iPhone App Review: Rowing Coach 4.0

[LoudounSUP]

Hi everyone,

Since starting SUP about 1-month ago, I've been searching for tools that will analyze my stroke rate and stroke distance. Sure there are expensive (and likely good investment) tools like NK's SUP Speed Coach but before a take the plunge into a $400+ device, I wanted to see what my iPhone could add to my SUP experience. Sure, there are several apps aimed at the SUP crowd but most seem to simply track your route and perhaps add average speed. Nothing that I could find explicitly advertised the ability to measure stroke rate and distance per stroke...2 metrics I want to analyze. There are important metrics from the rowing community (especially for single scullers) a group I belonged to in a former life (18 years removed, lol). So perhaps unsurprising, there are several apps aimed to measure stroke rate and distance for rowers...but how would they fair on a SUP? In a nutshell, not well - with the exception of one...Rowing Coach 4.0.

I tested RowingCoach (not to be confused with Rowing Coach 4.0), Rowing Metrics, RitmoFreedom, CrewNerd lite (free version), and Rowing Coach 4.0. All seem to track speed ok but only Rowing Coach 4.0 could consistently monitor stroke rate and distance per stroke. The app shows up as simply "Rower" as an icon on your iPhone. So, for the price of two coffees at Starbucks, its seems like a pretty good purchase for those analytical paddlers. Of course, its not perfect - there is really no easy way to record workouts (it does produce a confusing as hell data log the you can download) and the screen gets easily washed-out in direct sunlight (especially if wearing polarized sunglasses). But in summary, for 8 bucks - its pretty awesome for monitoring some important metrics - I highly recommend the app!