Pelagic Help

Getting Started

Pelagic is a dive site intelligence platform covering 120+ mapped dive sites across Sydney, the Illawarra, and the Hunter Coast. Here's everything you need to know to get up and running quickly.

Dive Site Markers are Entry & Exit Points

Every marker on the map represents the actual recommended entry and exit point for that dive site — not just a general area. They're placed using local knowledge and site-specific access conditions. Always assess the entry point yourself on arrival, as conditions can change rapidly.

Marker Colours Show Current Conditions

Dive site markers are colour-coded to show current diving conditions — updated every hour. The colour reflects a conditions score calculated specifically for that site's entry point, accounting for its swell exposure, protection level, tidal phase, water quality, and more.

Tap a Site to See Everything

Tap any dive site marker to open its modal. The Overview tab (shown by default) gives you immediate access to:

• Current conditions score — Safety assessment calculated at the entry point
• Predicted visibility — Expected underwater visibility in metres
• Check-ins — See who's diving, planning a dive, or looking for a buddy right now
• Site activity feed — Recent posts, photos, and marine sightings from the community (scroll down)
• Site description & access info — What to expect, parking, and facilities

The Conditions tab shows a detailed breakdown of every factor affecting the site right now. The Forecast tab shows the site-specific swell chart, tide chart, and visibility forecast.

Parking & Facilities

Parking markers appear near every dive site:

Bathroom locations are also shown on the map. PRO members can tap any parking marker for one-tap navigation via Google Maps.

Installing as an App

Pelagic can be installed to your phone's home screen as a Progressive Web App — no App Store required. Open Pelagic in your mobile browser, tap your browser's menu, then select Add to Home Screen. Once installed it behaves like a native app: full-screen, fast, and accessible with a single tap.

Display Modes

Pelagic offers four different ways to view dive sites, each providing unique insights. Switch between modes using the Display Mode buttons in the settings menu.

Conditions View (Default)

Shows real-time diving conditions powered by Pelagic's proprietary multi-factor scoring engine. Every site is assessed individually — accounting for its ocean exposure, protection level, swell direction, tidal sensitivity, water quality, and accumulated turbidity — to answer: "Is it safe and comfortable to dive here right now?"

Experience View

Shows site difficulty based on depth, currents, navigation complexity, and required skills. This never changes — it reflects the site itself, not current conditions. These are Pelagic's recommendations:

Visibility View PRO

Displays predicted underwater visibility in meters. Perfect for photographers or if you're simply chasing the best vis.

Diveability View PRO

Combines conditions AND visibility to show overall dive quality. This answers: "Should I dive here today?"

Visibility Heatmap BETA

A colour-coded map overlay that paints predicted visibility across the entire region at a glance — no need to tap individual sites. The heatmap is generated hourly using interpolation across all active dive sites. Available to all users while in beta.

Warmer colours (green) indicate higher predicted visibility; cooler colours (blue/purple) indicate lower visibility. Use it to quickly identify which pockets of the coast are clearing up and which are still affected by swell, rain runoff, or upwelling.

Site Conditions Intelligence

The colour of every dive site marker updates every hour — not based on a regional weather feed, but on a dedicated conditions score calculated individually for each site. Two sites a kilometre apart can show completely different colours on the same day, because Pelagic models the actual physical environment each site sits in: how exposed it is to the ocean, which direction weather is arriving from, what the surrounding geography does to that energy before it reaches the water you'll be diving in.

What Goes Into Every Score

Each hourly recalculation weighs five independent factors simultaneously:

