Dangerous, outrageous, and hilarious - everything is a race.

[Tom_Laws]

I've just got one of those cycling app things that tells you how fast you've been..... but.... this one is so much better. Along every section that has been "tagged" it works out your time, and puts you on a leader board.

For example I popped round the last bits of the Marin trail on the way home, and scored 11th place with my time for the last descent. All you do is have the phone in your pocket....




Here's the plan....

Everyone gets this, we tag up every river section we can, and make every paddle a race....

[GLC GAV]

What's the app tom?

[slaughter950]

This is class! What is is the app called?

[Tom_Laws]

Whoops! Key bit of info! It's called Strava,

[Tea Boy Tom]

To quote Ron Burgundy himself:
"woah, that got out of hand real fast... I can't believe how quickly that escalated!"

[furby]

Whoops! Key bit of info! It's called Strava,

Strava cycling?

I will give it ago on the south west rivers but dont expect good times!

[Tom_Laws]

Whoops! Key bit of info! It's called Strava,

Strava cycling?

I will give it ago on the south west rivers but dont expect good times!

That's the one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbQk77r4QLY
Here is how to create your own segment.... I'm planning on laying down a couple of times this weekend to see how well it works. On the bike it has ruined any chance of a chilled ride, everything is now a race!

[Tom_Laws]

To quote Ron Burgundy himself:
"woah, that got out of hand real fast... I can't believe how quickly that escalated!"

Come on Tom, you can go and set a time for "paddling up the canal" and "walking to cafe n books". ;-)

Coming West this weekend? Wetness.

[NRB]

Mint idea, well up for it!

[Patrick Clissold]

I see Dave is still kicking your arse on that one Tom.

[Tom_Laws]

I see Dave is still kicking your arse on that one Tom.

Eh? Which one? Me or Tea boy. Too many loose pronouns, as I was told the other day...

[Adrian Cooper]

We could have a different standard for trad canoes to see how long we can make a river last.

[Tom_Laws]

We could have a different standard for trad canoes to see how long we can make a river last.

A superb idea. I forgot that my thing was on as I spun up the hill, and stopped for a wee, dutifuly recorded and added to my time!!

[justin-g]

Cracking idea - I'll try and set a course and a time for the dart this weekend - although it might include some xtra time for fishermen dodging...

Bit unfair for paddling really as times will be massivly flow dependant. In big water you can get down the dart fast!!

[Tom_Laws]

Bit unfair for paddling really as times will be massivly flow dependant. In big water you can get down the dart fast!!

Hence "Dangerous, outrageous and hilarious" - I assume I don't need to say that NONE of this is my fault, look after yourselves etc etc.

Ogwen from Ogwen Bank to A55 has been done in 35ish minutes by some old dude in a Techno, can't remember what the swift times on the glen were, but rapido!

T

[Poke]

can't remember what the swift times on the glen were, but rapido!

Sub 12 mins from put-in to the confluence (allegedly).

[Poke]

Not owning one of these new-fangled smart phones (though I may well change my mind after this) I was just wondering how good the GPS is on them - as in, if you're at the bottom of the glen, with the phone in your boat, how likely is it to get good enough GPS reception to track your route and record your time?

[Tom_Laws]

Not owning one of these new-fangled smart phones (though I may well change my mind after this) I was just wondering how good the GPS is on them - as in, if you're at the bottom of the glen, with the phone in your boat, how likely is it to get good enough GPS reception to track your route and record your time?

It worked from my biking bag in dense woodland. We shall see.... Aquapac, BA pocket is probably the way.

[Patrick Clissold]

Not owning one of these new-fangled smart phones (though I may well change my mind after this) I was just wondering how good the GPS is on them - as in, if you're at the bottom of the glen, with the phone in your boat, how likely is it to get good enough GPS reception to track your route and record your time?

Your so 2000-late Tim.

[dry suit tester]

Not owning one of these new-fangled smart phones (though I may well change my mind after this) I was just wondering how good the GPS is on them - as in, if you're at the bottom of the glen, with the phone in your boat, how likely is it to get good enough GPS reception to track your route and record your time?

I use an iPhone in a Lifeproof case, kept in the front of my BA and it reads GPS constantly

[Poke]

I use an iPhone in a Lifeproof case, kept in the front of my BA and it reads GPS constantly

On what rivers? Narrow gorgy ones, or mostly open?

