We built the tool we wished existed
Open water swimming is one of the fastest-growing outdoor activities in the world — but finding reliable information about where and when to swim shouldn't require checking five different apps. We're building the platform we always wished existed. There wasn't. So we built one.
Every open water swimmer knows the routine: check three weather apps, look up tide charts, scan beach advisories, text your swim buddy. All to answer one question — should I swim today? We thought there had to be a better way.
We started building a platform that pulls together every data source a swimmer needs — weather, tides, water quality, UV, marine conditions — and turns it into a single score: your personalized SwimScore.
We aggregated real-time environmental data from 12+ sources, mapped 59,000+ swim spots across 100+ countries, and built an intelligence engine that adapts to your skill level, comfort zone, and schedule.
SwimPass is still early. Every week we add new spots, improve our scoring engine, and build features our community asks for. The mission is simple: help every swimmer make confident decisions about where and when to swim.
Our Values
What we believe
Three principles guide every decision we make, from which features to build to how we display data on a spot page.
Safety Is Non-Negotiable
Every feature we build starts with one question: does this help someone make a safer decision? We aggregate conditions from multiple independent sources and surface warnings clearly because the water does not care about your plans. If the data says stay out, we say stay out.
Open Water, Open Knowledge
The best information about a swim spot lives in the heads of the people who swim there regularly. We built SwimPass to capture that knowledge and share it freely. Community reviews, photos, hazard reports, and local tips fill in the gaps that sensors and satellites never will.
Data You Can Trust
We pull from NOAA, Open-Meteo, EPA, and other environmental agencies because no single source tells the whole story. Our SwimScore algorithm weighs 12+ real-time data points so you get an honest, up-to-the-hour picture of conditions. No guesswork, no stale data, no vague forecasts.
Our Team
Built by swimmers
Everyone on the SwimPass team swims in open water. That is not a hiring gimmick. It matters because the difference between a useful swim platform and a useless one comes down to hundreds of small decisions that only make sense if you have stood on a shoreline at 6 AM wondering whether the water is safe to get into.
We know that a 0.5-meter swell feels very different in a sheltered cove than on an exposed headland. We know that “water quality: good” means nothing if there was a sewage overflow upstream two days ago. We know that the best spots are often the ones without a name on Google Maps, passed down through local swimming communities by word of mouth.
That lived experience shapes everything from our SwimScore algorithm to our safety guidelines. When we add a feature, we test it on our own morning swims before we ship it. When something feels off in the data, we notice because we are the ones relying on it.
Data Sources
Where our data comes from
No single source tells the full story. We aggregate 12+ independent data feeds and cross-reference them to give you the most complete, accurate picture of swimming conditions available anywhere.
NOAA
Tide predictions, water levels, and current data for coastal and estuarine swim spots across North America.
Open-Meteo
Hourly weather, marine forecasts (wave height, swell period, sea surface temperature), and air quality index data worldwide.
EPA
Beach water quality monitoring, bacteria levels, algae bloom alerts, and pollution advisories for US waterways.
Community Reports
On-the-ground observations from swimmers: water clarity, current strength, access conditions, hazards, and seasonal notes.
Environment Agency
Bathing water quality classifications, pollution incident reports, and sewage discharge alerts for UK and European swim spots.
Satellite & Remote Sensing
Sea surface temperature and chlorophyll concentration data to identify algal blooms before they reach dangerous levels.
Data is refreshed every 15 minutes for active spots and cached intelligently to keep the experience fast. All condition data includes source attribution and last-updated timestamps so you always know how fresh the information is.
Looking Ahead
Where we are going
We are still early. The database is growing every day, our condition models are getting smarter, and we are building features that will fundamentally change how people experience open water swimming.
Predictive Conditions
Know the best time to swim this week, not just right now. 48-hour forecast scanning surfaces your optimal swim windows automatically.
Route Planning for Distance Swimmers
Richer route planning for crossings and marathon training, with distance waypoints, difficulty ratings, and current analysis.
Wearable Integration
Your swim data flows seamlessly between SwimPass, your watch, and your training plan. Deep Strava and Apple Health support.
Water Quality Partnerships
Partnering with local environmental groups to bring real-time testing data to spots that government agencies do not cover.
Longer term, we want SwimPass to be the operating system for open water swimming worldwide. Not just a tool for finding spots, but a platform that connects swimmers with each other, with event organizers, with coaches, and with the environmental data that keeps our waterways swimmable. Swimming is better when more people do it. And more people will do it when the information barrier is gone.
We are building that future in the open, guided by feedback from the swimmers who use SwimPass every day. If you have ideas about what we should build next, we genuinely want to hear them.
See for yourself
Come swim with us
SwimPass is free to use. Create an account, find a spot near you, check the conditions, and go swim. It really is that simple.
Free forever plan available. No credit card required.