- If being a part of the next innovation
inside of rowing, indoor and outdoor,
sounds interesting to you stayed tuned
because today I head off to Paris to meet up with Decathlon,
because we are working on a super,
super secret just inside PDP Army only.
Those of you that know, know.
And if you don't know,
check the description below for the link.
We are working on an innovative product
inside of the rowing world that isn't even finished yet
and I need your help to design it
because in this video you're gonna check out
the very first look at what
the current prototype looks like.
It's not even finished yet
and I need your help to participate.
I need to know what you think.
Would you use it?
Wouldn't you use it?
What are your ideas?
Help us make this product and off to Paris I go.
(funky music)
All right, well since we have a delay
let's just take a quick coaching time out.
And let's go ahead and talk about something
that may actually relevant to your rowing.
So many people ask about drag factor.
It doesn't matter how many videos I make on the topic,
everybody wants to know, "What's the right drag factor
"for me to use?"
Well, let's just start with this.
The end and the answer is it depends
and it's different for everybody.
Now let's backtrack from there
with a really easy analogy that might help you understand
what drag factor does.
Think about it this way.
When you take the damper setting all the way down to a one,
what that does is it pinches off the air supply
which means that the fly wheel can spin quickly.
But you have to be fast to keep up with it
and get the benefit from it.
The equivalent to that would be like running on a flat track
or maybe even downhill with a tailwind.
You can go real fast
but you have to be able to keep up with the cadence,
meaning your legs have to be able to run fast enough
to be able to keep up with that.
And if you look at some
of the fastest sprinters in the world,
they're very fit people.
Now on the other side of the equation,
if we take that damper setting all the way up to a 10,
it's akin to running up a mountain.
Now what does that mean?
Well, you have to be able to grind.
You're gonna have a slower cadence
and turnover over your legs
but there are some really amazing mountain climbing athletes
and that's just what they prefer,
just like what a sprinter prefers.
So the athletic differences are going to vary per person
and that's why there is really no right answer here.
And why I like to use that analogy is
because most of know what running feels like,
most of us have probably done that at some point.
So if you can think about it from that standpoint,
it brings us back to the answer of it depends
and there is no right answer.
And by saying that, it means that you have the ability
to choose whatever damper setting is right for you
and you should experiment across the range.
(upbeat music)
Perfect espresso comes in every room in Paris,
I'm pretty sure.
I'm here in Paris.
I've got my feet on the ground.
I had some fun with the World Rowing Indoor Championships
but now it's time for us to go checkout
what exactly is happening with Decathlon.
So I'm ready to pack up my bags,
get on the road, I'm jumping on the Metro
and we're gonna go meet with the Decathlon team
for the first time.
(upbeat music)
We have arrived.
I'm here at the 2024, the course we're using
where we're testing it,
is actually the 2024 Olympic water sports course.
So kayaking, canoeing, maybe sailing,
I don't know, rowing,
this is where it's all gonna happen.
And so it's actually cool
because we're seeing the Olympic course
being built around us.
There's just nonstop construction happening around here
and we have the ability
to bring these little prototype units
down onto the water.
And we have just a flow of people coming through today
who are going to be testing this thing for the first time.
Not rowers, most of 'em aren't even indoor rowers,
they're just coming from water sports.
Many of them are standup paddleboarders
'cause this thing can work with a standup paddleboard.
And we're just throwing them in, trial by fire hose.
How do you like it?
What do you think? (chuckles)
And then we just watch.
We just put them on it and away they go.
So we have somebody going right now
and this is our day to really test it.
So I'm freezing out here,
it's a very cold day, high winds.
Thankfully have at least a little bit of sun.
And we're just gonna check out how this thing goes.
I'll check in throughout the day
and we'll take some shots.
We'll see how this looks, yeah.
I'm gonna give it a try and see what I think too.
(funky music)
So something that's really important to note here,
and as many of you mentioned in the comments the last time
when I announced the Decathlon partnership,
is that yes, these products do exist.
We're not inventing something from scratch.
What we're doing is attempting to find
a more accessible way of making these things.
And so while this isn't a new product,
what we're doing right now
and what you're seeing on camera,
are several different types of these products
because we wanna figure what is the best way to run this?
Do people prefer going forwards or backwards?
Do they like their, you know,
there are two ways you can make these.
