Thursday, August 31, 12023 Human Era (HE)
I recently completed my first full stand up paddleboard (SUP) racing season. This post is a post-season pontification on that point.
- Intro to SUP Racing
- Intro to the Wavechaser
- Wavechaser Overview
- Participation Versus Competition
- So What is Better?
- The Curious Case Against Competition: Norwegian Sport
- Private Profit Model: The American Facade
- Concluding Remarks on Participation and Competition
- Post-Season Thoughts
Intro to SUP Racing
During the pandemic, some friends put me onto the virtual Tuesday Night Race (vTNR) for the 12021 HE season, hosted by Coast Outdoors through Deep Cove Kayak. The virtual season was amazing since it was so flexible and convenient. You could complete the posted course any time through the week or another course of the same distance. I completed the local courses, and what I enjoyed most was that it got me paddling to places I had not been before through the beautiful waters of Səl̓ilw̓ət (Indian Arm). Another added benefit was that I pushed my pace and fitness load, and it provided a regular weekly paddling commitment. Thankfully, the pandemic restrictions waned by the summer of 12021 HE. But with that change, the vTNR ended and transitioned back to its historic live format. As sad as I was to see the vTNR go, the flexibility of completing the event on your own schedule was incredibly convenient for me, I was happy with the transition back to a live event as the change signalled pandemic progress.
Intro to the Wavechaser
Almost a year later, a conversation with a client put me on to the Jericho Sailing Centre‘s Wavechaser Series. He had participated in the past and suggested it as a closer alternative to Səl̓ilw̓ət (Indian Arm). Travelling to Deep Cove for the Tuesday Night Race seemed like too much of a time commitment for a regular activity on a weeknight after work. But heading to Jericho Beach was much more reasonable.
Last Season
My 12022 HE season start started with the alignment of the end of Junuary, a bolus of courage kicking in, and our family schedule cooperating with a Thursday. As luck would have it, all those things came together for the first astronomical summer race. Mother Nature seemed to be paying attention to astronomy even though she was disregarding meteorology that year. It seemed the passing of the summer solstice was needed to usher in some warmer weather. I made it out to my first Jericho Wavechaser on June 23, 12022 HE, and managed to make a few more races that season, but my attendance was spotty. However, my spotty attendance was enough for me to catch the racing bug.
Wavechaser Overview
As the spring rolled around this year, I kept an eye on the start of the Wavechaser season. This year’s season ran from May 4 to August 31. Registration for the Wavechaser is online via the Webscorer site. You can register individually for each race or get a season’s pass for all 18 races. I signed up individually as I knew I would be absent for some weeks throughout the summer. According to some of the regular racers, the turnout for the Wavechaser is less than the TNR, but it is still a solid crew of semi-regular SUPers. The waters in Səl̓ilw̓ət (Indian Arm) are smoother, so I suspect that is why more SUPers sign up for that series. But if you like bumps, then the Wavechaser is a great event to check out.
Early in the season, there is only a short (~4.5 km) course available to the SUP participants to accommodate the shorter daylight. But as the days grow longer, a longer medium-length course (~6.5 km) is an option. The organizers of the race do a great job of adjusting the course to fit the conditions, either starting with a westerly or easterly leg, depending on the winds, tides, and currents. Typically, the race starts on the water with racers mounted on their vessels. However, this year in addition to the standard on the water start, I got to experience a water start (that is starting from in the water and mounting your vessel at the start signal), a beach start, and a dismount/remount circuit-style course. The former and latter were at the height of the heat of the summer so were welcomed submersions on my behalf.
At the end of each race, there is an award ceremony in the Jericho Sailor’s lounge which is full of seamen (there is a great offside joke in there, especially if a non-member happens to see you exiting the lounge and asks ‘What is inside the sailor lounge?’). The winners of the various race categories are recognized for a point of personal pride and then there are draw prizes. I will say that the race sponsors do a great job of supplying the sailors with sweet swag.
