Auto Pause for rowing activity. Why is it not there?

Rowing is often done with 2 hands, so pausing is not possible. And because the default timing is in pace, the resulting graphs are utterly useless. The difference between full send and casual is 2:10/500m vs 3:00/500m. But the graphs often go to 55:00/500m. Good luck seeing any difference in that case. And because I need to turn around every 2k, the speeds drops to 0. 

Right now it makes more sense to use the running activity for rowing!

Please copy the pause functionality from another activity!

  • Hello

    I do understand the desire to have an auto pause function similar to other activities. Unfortunately Auto pause features for outdoor activities use the GPS function. The the watch would use the GPS to look for you to come to a complete stop, before pausing the activity. When you are rowing on the water outdoors, even if you stop rowing, you are not likely to come to a complete stop enough for this to be reliable. 

    However in case there is a method to allow this to be reliable in future, you can always submit this request to Garmin's ideas page here: Garmin Ideas

  • If you look at the auto pause functionality for biking, there you have a speed threshold that triggers the pause. So clearly a full stop is not needed, to make this function reliably.  

    I think you can copy that 1 on 1 to the rowing app and that would be great. Furthermore the gps signal on water is in general really good as there are hardly any obstructions. 

    p.s. I just checked both biking and running have this option... 

  • This existed before on the Forerunner 630 and worked perfectly. The GPS complete stop excuse doesn't make sense when you already can set autopause thresholds for cycling. In addition, you are capturing stroke data which could be used as a metric and threshold for knowing whether a user is rowing or sitting still and drifting in the boat.

    I've used Garmin for running and cycling for the last 15 years and love the ecosystem but the outdoor rowing experience really is substandard compared to these. The process of having to start and stop the watch every time I turn on the river is error prone and means the exercise data is being corrupted by either including stoppages or missing chunks of my workout.

    I've submitted a request to Garmin Ideas but I'm seriously considering alternatives.