Surfski Knowledge Base

Larry Goolsby
12/26/09 #7583

Back in November, Erik B. contacted me about joining a kayak ergometer racing club, specifically, a Kayakpro Speedstroke racing club. Last winter when were were snowed in, I bought a Speedstroke and paddled it a few times a week, and once spring arrived I let the thing sit in my basement through the summer and fall. I have to say that I did benefit from paddling the Speedstroke when it was too cold to hit the water so I was eager to join this club and see if this would take the boredom out of erg paddling. I have to admit, you have to 'enhance' your erg training with music or videos, or you'll just go nuts.

Since our machines were all a little different in performance, we weren't racing for the best time but rather who would improve the best over a 7 week race period. Each race was to be 5000 meters or 3.1 miles and we emailed our results in. After 4 weeks of doing this, I went and bought the new Speedstroke Gym and sold my 1 year old Speedstroke to Will Grenough (who I hope to see in virtual competition soon). The new Gym is quite a bit different than the old Speedstroke in that the old Speedstroke is almost entirely made of stainless steel while the new Gym has a plastic frame. The old model is made to last a really long time but lacked a sophisticated computer system. The new Gym has a computer that actually makes erg paddling interesting. The old computer basically showed you distance and speed (what more do you need?) while the new computer shows you cadence and heart rate. With the new computer, you set the distance that you want to go and when you start paddling, the timer starts while the odometer travels backwards towards zero. While this is happening, your heart rate and your cadence are posted side by side. If your cadence gets to high, your heart rate follows and you begin to wither. Once you reach the pre-determined mileage, the odometer and timer quit.

The cool thing is that you can now go online and race someone real time that also has a Gym with the same software. Our Gym's are made to connect through a PC and into the internet. We can race up to 10 ergs all at the same time and watch the progress with animated kayak paddlers on a computer monitor. If you aren't interested in racing someone else in real time, you can also do a time trial and register your time on a scoreboard located under the i-race icon at www.kayakpro.com. This way you can compare your times for 500m, 1500m, 5000m, or 10,000m against other paddlers around the world. If you know what time you need to beat, it makes it so much easier to push yourself towards that goal.

Since I got the Gym, my times for the 5000m have improved and I am looking forward to doing the 500m and the 10,000m real soon. I see this as a new sport with a lot of potential besides the fact that it will make you a stronger paddler. The only disadvantage is that that erg paddling will not improve your stroke since your speed is controlled upon your ability to keep the flywheel in motion. There is no drafting but then you don't need Pogies either. The new Gym computer does need your body weight uploaded so that it can compute drag so it makes it more 'even' when you race against other paddlers. Otherwise, us fat guys would rule since our weight wouldn't slow the machine down. I feel that after this winter is over, I will continue to use this new model of the Speedstroke even after the waters begin to warm back up. I am actually having fun while racing this thing.
LG