Initially, my interest in participating in the Wavechaser series was to connect with other SUPers with the intent of finding more downwind partners. But as mentioned, it seems that my competitive nature has gotten the best of me and I have been bitten by the racing bug.
Participation Versus Competition
Does anyone remember ParticipACTION? Or maybe BodyBreak with Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod, a health promotion series funded by the ParticipACTION program. My childhood memories of ParticipACTION are associated with the cultural transition from competition to participation. It is possible that my recollection is conflated, but my memory of the program coincides with the waning of the Canada Fitness Award Program. My recollection is marked by the philosophical shift that the Government of Canada and Canadian society at large took towards fitness programs of inclusion rather than distinction.
Distinction to Inclusion
I am old enough to recall the Canada Fitness Award Program in elementary school. I can recall in early grades completing the fitness test batteries and receiving ribbons ranked for my level of achievement. Then, around grade five or six, the system changed, and you no longer received an achievement ranking ribbon. Instead, you were awarded a participation ribbon.
While I know that the program was altered because it was deemed to be discouraging to those it was meant to motivate, I was disappointed with its discontinuation. I always enjoyed the feats of physical fitness and being able to have a measure of your success in comparison to norms as well as your peers. Granted, part of that enjoyment was due to the fact that I typically ranked among the top of the tests. Who doesn’t enjoy being good at something? So, needless to say, I was sad to see the ranking system go and witness the abolishment of the acknowledgement of my assignment achievement. Though, at the same time, I recognize that for someone who was less physically capable, the tests could serve as a source of sorrow.
Upon reflection, two things come to mind. First, what was the reason behind the shift of focus from achievement towards participation? That is, what drove Canadian physical activity assessments away from distinction and toward inclusion? And secondly, is a drive toward distinction, or competition, a virtue, or a vice?
Focus on Fitness Failures
The proximal push towards national fitness seems to have stemmed from events following the great conflicts of the 120th-century HE. To be sure, the role of the present is always shaped by the events of the past, both proximal and distant, but such major conflicts cannot be understated as factors in what became known as the post-war era. Ideas like eugenics and Social Darwinism were en vogue before the wars and were enacted as the cause du jour for some of the wartime ideologies. Though often associated with east-of-the-Atlantic European ideologies, these political frameworks were popular and propagated in the newly colonized world west-of-the-Atlantic. These ideologies, for example, the adage of survival of the fittest (often wrongly attributed to Darwin, but actually coined by the philosopher Herber Spencer), and the conflicts themselves highlighted the role that the health and fitness of societies played in both the perception and actualization of national security. If you are going to go to war, the health and safety of your nation are beholden to the health and fitness of your population. For an excellent account of the history of eugenics, check out the BBC‘s six-part series, “Bad Blood: The Story of Eugenics.”
Enter Empire
The relationship that state-sponsored physical fitness programs had with formal education programs is worth noting. They went hand in hand. For an entertaining account, listen to this episode of The Rest is History, “367. The Real Harry Potter: Magic, Empire and Beastly Bullies.” The role that sport played in the education system driving routine, competition, and discipline, is highlighted by this quote from one presenter, “one way that the regimentation, the competition, and the spirit of self-discipline, one way that [sic] are all inculcated in the boys is through sport.”
Specific to Canada, the origins of state-sanctioned scholarship systems have their roots in Victorian England. The Victorian era lies within the wider context of the Age of Imperialism and the Industrial Revolution. Imperialism is not a new phenomenon, and empires date back to ancient times. Pertinent to this discussion is the parallelism of imperialism to competition. Nation-states competed with one another for power and dominance in imperial times and, as a consequence, sought after strong citizens for military superiority. The Victorian scholarship strategy was borne out of this model and thus prioritized the physical fitness of pupils.