• Ocean swell — Offshore buoy readings are reduced based on each site's protection level and the compass bearing the swell is arriving from — because a site facing directly into a swell is a completely different dive to one with a headland in the way. Wave diffraction around headlands is even modelled, so sites that are only partially sheltered don't get a falsely clean reading.
• Wind & surface chop — Modelled independently from swell using each site's fetch exposure — the actual distance wind can blow across open water before reaching that site. Wind is never double-counted against swell arriving from the same direction, because that would be physically wrong.
• Tidal phase — It knows that this site dives best on an incoming second-half tide, not just "high tide." Each site has its own ideal tidal window and a sensitivity rating — highly sensitive sites are capped at orange outside their window even when everything else looks perfect.
• Swell turbidity — It even accounts for what the seabed is made of. A site with a silty bottom at shallow depth stirs up far more sediment during swell than a deep rocky reef, and takes longer to settle. That turbidity is tracked as an accumulating load per site — a big swell last Tuesday is still influencing the score today.
• Rainfall & runoff — Rainfall is weighted against each site's catchment sensitivity. An ocean headland barely registers rain; an estuary site can stay degraded for a week after a heavy event. Recovery time is modelled individually, not assumed.
• Ekman upwelling — Sustained winds blowing parallel to the NSW coastline drive offshore Ekman transport — pushing warm surface water away and drawing cold, turbid deep water up to replace it. This is the cause of the green, murky water Sydney divers know well after days of persistent NE winds. The effect accumulates over days and decays slowly, so it's tracked and factored into every site's score independently. When southerly winds reverse the process (downwelling), a small clarity bonus is applied.

Dive Site Pages

Every mapped dive site has its own dedicated page — a shareable URL you can bookmark, send to a dive buddy, or find via search. Site pages are publicly accessible and contain everything you need to plan a dive at that specific location.

What's on a Site Page

• Site description & overview — What the site is like, what to expect, and any key access notes
• Live conditions score — The current green/orange/red safety assessment, updated hourly
• 7-day swell & wind forecast — Site-specific forecast for the week ahead
• Tide chart — Tide predictions with the site's optimal dive windows highlighted
• Interactive map — Entry points, parking, and the site's Smart Dive Trails
• Recent activity — Check-ins, feed posts, and marine sightings from the community

Check-ins

Check-ins let you tell the community what you're doing at a dive site — whether you're in the water now, planning a future dive, or looking for someone to dive with. Active check-ins appear on the map and in the site modal so other divers can see who's around.

Three Types of Check-in

• Diving Now — You're at the site and in the water (or about to be). Expires after 8 hours.
• Planning a Dive — You're planning to dive this site and open to others joining. Expires after 3 months.
• Looking for a Buddy — You're actively looking for a dive partner at this site. Expires after 3 months.

How to Check In

• Tap a dive site on the map to open the site modal
• Tap the Check In button
• Select your check-in type
• Add an optional note (max 120 characters) — great for sharing conditions, timing, or buddy requirements
• Tap Submit

Connecting via Telegram

Essential and Pro members who have added their Telegram username to their profile will show a Telegram button on their check-in card. Other divers can tap it to open a direct message in Telegram — the easiest way to coordinate a dive without exchanging phone numbers.

Site Activity Feed

Every dive site has its own social feed — a real-time stream of posts from divers who've been there recently. Open any site modal and scroll down in the Overview tab to see what's been happening at that site.

What Appears in the Feed

• Diver posts — Text updates and photos from the community about conditions, marine life encounters, tips, or anything else worth sharing
• Marine sightings — Automatically posted to the feed when a sighting is submitted at a known site, so the feed gives you an immediate sense of what's been in the water

Posting to the Feed

Any logged-in user can post to a site's feed. Posts can include text and photos — useful for sharing a quick conditions update after your dive, flagging an unusual sighting, or just letting others know what the site is like right now.

Feed History by Membership

• Free users — Full history visible
• Essential members — Full history visible
• Pro members — Full history visible

Live Conditions Box

The Live Conditions box at the top of the screen provides real-time ocean intelligence for your region. It updates hourly and displays four critical metrics that determine diving conditions. At a glance, four green bars represent excellent diving conditions. It can be closed and re-opened from the settings panel (scroll on settings panel).

Understanding the Four Key Metrics

Regional Visibility

Average predicted visibility across all dive sites in your area (meters)

Swell Height

Current ocean swell height and period from offshore buoys (meters)

Wind Speed

Live wind speed and direction affecting coastal conditions (knots)

Water Temperature

Average water temp from recent dive reports (°C)

Color-Coded Status Bars

Each metric displays a colored vertical bar on the left indicating conditions at a glance:

Trend Arrows

Look for up ↗ or down ↘ arrows next to data values. These show whether conditions are improving or deteriorating over the past few hours, helping you time your dive.

