Tide Pooling Time in Orange County!

One of our favorite family adventures in Southern California is Tide pooling. I’m always surprised to hear how many SoCal residents haven’t taken the time to go. Maybe it’s because I’m such a beach lover that it has naturally rubbed off on my children, who knows. But I’ve always found that I start to get the itch to go to the beach if it’s been more than a week or two. There’s just something about the sound of the waves crashing on the beach and the sweet smell of the ocean mist. Whatever it is – I’m hooked!

As I was “surfing” through the App store on my iPhone I found this really cool App called Tide Graph by Brainware. I downloaded it and have got to say it is pretty cool! Whether you’re a surfer, beachgoer or boater, this little App will definitely come in handy. What it allows you to do is find the tides according to your location (using GPS) and it tells you in real time where the tide is at (in feet) and shows you the wave curves so you easily know whether the tide is coming in our going out. No more guessing or having to look it up on the internet before going to the beach – it’s all right there on your phone!

And for those thinking “Oh, Cool! ... but I don’t have an iPhone!” Here are a few of the best times to go tide pooling here in Orange County, CA over the next week or so. (I’ll try an continue to post these under the Tides archive tag, so check back if you’re looking to go tide pooling.)

-Saturday 8/8/09- Low tide is at 5:04 pm and the tide will have dropped about 3 feet from it’s peak, so it should be a good one.

-Sunday 8/9/09- Low tide is at 5:30 am and 5:45 pm. If you’re game to get up early, I’d head out there at 8 am, the tide will be coming back in, but will still be pretty low after a high tide overnight.

-Monday 8/10/09- Almost the same as 8/9/09 with the tide not being quite a low.

-Tuesday 8/11/09- Low tide is at 7:43 pm and this is following a really high tide, so there should be some really cool tide pooling and a beautiful sunset to match!

Happy Tide Pooling!