Your so 2000-late Tim.

Meh...

[dry suit tester]

I use an iPhone in a Lifeproof case, kept in the front of my BA and it reads GPS constantly

On what rivers? Narrow gorgy ones, or mostly open?

Your so 2000-late Tim.

Meh...

Used on the Upper Dart and the Loop, Tryweryn, Wnion.

[justin-g]

There are quite afew good watches that do the trick as well.

Garmin 110 is 135 quid.

Justin

[Simon Westgarth]

This is of course great. I am looking for something like this, as to start season long challenges on some sections, and perhaps qualification to races, such as the Gene17 Ula Extreme and Sesia Alpin Sprint. I have the app, and read a little about it. For the iPhone app do you need to physically stop and start the clock running? If so that's kinda a pain. On the leader board, could does the app know when to star and stop on a set course? I am sure I will have lots more questions.....

[Poke]

When setting up a new course, is there any way to easily identify it as a river...
...just so you don't get mountain bikers looking for a route where none exists?

[justin-g]

When setting up a new course, is there any way to easily identify it as a river...
...just so you don't get mountain bikers looking for a route where none exists?

We could just set-up a group called kayaking for our rivers - or you can limit it to a few friends if you want as well.

Pretty good article about it in this months MTR magazine...

J

[TomWardill]

This is of course great. I am looking for something like this, as to start season long challenges on some sections, and perhaps qualification to races, such as the Gene17 Ula Extreme and Sesia Alpin Sprint. I have the app, and read a little about it. For the iPhone app do you need to physically stop and start the clock running? If so that's kinda a pain. On the leader board, could does the app know when to star and stop on a set course? I am sure I will have lots more questions.....

The idea is that you start the app at the top of the river, stop it at the bottom. This gives you a 'route'.
Once you've uploaded the route to the website, you can then break that down in to 'segments' (Dog Leg to Low Force, for example).

After the segments are created, anyone who then uploads their route is automatically compared against the segments available for that route, and the leaderboard for that individual segment generated.

So, there's no need to particularly worry about the start and stop time, it will only compare the sections that match against the available segments, rather than the time you have pressed stop.

Hope that all makes sense.

[Simon Westgarth]

This is of course great. I am looking for something like this, as to start season long challenges on some sections, and perhaps qualification to races, such as the Gene17 Ula Extreme and Sesia Alpin Sprint. I have the app, and read a little about it. For the iPhone app do you need to physically stop and start the clock running? If so that's kinda a pain. On the leader board, could does the app know when to star and stop on a set course? I am sure I will have lots more questions.....

Thank you Tom

The idea is that you start the app at the top of the river, stop it at the bottom. This gives you a 'route'.
Once you've uploaded the route to the website, you can then break that down in to 'segments' (Dog Leg to Low Force, for example).

After the segments are created, anyone who then uploads their route is automatically compared against the segments available for that route, and the leaderboard for that individual segment generated.

So, there's no need to particularly worry about the start and stop time, it will only compare the sections that match against the available segments, rather than the time you have pressed stop.

Hope that all makes sense.

I am liking this a lot, do I need to get a Premium account to get it started? How precise are the reading? Is it for more informal racing between friends or could it be used for an actual event?

[Tea Boy Tom]

To quote Ron Burgundy himself:
"woah, that got out of hand real fast... I can't believe how quickly that escalated!"

Come on Tom, you can go and set a time for "paddling up the canal" and "walking to cafe n books". ;-)

Coming West this weekend? Wetness.

Much as I'd love to, I'll be heading back from Slovenia before heading over to Iceland. I'm sure Wales will be spiffing...

[TomWardill]

I am liking this a lot, do I need to get a Premium account to get it started? How precise are the reading? Is it for more informal racing between friends or could it be used for an actual event?

No, you don't need a Premium account (in fact, for paddling, you probably won't ever need one, mostly all it does is give extra cycling statistics).

Precision of the reading depends entirely on the device you use. I use a Garmin 705 and an iPhone 4S, both of which are pretty good (nearly perfect in the Garmin's case). The iPhone 3GS wasn't very good at it, android devices depends massively on the model.

It's intended for informal racing. I guess you could use it for an event, but it's not really set up for it, and everyone would have to be using the same device, otherwise you'd probably run into differing levels of accuracy.