Regional Forecast

The Regional Forecast is accessible from the Forecast button in the menu. It gives you a visual overview of incoming swell and wind conditions for your region — updated daily, and automatically switching to the relevant forecast as you pan around the map. It's the fastest way to assess whether the next few days are worth planning around, without needing to look at individual sites.

Reading the Chart

The main chart shows offshore swell height as colour-coded bars so you can assess conditions at a glance:

• Good (≤ 0.7m) — Calm swell, typically good conditions for most sites
• Moderate (0.7–1.2m) — Diveable at sheltered sites, exposed sites may be challenging
• Rough (> 1.2m) — Challenging conditions, check individual site scores before going out

Overlaid Data

• Swell direction arrows — Overlaid directly onto the chart. Direction matters — a NE swell hits different sites completely differently to a SE swell.
• Wave period (seconds) — Shown as a light grey line. Longer period swell (10s+) travels farther and packs more energy than short-period chop, even at the same height.
• Wind speed & direction — Bar graph below the main chart with direction indicators. Useful for understanding whether choppy surface conditions will compound the swell at exposed sites.

Audio Dive Forecast Brief

Below the chart you can listen to a daily audio brief — a natural-language summary that explains incoming conditions and what they mean for diving in plain English. Released every morning at 6am AEST for each region, it covers swell energy, direction, period, wind, and tidal context to give you an actionable read on the day ahead.

Site Forecasts ESSENTIAL

Site forecasts are found inside each site's modal under the Forecast tab. Unlike the regional forecast which shows offshore conditions for the whole coast, site forecasts are calculated specifically for that dive site — accounting for its exposure, orientation, protection level, and seabed to show you what the swell and conditions will actually be like at that site.

Site-Specific Swell Chart

The swell chart inside a site modal shows the expected swell height at that site across a 7-day window. A site tucked inside a harbour will show a much smaller swell than an exposed ocean headland on the same day — because the reduction factors for that site's protection level and exposure bearing are applied to the offshore data.

Tide Chart

The tide chart shows the predicted tidal curve for the site's nearest tide station, with the site's optimal dive windows highlighted. Sites with high tidal sensitivity show a clear difference between their best and worst tidal windows — use this to time your entry.

6-Day Visibility Forecast ESSENTIAL

The visibility forecast chart shows predicted underwater visibility across the next 3 days (Essential) or 6 days (Pro) — a rolling forward projection calculated specifically for that site. It's generated by the Azure model running forward through the forecast window, applying every visibility factor as it accumulates or decays:

• Swell energy & exposure — How incoming swell will affect that specific site based on its bearing and protection
• Swell turbidity memory — Sediment stirred up by past swell is tracked and decays over days — a big swell today will still cloud the water tomorrow
• Rain runoff — Accumulated rain load decays at a rate calibrated to the site's catchment type
• Wind & surface chop — Modelled for bay and harbour sites where wind chop is the primary visibility factor
• Tidal phase — Site-specific tidal modifiers applied hour by hour across the forecast window
• Seasonal visibility — Monthly baseline adjustments for plankton, algae, and water temperature cycles
• Ekman upwelling — Sustained winds in the upwelling direction accumulate over days and reduce visibility; the forecast rolls this state forward through the window so you can see if an ongoing NE wind event will continue to cloud the water

Access by Tier

• Free — Today's swell only + full tide chart
• Essential — 7-day swell chart + 3-day visibility forecast
• Pro — 7-day swell chart + 6-day visibility forecast

Visibility Predictions

Pelagic's Azure™ visibility prediction engine delivers site-specific hourly forecasts for every dive site — a level of granularity previously unavailable to recreational divers. Azure is a purpose-built predictive system that models the ocean as a living, dynamic environment rather than applying generic regional averages. It continuously refines itself as new diver reports are submitted, making every dive that gets logged a contribution to better predictions for everyone.

