falling state • Nearest-station lookup, search, and solar, moon, and solunar context BUOYS AND MARINE CONDITIONS • Latest NDBC and compatible CDIP observations, limited to values each source reports • Wave and swell height, direction, period, wind, water temperature, pressure, and recent trends where available • Swell-responsive buoy cards and a directional swell rose • Forecast context on select supported CDIP buoys • National Weather Service marine zones and Small Craft Advisory timelines PLAN IT YOUR WAY • Save one favorite free; Pro unlocks unlimited favorites • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, Live Activities, and Siri Shortcuts • Embedded Apple Watch app and glanceable complications • Printable tide calendars, sharing, export, units, time formats, dark mode, sound, and haptics • Support for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro ACCESSIBLE BY DESIGN VoiceOver, large Dynamic Type, high contrast, Differentiate Without Color, and Reduce Motion are supported. Data uses words and symbols as well as color. RIPCAT PRO Pro adds up to eight named Ocean Alert recipes, unlimited favorites, Watch complications, Lock Screen widgets, printable calendars, and sharing/export tools. • Monthly: $2.99 • Annual: $19.99—under $2 per month • Family Sharing supported Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Manage or cancel in your App Store account settings. Prices may vary by region. DATA SOURCES NOAA CO-OPS tides, NOAA/NHC/CPHC hurricane guidance, National Weather Service marine forecasts, NDBC observations, and compatible CDIP data. Tide, buoy, and marine station coverage is United States only; NHC hurricane basins can include systems off Mexico. Informational only; not navigation or emergency advice. The cone is not storm size; hazardous effects can occur outside it. Made in Santa Barbara by a surfer, his daughter, and their cat, Rip. Find @ripcatapp on Instagram or X. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://ripcat.dev/privacy-policy.html ## Key features - Interactive tide charts - 48-hour forecasts - Thousands of NOAA tide stations - Rip current safety alerts - Printable tide calendars - Apple Watch integration - iOS widgets and shortcuts ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **Subscriptions** | Subscription | Price | Period | | --- | --- | --- | | RipCat Pro Monthly | $2.99 | per month | | RipCat Pro Annual | $19.99 | per year | ## Recent user reviews (3 of 3) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ripcat-tides-buoys-and-marine/id6760085664/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Brian Rude *2026-05-05* Easy to navigate with accurate information. Displays tide locations that other apps have not been able to provide. ### 5/5 — TideMind *2026-04-30* One of the latest and last great tide apps of this century, before AI comes for us all, and extinguishes apps altogether. I plan to cling to RipCat’s supreme tidal storytelling until the final mark is upon us. ### 5/5 — Easy to read and sweet visuals *2026-04-30* I found this app really easy to read and look at the tides for the day or the days ahead, also love the visuals and graphics! ## Frequently asked questions about RipCat ### What is RipCat? RipCat provides professional-grade tide charts and forecasts. It offers interactive visualizations, real-time rip current safety alerts, and printable tide calendars, powered by NOAA data. ### What devices does RipCat support? RipCat is available on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. It features Apple Watch complications and Live Activities for seamless tide tracking on your wrist. ### How often is RipCat updated? The app was last updated on 2026-06-06 with version 1.3. It is built with SwiftUI for iOS 17+ and designed for efficient battery usage and instant data access. ### What are the subscription options for RipCat? RipCat offers a monthly subscription for $2.99 and an annual subscription for $19.99, which provides the best value. Both include iCloud sync and all premium features. ### Is RipCat suitable for beginners? Yes, RipCat is designed for a wide audience, from casual beachgoers to marine professionals. It includes educational safety information and user-friendly features like home screen widgets. ### Does RipCat have ads? No, RipCat does not contain advertisements. The app is free to download with optional in-app purchases for premium features and subscriptions. ### How accurate is RipCat's tide data? RipCat's data is powered by NOAA's official tide prediction network, the same trusted source used by marine professionals worldwide, ensuring high accuracy. ### Can I print tide calendars with RipCat? Yes, RipCat allows you to generate monthly tide calendars with high, low, sunrise, and sunset times. It also offers ink-friendly printing options for various needs. