u/bien-fait

I've been vacationing in Carova for years and got tired of piecing together tide charts, weather apps, and wind forecasts every time we wanted to drive the beach. So I built Tiderunner to do it in one place.

It's a free trip planner specifically for the 4x4 beach at Carova and Corolla. It combines tide windows, weather, wind, and fog conditions and tells you whether it's actually a good time to drive - including round-trip planning so you know what conditions look like when you're coming back, not just when you leave.

A couple of features beyond the basics:

• Find My Next Best Drive - scans upcoming windows and surfaces the next time conditions are favorable, so you're not manually checking day by day when you just want to go
• Google Maps + Calendar integration - get routing and save your planned drive window straight to your calendar

It's designed to be useful whether you've driven that beach a hundred times or you're figuring it out for the first time. No account required, completely free.

https://tiderunner.app

I'm a vacationer, not a local - this started as something I made for my own family trips and it's grown from there. About 125 people a month are using it now. Happy to answer questions or hear feedback if you try it out.

I thought I'd share short reviews of some of my NeeDohs and show them, from squishiest to firmest. From left to right:

Marbleez - the hardest to find, and the squishiest of the bunch. Offers almost no resistance. Tons of fun to pop through your fingers.

Snowball Crunch - offers a little bit of resistance, but is powder-filled instead of gel filled. Gives a satisfying crunch like stepping on fresh-fallen snow.

Wild Cats Fuzzball - moderate resistance. Exactly like the regular Fuzzball (I have one of those too). Seems to be the "default" level of squishiness for most NeeDohs. A very satisfying squish.

Nice Cube Swirl - firm resistance. I like to use it when I'm particularly frustrated, lol. The shell also feels thicker than the other NeeDohs.

Gumdrop - very firm resistance. This one is hard to squish but it's one of my favorites. The shell is also very thick and textured nicely. It's a good hand workout!

Happy to answer any questions!

Here's our 3 month old tank established from freeze dried eggs from Amazon (I believe they are *Artemia franciscana*). There was an excellent hatch rate. The little dots on the glass are copepods. I think they hitchhiked in on a plant I tried to (unsuccessfully) introduce a month ago. They're happily coexisting with their sea monkey buddies. I have a separate tank with just copepods (*Tigriopus californicus*) that I keep as well. Happy to answer any questions.