How It Works

Azure runs a layered analysis for each dive site independently, combining real-time environmental data with deep site-specific knowledge. The engine weighs a range of interconnected factors:

• Site baseline visibility — Every site has its own individually calibrated visibility baseline — because the natural clarity at Shelly Beach is simply different to that at a harbour site two kilometres away
• Seasonal modelling — Dynamic monthly adjustments for plankton cycles, algae blooms, and water temperature shifts mean the model knows that June typically means better visibility than January, and scores accordingly
• Swell energy & direction — Wave energy is evaluated against each site's specific exposure bearing, not just raw swell height. A site facing directly into a 1.5m swell scores very differently to one with a headland absorbing most of it
• Seabed & swell turbidity — It even factors in what the seafloor is made of and how deep it is. Fine silt at 8m stirs up during swell and clouds the water for days; solid rock at 20m barely registers. That post-swell turbidity is tracked and decayed independently for each site
• Rainfall & runoff — Rainfall is weighted by each site's catchment sensitivity and the model tracks how long dirty water lingers — from a quick flush at an ocean site to a week-long recovery at an estuary
• Wind & surface chop — Applied selectively; bay and harbour sites get wind-driven chop modelling while ocean sites prioritise swell energy, because wind and swell behave differently depending on where you're diving
• Tidal phase — For tide-sensitive sites, the tidal cycle directly influences water clarity as currents drive exchange with cleaner or murkier water — and the model knows which phase helps which site
• Site protection profile — The physical geography around each site determines how much of the offshore chaos actually arrives at the dive site. Two metres offshore can become 0.4m in a harbour — and the model calculates that reduction precisely
• Live diver reports — Real visibility readings submitted by divers are dynamically blended into the prediction, weighted by how closely the conditions at report time match right now — so fresh reports from similar conditions carry the most influence
• Ekman upwelling — Sustained winds in the upwelling direction (NE for Sydney's coast) drive cold, turbid deep water to the surface — reducing visibility even when swell is calm. This is tracked as an accumulating load that builds over days of persistent wind and decays slowly. The green murky water Sydney divers see after a prolonged NE is this effect. The opposite — sustained downwelling winds — brings clean offshore water inshore and adds a small clarity bonus.

Understanding the Prediction

When you view a visibility prediction for a site, you'll see:

• Predicted visibility (meters) — Best estimate of what you'll see underwater
• Confidence level — How reliable the prediction is given current data quality
• Error band — The likely range (e.g., 8m ± 2m)
• Contributing factors — What's driving visibility up or down right now
• 6-day visibility forecast — How visibility is expected to change over the coming days (Essential and Pro members — see Site Forecasts)

How Sites Differ

Azure treats every site as its own environment — because no two dive sites respond to weather the same way:

• Exposed ocean sites — Take a direct hit from swell but benefit from constant water exchange; they can deteriorate fast and recover fast
• Bay & harbour sites — More sensitive to wind chop and rainfall runoff; once conditions improve they settle and clear quickly with less ongoing surge to re-suspend sediment
• Estuary & river-mouth sites — Slowest to recover after rain, with turbidity that can persist for many days depending on catchment size and flow
• Partially sheltered sites — A nuanced middle ground; swell impact depends heavily on the direction it arrives from relative to each site's specific exposure window

Smart Dive Trails™ ESSENTIAL

Smart Dive Trails guide you to the best parts of every dive site—prime reefs, swim-throughs, and marine life hotspots—before you even enter the water. Trails are color-coded by depth to help you plan your dive and manage your air consumption.

Depth Color Coding

Trail colors transition smoothly based on depth, creating a visual depth map of each dive site:

Surface Swims

Dotted aqua lines represent surface swims where it's recommended to stay at the surface to conserve air while moving to deeper or more interesting parts of a dive site. These lines help you navigate efficiently and avoid unnecessary wasting air.

Points of Interest

Star icons ⭐ mark special underwater features along trails:

• Caves and swim-throughs — Navigate safely through geological formations
• Wreck sections — Explore shipwrecks and artificial reefs
• Drop-offs and walls — Dramatic depth changes and coral walls
• Exceptional coral formations — Outstanding reef structures
• Cleaning stations — Where fish gather to be cleaned by cleaner wrasse

Tap any star to see a description of what to expect at that location.

