For rowers and paddlers, there’s probably no performance metric that’s more important than the current stroke rate. CrewNerd uses your phone’s accelerometer to measure stroke rate, provided your phone is mounted securely to your water craft so that it can sense the acceleration of each stroke.
For paddling activities, this can be a challenge. Compared to rowing, stroke rates tend to be higher and per-stroke acceleration is less pronounced. Open-water conditions with chop or swells can also be a problem since the orientation of the phone changes in ways that can be confusing to the app. And on Android phones, the accelerometer provides data at a lower rate, making it difficult to give an accurate reading at high stroke rates.
The Vaaka paddle cadence sensor solves all of these problems by placing a light-weight sensor directly on your paddle. The sensor communicates your stroke rate over Bluetooth to various sport watches, and now, to CrewNerd as well!
Today, we’re releasing a CrewNerd update on Android and iPhone that allows you to pair the app with a Vaaka cadence sensor in much the same way as pairing a heart rate monitor. When paired, CrewNerd adds a small indicator to the SPM label in the stroke rate area to let you know that the sensor is connected and providing data. CrewNerd can still use your accelerometer for it’s auto-start feature (if enabled), but the stroke rate comes from the Vaaka sensor.
We’re excited to partner with the creators of the Vaaka cadence sensor to bring these great products together. And like many of the best features in CrewNerd, it’s the result of a great customer idea – thanks, Jan!