Adios PPG

[pdxmike]

Several days before the race, this year's Round the Rock announced the typical drafting rule that men and women can't draft each other.   So I wrote to the director, asking him to consider allowing mixed-gender drafting, with all the reasons why--not wanting to have a situation where a faster woman has to watch slower men pass her by because she can't join their drafting train, etc.  He got back to me right away and said they'd consider it, then right after that said they agreed with me and sent out a facebook update saying they'd dropped that arbitrary rule. 


It was really refreshing.   Other races should be more open-minded like that.

[Area 10]

Presumably the shortness of your race was mainly about squeezing all the events into the available time? If so, what should they have dropped or changed in order to free up more time for your race?

The cost presumably was linked in part to the excellent media coverage. As someone who was watching from another country, unable to afford to get to the race never mind pay the entry fees, the coverage was next level, and it really seemed to show potential for this type of racing as entertainment. Having said that, I seem to be the only one of my paddling buddies who will actually watch a race live rather than eg. watch normal TV. I'm not sure why though - it's great entertainment. But you have to find a reason to care who succeeds in order to get the best out of it, and most people can't.

If the media coverage was a (part) reason for the high cost, should it be ditched for the "one man and his laptop on FacePlant" approach, to keep costs down for the amateur? Should the winners bounty be reduced?

It sometimes seems that the professionalism of the media coverage (and not necessarily live media coverage) is inversely proportional to the number of amateurs in the race (eg. the recent Red Bull Heavy Water event).

Presumably no-one is going to watch a bunch of amateurs live online or later in a packaged programme if they won't even watch the pros that way. This sport is still finding out what works, at so many levels. I suspect that you guys were indeed a bit of an afterthought - financial cannon fodder - for the PPG. But would it be better to lose the biggest pro race and media spectacle of the international SUP calendar in order to include the amateurs? I have no idea what would be best for the sport worldwide.

I went to a local demo day yesterday where there were several brands. There were actually far fewer SUPs on display than there were in past years - and there were fewer last year than in previous years. In particular, raceboards were pretty much absent. Maybe raceboards are just too expensive and fragile to let people demo. Most are now so difficult to balance that not many beginners/early intermediates would be tempted to buy one if they tried it. Maybe brands/retailers are finding out that demos aren't as effective as shifting product as pictures of young superstars at pro races are, and so racing is for them just a marketing tool rather than a profitable arm of the business? No-one made money out of organising amateur races. So why would anyone do it, except local enthusiasts catering to their own?

[PonoBill]

Hardly. The amount of time wasted at a typical race is breathtaking. We're not talking about a slightly shorter event, this was fifteen minutes if you were slow.

My primary point is simply that I'm not doing this again. I'm sure there are other people who will. But I suspect that if other people have similar experiences it will be fewer each year.  If the goal is to have a good race that combines pro and open in a pleasing way--as the BOP did very well--then they failed miserably. I've been told that the feed is a money maker--not an expense. I find that hard to believe, but what do I know?

[Area 10]

Yes, I understand your position. I'm just wanting to know EXACTLY what you think the solution should be.

Would you be happy if for instance the open race was just a bit longer? Or do you want the entry fees to be lower? Or something else? And how do you think these aims can be achieved? Presumably there were reasons why the races were that length, and the fees so high?

[kayadogg]

Area 10, they made this year's PPG a 3-day event starting on Friday. They had all of the prone paddle boards race on Friday along with the men's SUP pro qualifying heats. My understanding is that they did this to allow more time for the rest of the events without having to cram everything in. As Bill mentioned, the amount of wasted time is ridiculous (not just at PPG but most races).

To answer your question, yes I would have liked a longer open technical race with a course that was actually technical, not a small circle. Just because we're average Joe's and weekend warriors doesn't mean we can't handle more of a technical course. I don't have a problem with the entry fee if I feel I'm getting my money's worth, which would be a race longer than 15 min and free lunch. I don't think that's asking much. They also hired a helicopter to cover the open distance race, or at least to get some aerial shots to use for promotional materials but why not try to turn that into some additional revenue and sell some footage or pictures to the open racers? The first CCBC I did in 2012 had a helicopter fly over about 1/3 of the way into the crossing. When we finished, the pictures from the helicopter were already printed out and ready to buy. I bought one immediately. It's the little things that matter to the open racer, at least in my opinion. I realize this might not mean much to the overall vision of the PPG but I think they will start seeing declining numbers if they keep this up.

[Area 10]

Good, positive suggestions. I wonder if the "wasted time" is linked to the media or other logistic/safety aspects of the race. Anyone who has filmed with media will know that most of your time is spent hanging around. There is a huge amount of checking that goes on before broadcasts. Also, presumably there have to be safety briefings and event scoring etc that the organisers have to do, and there will be a limited number of staff. If you want to keep to an advance schedule rather than just start when you are ready, then you'd have to schedule in plenty of "buffer time" between events to deal with the inevitable snafus that will occur (including injuries).

I doubt that anyone organising an event of that size will create a timetable for staff that contains "now we sit around and do nothing for an hour", even if it looks like that from a competitor's POV. But maybe you know otherwise?