Marine Life Hotspots

Marine life icons on trails show where specific species are frequently spotted. These are calculated from historical sighting data and indicate the best places to encounter sea turtles 🐢, sharks and rays 🦈, octopus 🐙, and unusual or rare species.

Echo³ — Seafloor 3D PRO

Echo³ lets you explore the underwater terrain of a dive site in full interactive 3D — before you even get in the water. Fly through reef structure, walls and drop-offs, read the terrain like a map, and plan your dive with precision.

Opening Echo³

On the map, look for the Echo³ button floating above supported dive sites. Tap it to open the 3D seafloor viewer in a new tab. Echo³ is available on dive sites where a 3D terrain model has been created — the button only appears where it's available.

Navigating the 3D Viewer

Use standard touch or mouse controls to explore the terrain — drag to orbit, pinch or scroll to zoom, and right-drag to pan. The compass in the top-left corner shows your current heading. Tap anywhere on the terrain to read the depth at that point.

Depth Scale

The vertical exaggeration slider (top right) lets you amplify the terrain height to make subtle depth changes more visible. The depth colour legend (bottom right) shows the depth range from shallow to maximum depth for that site.

Cinematic Camera Moves

Tap the camera icon in the bottom-left controls to open the cinematic panel. Three moves are available — Orbit rotates around your current view position, Fly-over drifts across the site along your current heading, and Figure-8 traces a slow Lissajous path across the full terrain. Use the speed slider to control the pace. Tap any active move again to stop and return to manual control.

Measure Tool

Tap the ruler icon to enter measure mode. Click or tap any point on the terrain to drop a pin — each additional pin draws a segment showing the horizontal distance in metres and the compass bearing. A running total is shown at the last pin. Use this to measure dive paths, plan entries, or assess distances to features before you dive.

Contour Lines

Depth contour lines are drawn automatically at 5m intervals across the terrain, making it easy to read the shape of the reef and identify drop-offs, walls, and plateaus at a glance.

Marine Life Sightings

Track and discover marine life encounters across every dive site. Every sighting submitted by the community is geotagged and timestamped — building a living database of what's been seen, where, and when. The more the community dives and reports, the smarter the hotspot data becomes.

Viewing Sightings

Access recent sightings from the menu. You'll see:

• Species name and photo
• Dive site and location
• When it was spotted
• Behaviour notes (if provided)

Tap any sighting to fly to its location on the map.

Map Marker History by Membership

• Free users — Last 24 hours
• Essential members — Past 5 days
• Pro members — Past 14 days

Sightings Feed History by Membership

• Free users — Last 7 days
• Essential members — Past 90 days
• Pro members — Full 1-year history

Submitting Sightings

Help build the marine life database by reporting your encounters:

• Open the Marine Life menu and tap Report Sighting
• Select the dive site where you saw it
• Place the pin on the map at the exact location
• Search for the species (autocomplete helps you find it)
• Add behaviour notes and upload a photo if you have one
• Submit

Dive Logbook

Pelagic includes a built-in dive logbook available to all members — free and paid. Every dive you log is saved to your account and accessible from any device. Access your logbook from Dive Log in the menu.

What You Can Log

• Site & date — Select the dive site from the full list of mapped sites
• Dive type — Scuba, freedive, or snorkel
• Visibility & depth — What you saw and how deep you went
• Water temperature
• Duration, tank size, and start/end pressure — For SAC rate calculation
• Star rating — Your personal score for the dive
• Notes — Free-text field for marine life, conditions, or anything else worth recording

Logbook Stats

The logbook automatically calculates your personal stats: total dives, unique sites visited, average visibility, average depth, deepest dive, favourite site, and favourite dive type. Your SAC rate is calculated per dive where tank and pressure data is available.

Export to PDF

Essential and Pro members can export their full logbook as a print-ready PDF — a cover page with stats summary followed by dive cards showing all your recorded data. Open your logbook and tap Export to generate the PDF in your browser.

Dive Condition Reports

Real divers reporting real conditions. The dive reports feed is one of the most valuable features for making dive decisions.

