Monitoring performance while stand up paddle race training can be a little bit of a headache. For the stand up paddler, having a mount sticking out the front of your board can be an issue when transporting your board. Moreover, for those paddlers who want to have a GoPro and GPS on their board it can be unsightly to have multiple gizmos sticking out the front of the board.  Finally wearing a heart rate monitor on your wrist is anything but ideal because you need to stop paddling to see your stats.

Enter the combination of The SpeedCoach SUP and ConnexSUP.

For those of you who are new to this website, we are fans of metrics while training. The big four for SUP are time, stroke rate , distance per stroke, and heart rate* It is also ideal to have a board mounted device that you can easily see without bending down. As we mentioned previously, wrist mounted devices are OK but less than ideal. The SpeedCoach SUP is a device that serves all of these functions.

In the past, one issue we had with surface mounted devices was that

1. They were quasi-permanently attached to your board and removing them was a hassle. Glue ripping off the finish on your board is not good.
2. Traveling with a surface mounted device was a pain because breakage in transport was an issue.

The good news is that SpeedCoach  SUP now has a GoPro mount that allows you to affix the device to any GoPro mount. This little development turns into a HUGE development when you pair a SpeedCoach SUP with a ConnexSUP insert.

Again, if you are new to this website you might not be aware that we are fans of ConnexSUP . One of the reasons is that  the interchangeable mount allows you to swap out devices AND remove the mount entirely during travel or when you  just don’t want a gizmo sticking up from the surface of your board.

The bottom line on all of this is that the combination of SUPspeedcoach + Connexsup + GoPro mount allows you to monitor your performance, remove all gizmos from the top of your board (nondestructively), and even allows you to use the same mount for your monitoring device one day and your GoPro another.

Win win right there.

For more information about Speedcoach SUP and their new GoPro mount please visit the manufacturers website

For more information bout ConnexSUP please visit the SUP Think Tank website

Full Disclosure: SpeedCoach SUP and ConnexSUP are advertisers on this website. The good news for us is that there is no emotional turmoil writing articles like this.  We don’t feel like we are promoting our advertisers because we are supposed to. We use these products and would use them even if they didn’t advertise.  Seriously.  Check em out.

* Just because you asked – distance and speed are not all that important when you train. Endurance athletes, in our opinion, should be training by time and heart rate and maximizing their stroke using metrics such as stroke rate and distance per stroke. Does it really matter how far you go in a workout. Does it matter how fast you go ? Absolutely not. Currents and wind affect those metrics so they do not accurately reflect performance.