A couple of years ago at the Carolina Cup John Beausang, known to most of us as the man behind www.distressedmullet.com, approached me with the idea of starting an on-line coaching site. Initially the idea was to have a group of coaches, of which I’d be one, offering things like training advice, video analysis, etc. to paddlers looking for ways to up their game.
As I was still teaching at the time and interested in exploring ways to perhaps eventually move to a full time job in paddling, it immediately grabbed my interest. For one reason or another however, things never seemed to gain any traction and nothing really became of it. I got a job coaching the National Team and John continued to be busy with the Mullet. It wasn’t until last fall at the Surf to Sound that we had another discussion about the idea.
At this point I knew my coaching contract was going to run out at the end of March 2016, a few months before the Olympics. I needed something else to do or face the prospect of looking for a teaching job. John had reworked the idea a little and had come up with a really cool name for the site – Paddle Monster.
We’ve worked pretty closely together since then and spent some time together between Christmas and New Year’s brainstorming and mapping out the scope and structure of the site and Paddle Monster’s activity. We’re pretty excited about what we’ve come up with.
We’re planning on launching in April at the Carolina Cup, so without giving too much away yet here’s a sneak peak at what we’re creating:
- An on-line resource for all things pertaining to SUP training, technique and racing
- An extensive library of instructional videos with supporting notes for each video
- Video analysis
- Training programs
- A unique approach to interacting with paddlers of all levels
- Clinics and training camps
There’s more, and as we’re already into March you’ll be hearing more details soon about how it will work and how we’re planning to create a supportive, collegial community in which everyone is trained like a professional.
As this will hopefully become my full time source of income, what does it mean for my blog? Well, I’m happy to say that everything I’ve posted here will remain available here. My website www.larrycain.ca is going to be updated, but all the material that has been posted will remain. New posts are still going to be added, but as the more technical type information is going to be posted on www.paddlemonster.com, my blog will feature more posts about cool paddling experiences, product reviews, races, etc.
You can sign up for Paddle Monster updates at www.paddlemonster.com, and you can look for us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as we’ll be posting more information over the next six weeks. In the meantime stay tuned here for more blog posts, including one I’m working on regarding how to change the focus of your training from volume to intensity as the 100/100 Paddle Challenge ends and the race season begins.