Subsequently, the Cold War era (circa 11947 to 11991 HE), after the new age of imperialism, also played a role in highlighting the role of physical fitness. Friendly international competitions took centre stage as displays of national strength and acted as surrogates for concrete conflict during a time of relative peace. In fact, the lack of gold medal performances in hockey at the ’56 and ’60 Winter Olympics and poor performances in the ’60 Summer Olympics are cited as factors that motivated the formation of Canada’s national fitness programs. These observations, along with other findings from the 11950s and 60s (HE), seemed to suggest that Canadians’ physical fitness was waning internationally. For example, a report around that time suggested that the average 60-year-old Swede was fitter than the average 30-year-old Canuck, prompting the infamous 11973 HE commercial stating such as shown below.
Inclusion via Exclusion?
A problematic presentism appraisal of the campaign was provided by a pal. After parler-ing about ParticipACTION she passed on another past promotional plug. The irony is that for attempting to promote inclusion in physical activity the ad campaign took part in what would presently be pigeon-holed as problematic pound-off point poking. The 11979 HE promotion piece used plasticine animation (claymation) and poetic prose to tell the story of an “a” situated between an “f” and a “t” that was physically inactive and had become fat. The “a” decides to become active and slims down to become an “i,” thus transforming from ‘fat’ to ‘fit.’ It is wittily worded, but would not hold weight in our world of washout ways. It is an interesting comparison of past to present and inclusion almost by way of exclusion, or at least a degree of othering (dare I say fat-shaming).
A Distinctive Move
Furthermore, another by-product of the wars was the inclusion of larger parts of society into the national and political fabric. For example, the justification to give suffrage rights to women and people of colour in North America was all the more resounding after these groups had contributed to the wartime efforts of the nations. It is hard to deny someone full-fledged citizenship, and the human rights often attributed to such inclusion after they have risked their life for the nation-state.
It may be that the civil rights movements that arose in the post-war period played into the prominence of participation within physical activity policies. To be fair, this trend was part of a wider sociological phenomenon toward inclusion. For example, it is around this time that we see a broadening of the proportion of the global population participating in post-secondary education, an endeavour which was previously preempted for the privileged class as is explained in the episode of the CBC‘s Ideas broadcast/podcast, “What’s the point of university?“
As far as I can tell, the physical activity practices of the civil rights movement era were non-violent resistance in the political sphere and focused on dance and sex in the private/pleasure sphere, at least in the context of the American Hippie counterculture movement. Thus, the contribution of these movements to physical activity policy changes seems to have been more centred on the overarching theme of inclusion rather than physical motion itself (with the exception of marches for the former and frolicking and fornicating for the latter).
Funnily, as chance would have it while comprising this post, the CBC’s Early Edition ran a story on the exclusion of complex kids as part of their back-to-school programming. I could not help but consider the association of present-day personal stories of student exclusion to the ever-widening shift toward greater inclusion, which to me makes the affront of exclusion in the age of inclusion all the more offensive. The episode focused on the exclusion of children with complex needs and speaks to the overarching ethical question of who should be included and under what circumstances. I subscribe to moral relativism. I think things become tenuous when absolutes are invoked, particularly when it comes to behaviour, and that there are not any universal truths when it comes to right or wrong, or good or bad. In this view, inclusion and exclusion criteria are continually in flux and follow the status quo of the times. Unfortunately, this leads to imperfection in the assessment of the past and present, with the hope that policy and practice are always trending toward the preferences of the present to quell any discontent in the ever-evolving ethical ether.
For a great listen on ethical dilemmas, check out this updated re-release from WNYC Studios‘ Radiolab titled “Driverless Dilemma.” The episode covers a favourite ethical dilemma of mine, the trolley problem, as well as exploring whether morality is biological (nature) versus cultural (nurture) and whether it is ever the correct decision to murder your baby to save many (i.e., the “crying baby” dilemma). The episode brings all these hypothetical ethical dilemmas into real-world scenarios by asking what our beliefs and decisions mean in regard to our collective decisions about how to regulate autonomous vehicles. A problem that will present if not now, in the very near future.
