You may not have noticed, but we've got the
Racer model RipBoard available for sale on the Untamed VA website. At 33% off retail, it's down right reasonable for $239. It's not mandatory gear or anything, just an option open to racers who want to take advantage of our agreement with RipBoard.
It's interesting for me to examine how we got to this point with the riverboarding, and I've learned a ton in the process that will help
Untamed Adventure moving forward.
It all started in the Fall of 2005 when I made a call to RipBoard to explore options for the 2006 Spring Route Adventure Race. At the time, I was considering the James River Park System as a race venue and a whitewater activity like riverboarding would've been a great addition.
Unfortunately, I didn't hear back from RipBoard and I moved on to other things. I followed up again with RipBoard in May or June of that year, just trying to get a foot in the door. My perseverance was rewarded and that summer I got a call back from the founder of RipBoard, Shane. At the time I was pitching the Virginia Beach AdventureFest concept and, while there weren't really whitewater angles to that event, Shane was open to an ongoing conversation and we eventually met in person later that summer when he was touring through Virginia.
The timing was great since I was in the midst of planning a big 2007 event and riverboarding could certainly play a role. Shane recognized a chance to get a lot of exposure for his RipBoard product and committed to supporting the "big 2007" event in any way possible, provided the riverboarding was more adrenaline than lazy river and RipBoard had exclusivity. The original plan was for every racer to riverboard with a RipBoard-provided product, so long as racers provided their own fins, pfds, helmets, etc. The deal was "done," including negotiated discounts for racers that wanted to buy boards after the race, but the hard work was still to come.
Of course, the "big 2007 event" became the sold out
30-hour Untamed Virginia Adventure Race. Things are really falling into place to make this an historic event in terms of scale, environmental responsibility, race value, and more!
About the only facet that isn't coming together just how I'd like is the riverboarding.
Finding RipBoard's adrenaline whitewater on the race course was proving problematic and the low water levels in VA were not cooperating. Further complicating the equation, it turned out that RipBoard had limited quantities of their product so we had to be very careful with how we staged the riverboarding or else there could be a big backlog before getting on the river --I'm talking 1-3 hours of backlog which in a 30-hour race is too significant to ignore. I'd be pissed if I was racing and encountered that!
I had to do something. We explored many options, but eventually settled with the current "one RipBoard per team" arrangement that would ensure teams do not encounter a back-log at the riverboarding, but still get some exposure and fun on the water. The water isn't adrenaline whitewater, but it's not lazy river either -- all in all, it's probably a good introductory riverboarding run if you ask me. RipBoard likes this arrangement a great deal, because for more than one racer per team to riverboard they'd need to have their own RipBoard, meaning they could see some pre-race product sales they otherwise wouldn't have seen.
Of course, this isn't my ideal scenario since only one racer per team gets to riverboard and we come off looking like captive salemen for RipBoard. We're not allowing non-RipBoards for the riverboarding section. Think about it: a race with RipBoard as one of the main sponsors isn't going to encourage teams to bring out their home-grown boogie board alternatives . . . RipBoard is a business, after all. Now, if you know me you know I worked every angle, but if we allowed non-RipBoard product they'd pull out entirely which would be far worse, in my eyes. So we've got the current arrangement that isn't the best outcome, but it is pretty good given the circumstances. RipBoard is still coming out to do professional clinics for our Untamed VA racers on June 2, still sourcing one board per team, still providing race support and expertise for the riverboarding in the race, and still supporting our efforts in the future including a true adrenaline-packed riverboarding run through downtown Richmond for 2008.
This means I get the occasional "dude, what's your cut from the sale of RipBoards?" email from my friends. For the record, we get
zero $ from the product sale and are actually subsidizing the purchase (that's how we get the really cheap price). I'm an adventure racer (remember?) and I know how things look from the participant's side; I don't like:
- exotic mandatory gear requirements
- lame special challenges
- boring navigation
- black-and-white race maps
- empty gel packets thrown on the trail
- private property signs
- or long-winded pre-race speeches
I'm just like you.
Our agreement with RipBoard is the best outcome that still lays a foundation for the future. Shane and RipBoard have been working as hard on this as we have, and I'm sure that good things will come from it.