The Garmin heart rate monitor is water proof to the extent that you can get it wet but the readings can go haywire after you've taken a dip. It also doesn't work during swimming so there's obviously a connection issue between watch and heart rate monitor once water becomes involved. However it dries and works again next time so no permanent damage.

I use a Garmin - it is advertised as water resistant and I have seen posts on forums where people have said its more 'splash resistant.' However, I have used it racing and surfing and it has worked fine when I have fallen in and have had no issue with the heart rate monitor when wet. You change the settings on the dial by touching it and dragging your finger around it (a bit like the old style ipods) - this is the only thing I have had any issue with using it in water, it is quite sensitive so sometimes changes display when it has water drops on it (eg. time to heart rate). However, I discovered on the weekend that if you lock the face, this doesn't happen so all good. I haven't swum with it or kept it under water for extended periods as I have seen others advise against it.

Benno87 said..

I have just bought the latest Suunto Ambit2. I am yet to trial it but setup was easy and watch is easy to use. I picked it over the Garmins due to the 100metre waterproof depth. Unsure as to wether the heart rate monitor will work when wet but will no doubt find out sooner or later!
The watch is also neat enough to wear for everyday use and has a decent battery life so far. Will let you know more once i have used the GPS functions.

Please let me know how it goes and also what settings you use when on the SUP, thanks!

Mate, used my Suunto Ambit 2S a few times now and its really good. No problems with locating GPS or HR signals and very easy to use and setup.
Uploading training sessions a few times and it is quick, easy to use and accurate. The Movescount website is really good for viewing sessions and distances/training graphs. Battery life seems to be good so far. Haven't used any other brands of GPS watches so cant comment on how they compare, though from what I've seen and the ease of use I've had with the Suunto id happily recommend it!

Hope this helps! Good luck.

I have the Garmin 910XT which works well, main feature for me when buying was web based software so I could use it with Apple products as compared to some others which are windows only software.
A new product is the MIO ALPHA for about $250, good review here
http://www.ridingbumps.com/2013/08/16/the-ultimate-training-tool-for-the-prone-paddler-and-a-great-way-for-some-sup-athletes-to-look-less-stupid/

I'm not a big fan of purely heart based training unless you know your maximum heart rate and retest yourself every few months. Some info here from the Riding Bumps website.......

"Pick a day with flat water and a steady or calm wind
Use a medium size paddle blade
Warm up for 10-15 minutes with an easy paddle
Perform a 30 minute hard to very hard effort
Be sure to do what you can to keep things steady and do your best to pace the interval. Your goal is to keep a relatively constant effort throughout the test. You do not want to go all out?redline..and finish the interval at half effort
To estimate your AT that your average heart rate for the middle 20 minutes of the 30 minute effort. In our experience, that average heart rate will be your AT HR or your AT HR will be 1-3% higher.

A full discussion of how to use your AT to determine training intensity during your stand up paddle training sessions is found in the Riding Bumps Training Program"

Hope this helps

Hi all, I would recommend the main feature to look for in a GPS heart rate watch is the waterproof rating, and the ability to upload data to a laptop/PC either onto web-based software, like Garmin, or some other. The idea is that it is pretty hard to monitor your heart rate while paddling when wearing a HRM watch. So essentially you do your session, then later upload the data and check out how you went - speed, distance, HR.

I WOULD NOT rate the touch bezel Garmin for this - they are barely 'water proof', I have wrecked one by swimming in it, they leak and stuff up, I won't even shower in the crash-replacement one that I have now. I'll do a SUP Time Trail on the race board, but no way I'd wear one in the surf again after stuffing the last one. On a couple of occasions my 2nd unit had fogged up after going for a run or bike ride in the rain.

I do like the Garmin 1k auto-lap - I get a beep every 1k travelled. You can take a quick peep within 10 seconds of the beep to see your split for the previous K, so you can get some idea how you're going during your efforts.

So MLR81, not saying it will happen to you if you surf wearing your touch bezel garmin, but it certainly happened to me - I was prone surfing & body surfing.

At my age monitoring your heart may become frightening so I have all the Garmin stuff but dont use it.

If you move around a lot between sessions the GPS has to find 3 or more new satelites to triandulate your position. So what Benno87 observed will happen each time you have a big change in geographical location.
I know that hikers and mountaineers also rate the Suunto units highly because of their extreme ruggedness & reliability. Benno, how do you rate their software/website for viewing your past activites and doing analysis on how you're going?

One feature with the Garmins, is that you can set up unit to unit connections with the wrist watches - so you can design/download a session onto a watch, then share it watch to watch with other garmin wearers just before you do the session - this can be quite handy when doing sessions as a group.

The GPS watch brings to ability to train smarter easier for sports OTHER than the main stream sports. If you want to improve your fitness & learn about what you're capable of then they are well worth using IMO & experience.

One more factor that will probably steer me towards a Suunto unit next time is that the Suunto units have LARGE digits in their display. Now that I am getting old ,older than GregC above - but still faster in a straight line ;) , I have a hard time reading the small digit display on the Garmin.

Really easy to upload and view on Suuntos fitness app Movescount, it graphs all the key elements such as speed, heart rate, elevations, minutes per km etc. And of course it maps your route on google maps which is really good, though most GPS watches will do that. I have only used it a few times but so far so good. And yes the large digits really help when you are working to keep up with the leaders and just need a quick glance!

gregc said..

At my age monitoring your heart may become frightening so I have all the Garmin stuff but dont use it.

Same here my maximum heart rate alarm kept going off and I was only carry the board to the water....