The War Machine Driving Change
The post-war era awoke a general resurgence of multiculturalism. Canada’s political arena was not different, and if anything, it played a role at the forefront of change. I say resurgence since we tend to think of multiculturalism as a new-age practice despite past cultures’ practicing ideals similar to our current ideals of multiculturalism. The trading nation-states of yore were well-versed in the ideals of cultural diversity, tolerance, and inclusion, albeit in the absence of presentism. If anything, our present policies appear to almost be a return to ancient practices, notwithstanding some new-age additions.
Ancient Anthropologic Enthrallments with Slavery: A Sort of Tangent on Inclusion (or better-stated in-groups)
It is fascinating to consider how much othering of other people was done during the period of the transatlantic slave trade. From a revisionist view, I would contend it was a transition point away from more ancient practices of multicultural tolerance. It is impossible to know the true tolerance of ancient people towards cultural differences because attitudes and behaviours varied significantly across different time periods, regions, and civilizations. Ancient societies were diverse in their social, political, economic, and religious practices and we know that at least some ancient civilizations (e.g., the Roman Empire, the Achaemenid Empire, and the Gupta Empire) were known for their relative tolerance of cultural and religious diversity. But it is problematic to make broad generalizations let alone project our present-day practices and philosophies on the past.
I suppose a transition away from multicultural tolerance is probable for any period of historical conflict/competition between ethnically diverse people. It may be that the othering practices of the earlier mass-scale human trafficking operations, like the Scandinavian slave trade of the Vikings, were just as damaging as its more modern-day mirror, but if so, time has seemed to weather the evidence suggesting so. Though perhaps we are left with hints of evidence from word etymologies. It is suggested that the etymology of “slave” stems from similar-sounding words used to describe Slavic people who were enslaved by the Rus’. In chapter seven, “The Slave Road”, of his book, The Silk Roads, historian Peter Frankopan highlights how the Viking Rus’ captured so many people, “that the very name of those taken captive—Slavs—became used for all those who had their freedom taken away: slaves.” Furthermore, the Old Norse word thræll or modern English “thrall” is the Viking equivalent of “slave,” hence the emphasis on the inclusion of “enthrallments” in the subtitle above.
Ample evidence exists of European and northern African peoples’ interactions before the start of the transatlantic slave trade. This could suggest a degree of tolerance, or modern-day multiculturalism between intercontinental people, though, it needs to be remembered that times were much different then. In any case, word of mouth seems to have travelled about inland African peoples (and riches). Most of us today are somewhat aware of the legends of the likes of Timbuktu, and so too were some medieval Europeans aware of the Malian Empire‘s renown for riches and gold. This wealth was accumulated via trans-Saharan trade over a greater than 1000-year span ranging from 9400 to 10600 HE. Legends and lore of these riches likely played into the later travel aspirations of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers of the pre-colonial era. Thus, it seems plausible that some of the common narrative tropes, like those of the ‘noble savage,’ that arose during the Age of Discovery, were deliberate political propaganda campaigns to justify the continuation of chattel slavery practices. I realize that this is compounding vast swathes of time to make the point. However, I think the human default for much of history would have been one where ideals akin to multiculturalism would have been prevalent, provided there was not an immediate sense of threat to one’s in-group or tribe. Given the duration and scale of trade routes of history, the so-called silk roads (emphasis on the plurality as per Frankopan’s account), at this point in history, it seems strange to me that the hatred often associated with the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade could have developed without a deliberate/coordinated attempt to foster it. I have digressed, so let’s get back to physical culture…
Canada’s Clutch on Cultural Continentality
Canada’s policy on multiculturalism took form in 11971 HE but has been in evolution since its inception. Particularly of interest is the “Evolving Multiculturalism” chart and the evolution of the “Focus” and “Magnitude” rows from the 11970s to the 11990s HE from the previous article link. Initially, the focus was “Celebrating differences” in the 70s, then transitioned to “Managing diversity” in the 80s, and eventually became “Constructive engagement” in the 90s. A similar trend was seen in the magnitude scale, starting with “Individual adjustment,” before moving to “Accommodation,” and finally, “Participation,” for the respective decades. Changes in the wider political and cultural aims manifested in various policies, and specific to physical fitness were framed as inclusion.