You can have a sliding seat or sliding feet and riggers.
Which way do they prefer?
Do they prefer the sliding seat or the sliding rigger?
So we're testing all these different products
out here today,
we have multiple prototypes
and multiple things running around.
So that's an important distinction here.
This is just a learning environment
and we're really trying to learn
how people respond best to rowing, in general,
when they've never attempted it before.
And for me this is really fascinating
and for you, this will be as well
because all of you guys pay attention
to how you move on this machine.
But what if we took somebody who had never done it
and tried to get them rowing the first time
with no instruction.
So it's a really fascinating play out
of how that works.
- [Man] Does it works? - It's weird.
The feathering and squaring is reversed.
Not only are you rowing backwards
but now you have to feather backwards.
That was confusing to me,
that was probably the hardest part.
Unless we just have the riggers backwards.
♪ Feeling that burn ♪
♪ I'm not getting out ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Maybe you made me lose my mind ♪
♪ Maybe you wanna stay the night ♪
♪ Times goes fast ♪
♪ I don't care ♪
♪ An all new lover ♪
♪ When we go we lose track of time ♪
♪ You and I we can stay inside ♪
♪ Time goes fast ♪
♪ I don't care ♪
♪ I've known you long enough ♪
♪ I know what I want ♪
♪ I know that I care ♪
- [Man] Some thoughts about this?
- All right, so, the oar locks are really high,
which means that you're carrying your hands really high.
So it's gonna force a looping handle
instead of being able to carry the handles
a little bit more naturally.
And there was really no way for me
to not be picking my hands up
and carrying them up and over the top
because of how high that pitch was.
Obviously, we're just working on the straps right now
but because it wasn't able to anchor,
even a few strokes in the whole system just shifted.
I could feel every stroke
that I was almost kind of driving
the nose of the paddleboard down.
So I was getting a lot of nose down
and then back up on every stroke.
I think a fixed oar makes a lot of sense for a non-rower.
The thing that I liked more about this
than the first system that I tested
was that in that system,
you're actually limited to how deep
you could get into the catch.
So I reached a point where I literally
would just hit stops.
And that wasn't deep enough for me.
So with this, I have full clearance
to be able to move out there.
- [Man] And what about the fact that you cannot
put your oar too deep in the water?
- You can't bury the blade
because you'd have to take your hands up here
in order for the blade to get deep enough in the water.
So I was, I guess,
my comment of having to carry the hands too high
is the same comment as you can't necessarily
get the blade in enough.
The whole unit just didn't feel like
I was very connected to the board
and so I was just kind of questioning the whole time
if I was pushing the system back and forth
on top of the board.
Or as we saw, how it just shifted on me.
I think my two biggest critiques are
the height of the oar locks,
that's just too high to carry your hands.
You have to shrug your shoulders to take that stroke,
which is not an affective way of moving.
I mean, I'm also not use to running with spoon blades.
(man laughs)
So those old fashion blades are definitely,
yeah, they're definitely different for me.
(funky music)
Wow, that was a trip.
Just a reminder, I had never seen
any of those things before.
I'd never even seen a picture
of what this system looked like.
So everything that you guys saw,
that was my first time seeing it too.
And frankly, that was a lot of fun.
Being able to row on the 2024 Olympic course,
that was really incredible in and of itself.
Even though it was freezing
and we got hailed on while we were there,
but that was an experience in and of itself,
on those different.
So here's the deal.
If you haven't yet,
make sure you go onto the description below
where there's a link for newcrew.decathlon.com
'cause that's where all the participation is happening.
And it's just important to remember.
This isn't gonna happen tomorrow.
This is basically an R&D project
that you get to be a pair of.
So contributing your ideas, offering your thoughts,
that's what's gonna make this all happen.
And that's the fun part is
there's really no pressure behind this,
it's just a way to help bring something cool
out for the future.
So go jump in, I'm gonna be in there.
I'm always gonna be answering questions, chatting,
that's where you're gonna see the newest information happen.
And we just get to see where this thing goes for the future.
If you enjoyed this this video,
make sure that you hit that subscribe button
and the bell next to it
so that you become a member of the PDP army.
And after that go into the description below
and click on newcrew.decathlon.com
to sign up basically for the R&D group
so you can offer up your ideas for the future.
And a bit thank you again to Decathlon
for making all this happen.