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.7 — 2026-08-06 NIGHT VISION RipCat 1.7 adds an optional app-wide white-text treatment designed for nighttime use with red Color Tint. Go to Settings > Night Vision > Red-Light Display and choose Automatic, Always On, or Off. Automatic responds when iOS reports Color Filters or Grayscale; because iOS does not reveal which filter or tint is selected, it may also respond to filters used for color-vision or other accessibility needs. Always On gives you deliberate control for red-light use, while Off preserves RipCat’s normal appearance. People use accessibility display settings in different ways. If Red-Light Display affects your experience, please contact RipCat Support, message @ripcatapp on Instagram or via email, dev@ripcat.dev so we can understand and address it. We’re continuing to work with Apple to find the best long-term approach for everyone. A MAP THAT GETS OUT OF YOUR WAY Buoys now shift between full condition cards, compact readings, and count-bearing constellations as you zoom. The map keeps targets readable without inventing averaged ocean conditions. Pinch gestures can begin directly over buoy, marine-zone, hurricane, or forecast markers instead of being swallowed by the annotation. The Small Craft Advisory timeline has a higher-contrast, full-size play control. Marine warnings remain distinguishable by symbols, borders, and luminance when color is reduced. FULL STORM HISTORY Hurricane progression now includes the complete official observed track before the current advisory, followed by the forecast. Select historical fixes, compare earlier intensity with current conditions, and replay the entire observed-plus-forecast path. Relative labels such as 2 Days Ago stay paired with the official valid time in Details and VoiceOver context. MORE RELIABLE MAP ENTRY This release also fixes the hard termination that could occur when opening Maps on a physical device. Map startup, annotation density, and location ownership are now bounded so the camera and annotation set cannot drive each other into a render loop. RipCat continues to fetch public NOAA, NWS, NDBC, NHC/CPHC, and compatible CDIP data directly on device. Observations and forecasts are informational only; not navigation or emergency advice. ### 1.6 — 2026-07-28 HURRICANE MAP RipCat 1.6 adds a stateful Hurricanes layer built directly on official NOAA/NHC/CPHC public guidance. Active Atlantic, Eastern Pacific, and Central Pacific systems stay discoverable without a U.S. border filter, so storms off Mexico remain on the map. STORM LOOM Tap a storm to see its solid observed track, dashed official forecast path, center-track uncertainty cone, and category-coded fixes. The Storm Loom combines the selected fix, maximum sustained wind, intensity trend, pressure, movement, and Cyclone Iris—an asymmetric view of the official 34-, 50-, and 64-knot wind fields. Play the forecast progression, jump to any fix, or tap Full Track to keep the complete route and cone above the card. After playback reaches the last official fix, Play restarts the whole path from the current advisory. MORE CONTEXT, LESS HUNTING A New NHC Advisory shelf takes you straight to an updated storm. Details includes every official fix, source links, the map legend, and a clear explanation that the cone shows probable center-track uncertainty—not storm size. Explore Map now includes an accessible Storms list. The Hurricanes switch remembers its state between launches, alongside Buoys, Tide Stations, and Ocean Alerts. Buoy cards continue to communicate swell period with color, respond subtly to swell height, and show direction, wind, and water temperature. Select supported CDIP buoys include forecast context. FREE VERSION? No Problem No Cheddar? No Problems - One favorite station and one complete customizable Ocean Alert are free. Tide predictions, search, the map, buoy observations, marine advisories, and hurricane tracking are available without a subscription. Hurricane guidance comes directly from public NOAA/NHC/CPHC sources with device-side validation, freshness checks, and caching. Informational only; not for navigation or emergency decisions. Hazardous effects can occur outside the cone. ### 1.5.1 — 2026-07-27 South Swells have been pumping, but we managed to find some time to get a smoking new update out, here's the skinny on whats new: OCEAN APERTURE Press and hold an Ocean Alert and the buoy now tells the whole story. The new Ocean Aperture turns direction, height, period, your saved trigger, recent observations, wind, and water temperature into one dense glance. The petal points where the swell comes from. Its length is height. Its color carries period. The coral ring is your saved threshold, and the wake shows how the last few hours reached it. When recent provider history is available, RipCat also calls out the crossing and whether conditions are building, easing, or holding. Use NOW, 3H, and 6H inside the expanded notification to change the trend window. Multi-buoy alerts give every matching