How good was the live coverage of the World Championships.

Just had to share how good the coverage was today.

I thought the coverage from the last Championships was a leap forward, but todays coverage was a huge step up again. Ivan Lawler did a great job. Bloody tricky talking about the leaders for 2 hours but it was great television.

Tomorrows race will hopefully have more waves. Hopefully Ivan can talk about the boats people are in. The equipment they use. I love to see how different boats go in different conditions.

Drone shots today were amazing.

Early paddle tomorrow, then settle down in front of the TV.

Is a like or recorded stream available to watch/rewatch online?

Go to youtube and search ICF Canoe. You'll see todays race at 10 am Hong Kong time and yesterdays race. Yesterdays race wasn't a great spectacle but it was an exercise in grinding out a win in tough conditions.

Commentating a sports event is extremely difficult unless the sport is fast moving like soccer (football), then it's only very difficult. Slower sports like surfski racing requires more homework, facts, history and stats and the ability to gabb on a level usually unknown to men. I'm in the business so I know. It's a gift I don't possess.
As the other post mentioned, I'd also love to watch the playback. Will it be available online?

Saturday:


Sunday wrapping up now:

I was out paddling during both the races but on Sunday sat down to watch the womens race and watched it end to end. With the drone footage it was awesome. Took a while for the team to get their head around how to use the tracking screen but once they did it made for great coverage. The whole race in the women was such an arm wrestle it had me glued to the screen despite the non technical nature of the conditions.
I was fascinated that sitting in behind in single file was seen as the best washriding position?!

While there are not great numbers of women ocean paddlers the current crop are all so strong being so close to one another in the closing stages.

Its understandable that the drones couldn't be used for the mens race out in the rough stuff, but such a pity as the drones really give a much greater perspective.

AR_convert wrote: I was fascinated that sitting in behind in single file was seen as the best washriding position?!

I was going to respond saying there's an interesting article on wash riding position, but then realized you wrote the article, ahahah. So makes sense that single file would maximize wash riding.

www.surfski.info/races/aus-nz/story/1587...ash-riding-help.html

HangTen wrote:
I was going to respond saying there's an interesting article on wash riding position, but then realized you wrote the article, ahahah. So makes sense that single file would maximize wash riding.

www.surfski.info/races/aus-nz/story/1587...ash-riding-help.html

It's counter to what works best in a K1 and what most people would do on flat water in any craft. Ivan Lawler also made that comment.

Interested to hear theories behind this. I know going upwind or is messy conditions having a boat in front can "smooth" the water your boat enters so is preferable, but its the side wave that gives the best assistance. Could it be that for their weight to the ski's displacement the girls dont generate enough of a side wash.

Not sure I follow what you're saying it's counter to.

However, I believe k1 and flat water wash riding technique is consistent with what you see here and what you wrote in your article based on your observations. From a pure wash riding maximization perspective, directly behind the lead paddler is going to see the most assistance. You also see wash riding benefit tagging along to the right or left of the lead paddler(diamond formation), but you are trading off from a pure maximization of wash riding assistance for better positioning to overtake the leader.

I think I see why you'd think being in single file was better now.

The heart rates and % reduction in HR I quoted in my article were with 4 kayaks in diamond formation, so the kayak at the back not only had the trailing hole left by the lead kayak, but also had two converging waves from the two boats on the side, so in effect the last boat is benefiting from 3 boat washes.

The scenario in the womens ocean race was you are only benefiting from the trailing "Hole" left by the lead ski.
It's been my experience and I have only ever seen (on flat water and not counting headwinds/current factors) that the side wash will give you more assistance.

I'm not an expert in flow mechanics or paddling, so while what you're saying seems logical enough, I'm not sure if in actual practice the wakes end up lining up that you get an additive effect. The waves might cancel each other out as well.

The only scientific study I've found on this I believe has all four paddlers in formation and confirms directly behind is most advantageous, but I don't believe it examines the comparative metabolic benefits of the different positions without the other trailers(I only have the abstract).

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9861605

This guy seems to write that trailing directly behind garners the most energy savings:
"Over longer distances and with less competitive racers, you’ll often see two or more boats arranged nose to tail. The trailing position offers far more energy saving and there’s less risk of anybody trying to make a break when the finish line is still an hour away."
shirekayaking.info/2015/07/06/wash-riding/

I'm very curious to learn what the pros and science say.

HangTen wrote:
I'm very curious to learn what the pros and science say.

Me too, I have done some more searching and cant find a study that looks at the nose to tail position in isolation.