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Freestyle Tide 3.0 Watch Review

by Admin

For years I have been buying Freestyle tide watches. I love the design, price, and function of them. My latest is the Tide 3.0.

It doesn't have a chart representing the tide like on my previous Freestyle watches. Instead, it has a vertical indication/direction of where the tide is. The next actual tide is displayed as L or H with the time and height. Like the others you can pull up future tides for years to come. In fact it has 15 years of data programmed into it for 75 beaches. For California alone it has the following surf spots:

  • Humboldt Bay

  • Ocean Beach

  • Mavericks

  • Santa Cruz

  • Carmel

  • Morro Bay

  • Pismo Beach

  • Gaviota

  • Rincon

  • Ventura

  • Malibu

  • South Bay Beaches

  • Huntington Beach

  • Oceanside

  • La Jolla

  • Mission Bay

Of course, there is an offset function if your beach is not covered.

This overall new layout gives the watch more room to display data. Everything is bigger, including the BIG function which allows for huge numbers to display time. Of course it has dual time zones, each with tide setting, heat timer of 15,20,25,30, and 35 minutes, two alarms, and nightvision backlight display.

Like most decent modern watches, it is rated to a ridiculous depth that most commercial divers will never even go. In this case, 100 meters.

There is only one minor drawback that I could find. Occasionally, when surfing, I would somehow bump the dual time function and it would switch to other time zone. No big deal, a push of a button sets it back.

I bought mine from "eWatches.com".
When I last checked it was 69 bucks with free shipping. They have the best prices by far. That goes for most watches. (Update:They no longer carry freestyle watches, try Surfboards Etc.)

Beware of eBay sellers that are offering it new at a cheaper price. I bought a Freestyle once and the tides were off. The time of the tide was correct but the absolute height of the tide was always wrong. I thing it was a bad batch that got into some sellers hands.

Comments for
Freestyle Tide 3.0 Watch Review

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

May 26, 2010
Rating
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Time 2 and Time 1 Switch
by: SurfingCal

I haven't noticed a problem with time 2 but I do notice that sometimes when I'm surfing the button somehow compresses under the wetsuit sometime, switching time 1 to time 2. I usually just set both time 1 and time 2 to local time unless I travel..it avoids any confusion. Still my favorite surf watch, I just got a new one. The band broke on my last one. Rather than pay for a new band to be installed, I just got a new watch. Figured that way my battery would last a few years.

May 25, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
the watch time
by: watccdude

i don't know what the problem is but time 2 is always off i put it on 2:28 and the next day at the same time it say 10:39. i haven't sent it back yet because time 1 still works.

Nov 09, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Freestyle Tide 3.0 late for Santa Cruz, CA
by: Patrick

I just bought my Tide 3.0 I live in Santa Cruz, Found it to be off approx. 2 hours just for the low tide. High tide OK. I sent mine back to the factory thier Answer basicly live with it. It appears as you go towards Southern Cal it gets better. Very disappointed with Freestyle 3.0 (Tide function) hope they fix it in next model.

Oct 03, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
great watch
by: hawkmann

I just bought the tide 3.0 and I can't believe how sweet this watch is. I was able to offset the time within 1 min of my fav break. and i checked it to the charts and its dead on! I love this watch!

Sep 06, 2008
Rating
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Tide Watch Vs Surfline
by: SurfingCal

Your right, something screwy is going on with the SC tide data. Here was surfline's data for SC today.

09/06 07:02 am 3.37 ft HIGH
09/06 07:40 am 3.37 ft LOW
09/06 03:00 pm 4.91 ft HIGH
09/06 10:51 pm 1.09 ft LOW

7:02 high tide and 7:40 low tide?!

My watch says this for Santa Cruz: High at 4:46AM,
low at 11:10AM, high at 3:13PM and so on.

I checked Ocean Beach,which I normally have it set to, and they both match.

Actually, the watch seems to be more accurate, closer to OB? Could my watch be right and surfline is wrong?

Sep 06, 2008
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Late low tides for Santa Cruz
by: surfergrrrl

I really like my 3.0G (G is for Girls) too. But the tides are about 2 hours late for Santa Cruz. Details here:
http://surfergrrrl.blogspot.com/2008/08/tide-watches-part-iii.html

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