source its own compact aperture. MORE OCEAN CONTEXT The map now remembers your Buoys, Tide Stations, and Ocean Alerts visibility choices between launches. Buoy cards change color with swell period, grow subtly with swell height, and surface direction, wind, and water temperature. Select forecast-capable CDIP buoys now show forecast context sourced directly from the public provider. TEST IT BEFORE IT MATTERS Open any alert configuration and tap Test on Home Screen. RipCat schedules the production notification after 30 seconds so you can leave the app, press and hold the alert, and inspect the real system presentation. Also new: a one-time What's New tour for existing customers, a permanent How Ocean Alerts Work guide in Settings, and an Ocean Alerts step in the app walkthrough. Ocean Alert recipes and evaluation stay on device. Observations come directly from public NOAA/NDBC and compatible CDIP sources. iOS controls background timing. Informational only; not navigation advice. ### 1.5 — 2026-07-15 OCEAN ALERTS RipCat 1.5 lets you stop checking the same three screens and tell the app what your ocean window looks like. Build a named recipe from NOAA tide predictions and NDBC/CDIP buoy or C-MAN observations, add multiple conditions to one station, and chain as many as three sources with Match All or Match Any. RipCat only offers criteria the selected station actually reports. One complete custom alert is free for everyone while we keep building the feature out. RipCat Pro unlocks up to eight recipes. Checks happen on your device so your secret spots stay secret and matches use local notifications, with repeat protection so a condition does not tap you on the shoulder every few seconds. SURFERS Stop translating four moving numbers in your head. Name a recipe example: "Harvest Dawn Patrol," combine available swell direction, swell height and period with wave height at a reporting buoy, then require the tide station to cross your preferred height. When the whole recipe matches, RipCat tells you it is worth opening the data and taking a look. BOATERS Build the departure window you actually use: tide height at the harbor, wave height and period offshore, and wind speed or direction at a C-MAN station. Name it for the run, inlet, or anchorage so the alert means something when it lands. RipCat brings the readings together; you still make the call. FISHERMEN Water temperature moved, the wind backed off, and the swell settled into your range? Put those available measurements in one named recipe instead of refreshing three station pages before the bite. Use water temperature, tide, wind, wave and swell criteria where each station reports them, then let Rip do the refreshing while you handle the rods. ALSO IN 1.5 Open the adjacent bell to see what is matching now, expand the exact readings and thresholds that triggered, and jump back to the source station. Repeated matches inside your one-, two-, or four-hour cooldown stay grouped in the same event. We got word that a low-vision surfer was looking for a new favorite tide app. That was all the accessibility motivation we needed. We hope they love this one, and we hope these changes make RipCat better for every ocean person. Thank you to Apple's Accessibility team for shipping awesome features and maintaining top-shelf documentation. You make it possible for small teams like ours to build better experiences for more people. NOAA/NWS/NDBC observations and predictions are informational and are not navigation advice. United States coverage. ### 1.4.1 — 2026-07-14 RipCat 1.4.1 started with one surfer. We got word that a low-vision surfer in the Santa Cruz area was looking for a new favorite tide app. That was all the motivation we needed. We hope she loves this one, and we hope these changes make RipCat better for every ocean person. ACCESSIBILITY FIRST — The Solar Tide Dial now has a custom VoiceOver rotor for high and low tides, first light, sunrise, sunset, last light, moonrise, and moonset—so the moments that matter are only a flick away and she can stay in the know for when to go surf. VoiceOver users can also scrub the dial with Direct Touch and optional pitch-mapped audio feedback. A MAP FOR EVERYONE — A new searchable List view makes tide stations, buoys, and marine forecasts accessible without having to discover pins visually. LARGER, CLEARER, CALMER — Calendar, Search, onboarding, map labels, favorites, and marine controls now work better with larger text. RipCat also responds more thoughtfully to Increase Contrast, Differentiate Without Color, and Reduce Motion. MOONLIGHT — The Solar Tide Dial now displays and announces the moon’s phase and illumination at night. WATCH POLISH — We fixed and refreshed the RipCat Watch app icon. This release also improves VoiceOver grouping, navigation order, button semantics, touch-target sizes, and adjustable tide controls throughout the app. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-11.*