Donation Progress
January 1, 2024
As I deal with health issues and the future of my WaveCast report, I am extremely grateful that, despite a downturn in donations near the end of the 2024 that many of my readers donated enough to exceed that goal in the last few weeks of 2024. As a token of my gratitude, I've applied a donation surplus from the end of 2024 to the start of 2025. There's still a ways to go though before meeting this year's donation goal:
My health issues haven't gone away and surfing isn't an option for me any longer, but I can still keep this report alive for all of you, BUT, only as long as it compensates me for my time and effort. That's where you come in as your donations are what decides if I keep this report alive.
As you may remember, when Surfing and then Surfer magazines — who used to pay me for this report — closed at the end of 2019 and ended this report, I asked readers like you if this report should continue. I've been doing this report for about 30 years and I wanted to make sure it still had value. Thousands wanted me to continue this report, so I offered to keep this report going under the condition that I could get enough donations to make it worth my time. Once that is no longer the case, given my personal issues right now, then this report may eventually need to sunset. As it stands today we're a ways off from ending the report entirely, but I need the donations to at least meet the goal each year to make my effort worthwhile.
Please bear in mind that I ask for less than 0.5% of what some forecast sites pull in every year from required subscriptions. While some bigger forecasting sites rake-in tens of millions of dollars, my ask is a mere drop in the bucket, just $2700 per month in 2025, which barely compensates me for my time and effort.
Feeling the obvious signs of old age with my health issues a reminder of our limited time, I am constantly forced to weigh whether I should spend my time tracking storms across the entire Pacific and calculate each and every one for surf, weather, and wind in SoCal, or whether my time and effort would be best spent elsewhere. Your donations are the deciding factor on this.
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to support this report. You are the reason this report continued and I can't thank you enough. For those who don't donate, you are the reason this report could end.
I'll post my next progress update after the first of February. Until then, I truly wish the best for all of you, and I hope that you too will decide to make the best use of your most valuable asset: Time.
