Danny Ching’s Virtual 1 mile Time Trial and 5k Race for SUP, SurfSki and OC1
Virtual Paddle Racing
A new daughter, head coach of the largest canoe club on the US mainland, training full time for a full global race schedule in 2018, and oh yeah…owning/operating 404 SUP and Hippostick paddle. It is safe to say Danny Ching is busy. His passion for growing and leading our sport has no limits and this month he introduced something I have never seen before…a virtual 1 mile time trial and 5k race. I asked Danny how this virtual race came to be.
“The idea came from the weekly OC1 and SUP time trials we (Lanakila OCC) do every summer. People were having so much fun comparing their times to everyone on the team that even when they were traveling they would send in their times. Also I thought paddlers around the world would want to compare their times against some of the top pros,” Danny explained.
It is a pretty cool and unique format. You sign up and do you time trial and race on your home water, then post your best times to the Paddle Guru/RaceHub site. There are a few simple rules to try to keep it fair but the objective it to get people connected, get people excited and focused for the upcoming race season and most of all have fun! And check out some of the pros signed up…Boothy, Candice, Casper, Jay Wild, Daniel Husulyo, Kenny Kaneko. World-class paddlers, regional hammers, and weekend warriors. Kinda like a virtual Carolina Cup!!
This unique format is perfect for this time of year. As someone who largely trains alone, this is an awesome and welcome push at the end of winter training with Carolina Cup on the horizon. For those that have a regular training partners or a group, this is a great add to your regular workouts.
Those of us that are participants in the Paddle Monster training program are well schooled in Coach Larry Cain’s frequent time trials of 2k and 5k during the pre-competitive and competitive phases of the program. This easily fits into what we are already doing.
Sign up at Paddle Guru and get your times in by April 1st!!
For those on the west coast, Danny’s canoe club, Lanakila, will be running time trails this weekend in Redondo Beach.
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