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Which device?

Former Member over 8 years ago

Afternoon all,
Had a quick look around but struggled to find anything that would answer my question, I have a pretty specific use case and wanted to figure out the best device to get. I paddle board, a lot, competitively, I've reached a point where I want to do interval training in specific heart rate zones and want to buy the simplest/cheapest device that can achieve the following (I'm presuming watch with HR TBH)...

* MUST be utterly waterproof, not brief immersion, not shower proof but "get hit by 6 foot breaking salt water waves" type of waterproof. :^)
* Allow for the definition of an interval session based on heart rate zones, i.e. 3 mins @ Z2, 2 mins @Z3, 1 min recovery, 5 mins @ Z3, 5 mins @Z4, 1 min @Z4.5, recovery etc...
* Live feedback as to when I go above or below target zone. Voice, beeps, vibration or whatever but I'm paddling so I can't easily look at the watch on my wrist so I'd like to know which not just that I'm out of zone.
* I would very much like to know stroke rate as well but I've never seen anyone talk about that feature unlike the above which I know exist. Ideally a paddler would like to know strokes per distance but strokes per minute would do. Consider also that SUPs are paddled on one side but alternating, unlike sprint Kayak or Canoe (because we're awkward like that) so accuracy might be questionable?

If I'm honest, I don't actually want it to do much else. In sea based or down wind races I'm really not going to be looking or using my watch, it'd just be nice to record my HR and in longer flat water races I have my phone anyway for a variety of reasons (emergency, music etc...) which is why I'm asking for the cheapest/simplest solution. Dropping ~£500 on a watch would be a bit nuts when some of my boards only cost £700. :^)

Cheers all, appreciate the time it takes to read my waffle and reply.

Regards,
Phil

0 tmk2 over 8 years ago

MUST be utterly waterproof, not brief immersion, not shower proof but "get hit by 6 foot breaking salt water waves" type of waterproof. :^)

This really narrows it down :)

Most garmin watches are rated 50m, which makes them suitable for surface swimming only. The only exception is the Fenix 3 (I don't know about the lastest Fenix 5, but I suspect it's similar), which is rated 100m, which makes it suitable for more demanding watersports.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

This really narrows it down :)

Most garmin watches are rated 50m, which makes them suitable for surface swimming only. The only exception is the Fenix 3 (I don't know about the lastest Fenix 5, but I suspect it's similar), which is rated 100m, which makes it suitable for more demanding watersports.

Handy to know, I'd take the risk with a <£200 watch but sometimes you either cock up a running beach start or literally a place will go to whoever's willing to try and ride the larger end of a wave set into the beach which can er... go wrong. Got thoroughly smooshed into Brighton beach one day last year when I misjudged the sets. ;^)

0 ASmugDill over 8 years ago

MUST be utterly waterproof,

There is no consumer fitness wearable device that is marketed as such or meets that criterion, in that any case of liquid ingress at all would be considered a defect under manufacturer's warranty, as far as I'm aware.

… rated 100m, which makes it suitable for more demanding watersports.

Not even then. It takes a rating of 20ATM to be deemed suitable for high-speed water sports.

Garmin's own Water Rating Definitions puts devices rated 10ATM in the ‘Swim’ class but not the ‘Water Sports’ class.

That said, the ">‑5 product overview page">fēnix‑5 product overview page states,
Beyond their running functions, fenix 5 watches also offer special feature sets to help with swim training, skiing, golfing and paddle sports, including stand-up paddle boarding and rowing. For swimmers, the device tracks your distance, pace, stroke count and more. Ski/Board mode puts speed, distance, vertical drop and an automatic run counter (with Auto Pause for the lift line) and more at your fingertips.
so if there is a Garmin device model that best fit the bill, that would be it.

0 ASmugDill over 8 years ago

I'm presuming watch with HR TBH

The built-in optical heart rate sensors on wrist-worn Garmin wearable devices are not designed to work underwater, and are disabled for Swim activity profiles. I'm not sure what the case may be for the paddle-boarding app on the fēnix 5.

Anecdotally, putting the devices in Run mode – which allows the optical HRM to be enabled – work well enough for some people, but you'll get no guarantees or support from the manufacturer in that regard.

Live feedback as to when I go above or below target zone. Voice, beeps, vibration or whatever but I'm paddling so I can't easily look at the watch on my wrist so I'd like to know which not just that I'm out of zone.

You can use custom workouts on a fēnix 5, and the watch will beep and/or vibrate when you're outside of the intensity target range for the given workout step, but without looking at the watch's display, I don't think you can distinguish the alerts from any other alert by the pitch of the beeps, or the pattern of the vibrations.

0 tmk2 over 8 years ago

There is no consumer fitness wearable device that is marketed as such or meets that criterion,

Which is strange, actually. One could think that there is some demand for fitness wearables with higher water rating. I know that designing a truly waterproof watch is a challenge from an egineering point of view, but it's no rocket science either.

Garmin's own Water Rating Definitions puts devices rated 10ATM in the ‘Swim’ class but not the ‘Water Sports’ class.

So according to this chart there is no practical difference between a device rated 50m and one rated 100m. By the way, the GB version of this chart differs slightly from the US version. There is no mention of 100m rating in the British one, which led me to believe that a 100m-rated watch falls into the "water sports" category. Man, Garmin can sometimes make things so confusing.

Anyway, I could swear that I saw garmin advertise the F3 somewhere as suitable for high speed watersports, but since I cannot find this information anywhere it is possible that my memory is failing me.