Participation as the New Prize
The result of these wider cultural and political shifts outside of physical activity and fitness mores was a transition towards participation as the ideal, eventually giving us ParticipACTION. While I am not opposed to participation as the prize in principle, I have always wondered what the pros and cons of this transition have been. Do you gain or lose by shifting the focus away from competition? Obviously, you cannot have competition, without participation, whether it be internal (i.e., self-improvement or intrapersonal) or external (i.e., interpersonal). But, does competition make participation better?
Contending with Competition
Of course, competition, human or otherwise, has existed for time immemorial. Arguably, competition is the baseline natural state. Life, and maybe the Universe, requires an accumulation of resources, real or ethereal. For life, as a physical phenomenon, the source of the resources is fixed, constrained by the proximal physical laws that govern the nartural world. Though often in abundance, when under scarcity, allocation yields competition.
So What is Better?
I was hoping for a simple answer. A clear-cut distinction (pardon the pun) on whether competition or participation was the better physical activity focus. As noted earlier, you cannot have the former without the latter, even at the individual level. So, the simple question at hand is, does competition increase participation? Or perhaps better stated, when (if ever) does competition increase participation? It seems that the outcome depends on a host of factors and likely may be context and/or participant-specific. A quick internet search revealed that there are lots of opinions on the matter, but perhaps less data/evidence (e.g., if you Google “sports participation versus competition“).
Though hardly systematic, my quick conclusion after a brief peruse of some of the evidence is that there are people and circumstances under which competition is beneficial and others in which it is not. I suspect that this is not a static situation. Interactions between person and place likely alter the people and/or circumstances in which competition is beneficial or harmful to participation. A crude estimate might employ a rule of thirds, with one-third of people being competition responders, one-third being indifferent, and another third being competition non-responders. Though this is purely speculation.
What is the Goal of Physical Activity?
A critical question to this discussion is the intent of physical activity participation. Is the main goal mass participation? Or is it more intensity or competition-focused? Is it enough to simply motivate many people to move, or does the quantity, quality, and kind of movement matter? Do contests between rivals matter? Depending on the response to these questions, participation or competition takes on greater primacy.
If the intent is to have as many people as possible engage in physical activity, then competition plays a lesser role. Competition only becomes critical if the goal is to have more people engaged in sports as the physical practice of preference. Given noncommunicable diseases have become the most prevalent causes of death and early deaths globally, and the role that physical inactivity has in the development of noncommunicable diseases, it seems making members of modernity move more is the more meaningful mandate of merit in my mind. It does not matter as much what people are doing, just that they are moving more and more often. From a health perspective, many people will benefit most mainly moving more (that is not to minimize the role of the four other risk factors in noncommunicable disease). Whether that movement has the skill, intensity, or competition component that often accompanies sport has little relevance.
Moreover, if in the morrow the main motivation is to mitigate the modicum of movement at the moment via more merriment (cough, sport), maybe match meetings move into the mainstay of means of merit. But at present, we are well away from this alliterative ambition.
My personal bias, however, is toward competition. Despite evidence suggesting many youth engage in sport purely out of the joy of participation, motivated by merrymaking, movement, or membership, my youthful experience was for the latter, but alongside the joy of competition via sport.