Viewing Reports

Access the conditions feed from the menu to see recent dive reports. Each report shows:

• Dive site name
• Visibility (meters) — What the diver actually saw underwater
• Swell height — Observed conditions at the time of the dive
• Water temperature
• Time of dive

Report History by Membership

• Free users — Last 24 hours
• Essential members — Past 7 days
• Pro members — Full 90-day history

Dive condition reports are created automatically when you log a dive in your Dive Logbook. As long as the dive was logged within 3 hours of the actual dive, a conditions report is submitted on your behalf — no extra steps needed. The visibility reading you log feeds directly into the Azure model, improving future predictions at that site for every diver who comes after you.

🎯 Logs Make the Model Smarter
Every visibility reading is matched against the environmental conditions at that moment — swell, wind, tide, recent rainfall — and used to calibrate Azure's predictions at that site. The more the community dives and logs, the sharper the forecasts become.

Navigation Tools PRO

One-Tap Parking Navigation

Never waste time trying to find directions to dive sites or the best place to park when there. Tap any parking marker to launch turn-by-turn navigation via Google Maps, taking you directly to the best free or paid parking spot at every site.

NavLine™ Pro Tools

Draw custom navigation lines on the map to get precise underwater navigation data:

• Bearing (compass heading) — Write this on your slate
• Distance — Know exactly how far you're swimming
• Reciprocal bearing — For navigating back

Perfect for planning custom dive routes, measuring Smart Trail distances to manage air consumption, or verifying navigation before technical dives.

NaviCodes™ PRO

NaviCodes are dive-slate-ready navigation codes designed to guide you along Smart Dive Trails underwater. This feature is currently in development and will provide intuitive underwater navigation without GPS or complex calculations.

Search & Filters

Smart Search

Use the search bar to find dive sites, beaches, parks, and landmarks. The search autocompletes as you type and shows:

• 🤿 Dive sites — Shore and boat dive locations
• 🏖️ Beaches — Coastal areas
• 🌳 Parks — Marine parks and reserves
• 📍 Landmarks — Points of interest

The map automatically flies to your selected location at the optimal zoom level.

Search Coverage

• Free users — Search worldwide dive sites
• Premium users — Search all locations including Sydney-area beaches, parks, and detailed local spots

Map Filters

Filter visible dive sites based on your preferences (available in settings):

• Skill level — Beginner, intermediate, advanced
• Site type — Shore dive, boat dive, drift dive
• Features — Caves, wrecks, walls, reefs
• Depth range — Shallow, medium, deep

Account & Settings

Access your account by tapping Account in the menu (visible when logged in). The account panel has four tabs: Profile, Account, Billing, and Transactions.

Profile Tab

Upload your avatar and manage your public-facing profile details — the information other divers see on your check-ins and feed posts.

Profile Avatar

Upload a profile photo from the Profile tab. Your avatar appears on your check-in cards, feed posts, and marine sightings. Photos are cropped to a square and stored securely.

Telegram Username

Any user can add their Telegram username from the Profile tab (enter it without the @ symbol). When you check in at a dive site, other divers can see your Telegram handle on your check-in card.

Essential and Pro members can tap a Telegram button on any check-in card to message that diver directly — the easiest way to coordinate a dive without exchanging phone numbers. Free users can add their username and receive messages, but can't tap to message others from within Pelagic.

Account Tab

Update your login credentials — including your name, email address, and password. If you forget your password, use the login screen's "Forgot Password" link to reset it via email.

Billing Tab

The Billing tab shows your current plan, next payment date, and the card on file. From here you can:

• Update your credit card — Replace the payment method used for your subscription at any time
• Upgrade or downgrade your plan — Switch between Essential and Pro via the plan management portal. Changes take effect at your next billing cycle
• Cancel your subscription — Cancel anytime. You keep full access until the end of your current billing period — you won't be charged again after cancellation

Transactions Tab

View your full payment history with dates, amounts, and plan names. Each transaction includes a downloadable receipt — useful for expense claims or records.

Membership Plans

Pelagic offers Free, Essential, and Pro plans. For a full side-by-side feature comparison and current pricing, see the plan comparison table.