Excuse me but your nipples are bleeding…! 17 November 2015 – Posted in: Rip Curl, Surfing
I’ve never understood what the fascination is with running. Since the invention of the automobile in the late 1800s it’s always boggled my mind why people would run anywhere when there’s a perfectly good car take them wherever they want to go.
While attending a half marathon in Kerikeri north of Auckland to support my brother-in-law I saw one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. It was your typical New Zealand day with sun, rain, wind and the option for a bit of snow. We were standing at the bull pen, which was an area of fenced off tarmac at the end of the marathon, eagerly awaiting the brother-in-law to run across the line and bring glory to our clan. My wife was standing there leaning on the guard rail as the runners streamed across the line. One older gentleman, maybe in his mid-60s and looking about two seconds away from a heart attack, ran over the finish line and then straight to spot next to my wife and leaned heavily on the guardrail. One thing that struck me was all the people crossing the finish line seem to have a singlet representing their sponsorship of the same running team. Two red stripes down either side of the torso. But to my disgust I soon began to realise that the red stripes were actually blood running out of the nipples from where spandex or their cheese grater material running singles, had got wet and been chaffing their nipples. My wife recoiled in horror as she came to the realisation of what was happening. It did not seem to matter they just kept on coming across the line red stripes after red stripes. And the strange thing was the first thing they did after crossing the line was to check their GPS running watches to see what kind of time they had done. It did not seem to matter that they were now missing half their nipples or had created some extra washing duties for themselves, they simply wanted to know how fast they had run. This made me begin to think: a) that there was something wrong with these people, b) there might be something in being able to see how fast you go over a certain distance.
It’s not just running that I’ve always disliked it’s any kind of endurance sport. Why swim when the canoe has already been invented? (or for that matter why use chopsticks when the fork has been around for a couple hundred years? – come on Asia!!) But watching these amateur athletes running across the line and so keenly glued into their watches I knew there had to be something in it.
That was when I decided I would get a Rip Curl GPS watch. As a surfer the GPS watch holds little or no draw to me. I’ve never been overly keen on counting waves and more about the vibe. But being a stand-up paddle boarder are there was definitely a desire to know how far I paddled and how fast. Previously the only time I have information like this was when I stuck my iPhone in my pocket and went for a paddle. The problem there was I forgot shut the case properly and toasted a $1200 phone and a half hour paddle. If you are the sort of person that loves numbers or likes competing with their mates then you might find the GPS watch is a good thing to wear for general surfing. It can do some pretty cool stuff such as tracking all the waves that you ride showing your paddling, showing a top speed and also overlaying everything on top of Google maps. The GPS watch and tracking my surfing might seem dumb, but in future i will be able to at it and remember about the 23 or 35 waves that I had on a particular day or time that I went surfing at spot X and what the tide was doing on that particular day, a pretty neat feature for later days and remembering good times.
It has an app for iphone that allows you to sync all your data back to the cloud, using the app or the website you can follow your mates and hero’s, eg Mick Fanning.
Using the GPS watch to track paddle boarding doesn’t quite work as well but is still a dam good replacement for the iPhone in your pocket scenario, which always ends in tears. It can easily track your distance and time and I’m hoping that down the track Rip Curl bring out a new software release that has some functionality for coastal cruising or racing stand-up paddle boarding. Outside of all the cool surfing stuff it does, it’s actually just a pretty decent watch anyway aesthetically pleasing i.e. looks better than a 65-year-old running across the finish line with bleeding nipples. It did enough for me to satisfy the purchase price and I’ve not unlocked all its features so far! If you are a tech geek and a surfer, this is a must have. My recommendation is that you borrow one from a friend or a surf shop and see if it works for you. For anyone in the Taranaki Region, feel free to drop into Vertigo in Oakura if you would like to Demo one of these watches, or give us a buzz on 06 7527363. Or if you keen to buy a Ripcurl GPS watch, check them out in our online store.
PS did I mention your nipples are bleeding?
Words by: Jeff Sutton