G'day,

I'm not sure if this idea of mine is original or I kind of picked it up along the way, but is there a style/format of 'fun' race where each paddler estimates the time they will take to complete 'their race'?

For example, let's say the course is 3kms (or even 5 kms or any distance for that matter) and each paddler states for the record their estimated ETA with the officials on how long they think it will take them to finish the course. They might wish to go flat out or they may wish to take it easy and smell the roses so to speak. Their finish time would only be relevant to them and if they are the paddler to finish the closest to their ETA then they win, the next paddler to finish the second closest time to their ETA would be 2nd place finisher and so on.

I think this idea could work. It's focused on participation and not so much competition like with regular racing. Any level of paddler could win this style of race, no matter what their speed.

Any thoughts ladies & gents?

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Imoutthere said..

G'day,

I'm not sure if this idea of mine is original or I kind of picked it up along the way, but is there a style/format of 'fun' race where each paddler estimates the time they will take to complete 'their race'?


For example, let's say the course is 3kms (or even 5 kms or any distance for that matter) and each paddler states for the record their estimated ETA with the officials on how long they think it will take them to finish the course. They might wish to go flat out or they may wish to take it easy and smell the roses so to speak. Their finish time would only be relevant to them and if they are the paddler to finish the closest to their ETA then they win, the next paddler to finish the second closest time to their ETA would be 2nd place finisher and so on.

I think this idea could work. It's focused on participation and not so much competition like with regular racing. Any level of paddler could win this, no matter what their speed.

Any thoughts ladies & gents?

IIRC this was a regular thing at one of the WA or Qld groups. SUPVIC tried it at the "Go West" event in 2016 and it was well-received. Surprising though how amiss people's actual vs estimated times were (note, the Go West event banned paddlers from using garmins, watches or any other timing device...to keep things honest :-) )

Would watches be banned?
Otherwise it would be pretty damn easy to build in say 5 minutes spare, pull up ten metres out and count down the seconds until you can cross on the exact time.
"funny everyone who came equal first was wearing a watch", otherwise it has some merit as a social event, but so do time trials and they are probably easier to organise and run.
[edit - beaten by the cartoon]

Oh yeah for sure - no watches!!!