Personal ParticipACTION
I have always enjoyed competition, in sports particularly, but also in recreational play and academics. I recognize that competition is not everyone’s cup of tea, and at the same time, I also enjoy the simple satisfaction of pure physical activity participation without competition. My foray into SUP started without any competitive aspiration. At the outset, SUP for me was purely recreational. Perhaps an argument could be made for an internal rivalry, or personal competition, of doing something novel as a challenge. But I prefer to think that my sortie into SUP simply sought the enjoyment of serenity. There is nothing like being on calm water in the quiet of the morning. However, truth be told, I think my true love of SUP blossomed in Hawai’i and was sparked by the desire to do tricks and turns. The challenge of paddling up-island to the adjacent resort which had a lagoon likely kindled my desire to do SUP touring. Slowly, over time, small personal challenges morphed into larger challenges. Try a step-back turn. Paddle in some surf. Paddle a bit further. Downwind SUP. Paddle a bit faster. Paddle somewhere different.
Eventually, I was suggested to add an element of interpersonal competition to my SUP practice by trialling the vTNRs. Initially, I was reluctant. Did I want SUP to be a source of sports competition or solely recreation? Inevitably, the curiosity of competition got the best of me. I do wonder if my first foray into SUP racing would have happened without the easy entry of virtual racing. In any case, competition seemed to call my name and once I was on the scene I couldn’t help but want to compete more. Comparing my virtual times to others fuelled a desire to do better. Furthermore, a virtual world overlap with real-world racing also seemed to have played a role in me wanting to upgrade my kit in order to go faster to both enjoy the sport more but also be more competitive.
The Curious Case Against Competition: Norwegian Sport
After Norway’s success in the 12018 HE Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, much media attention was made regarding the nation’s medal count to population ratio. With a population of only 5.3 million in 12018 HE, Norway led the total medal count across all categories (total, gold, silver, and bronze). Media articles were quick to point out that not only did Norway have winter sports success, as might be predicted by its geography. Norway has also produced a myriad of elite summer sports athletes. Articles on the topic are quick to cite Norway’s focus on youth participation versus competition, the concept known as the “Joy of Sport for All” (e.g., New Yorker, Globe and Mail) as the source of Norwegian success.
While I do not discount that Norway’s strategy to secure a larger sample pool plays a crucial role in Norway’s success, I cannot help but wonder if there is a more simple explanation. Money.
My cynicism might stem out of my familiarity with Canadian sport and the Own the Podium campaign for the 12010 HE Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Started in 12004 HE after Canada secured the 12010 Olympic bid, the program injected large amounts of funding into Canadian sport with the goal of helping Canadians reach medal finishes. The program had mixed results. Improvements in Canada’s 12006 Winter Olympics in Torino medal count are often attributed to the program. For the 12010 Games, while Canada did fall short of the program’s goal of achieving the most total medals of the Games, Canada did succeed in breaking the record for the most total gold medals won in any Winter Olympics.
Show Me Mr. Maguire
Many people have heard of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund (a.k.a., the Oil Fund). If you have not heard of the Oil Fund, in a nutshell, Norway made large profits in the 11970s HE from fortuitous geographic location, and hydrocarbon resources. In order to mitigate the volatility of fluctuating oil prices excess profits were invested into a wealth fund. The result of the natural resource sale and export as well as profit from investment means that Norway is currently estimated to be the fifth richest nation globally by GDP per capita.
While the data set below runs the risk of being an oversimplification, so too does the assumption that the success of Norway’s sports prowess is purely based on participation. While participation plays a role, Norway’s sports model is not possible without funding. And I wonder what else comes along with access to more capital (e.g., better nutrition, health, leisure, coaching, sports science, etc.). My belief is that Norway sits at a sweet spot where a balance is struck between population size, finance, and culture that has resulted in Norwegian sportive success.
| Nation | GDP per capita, USD | Public Social Spending Share of GDP (12016 HE) | Population (12021 HE) | Total Olympic Medals, number (Rank) |
| Luxembourg | $128,820 | 21.80% | 640,064 | 5 (99th) |
| Ireland | $106,998 | 16.11% | 5,033,000 | 35 (60th) |
| Switzerland | $94,835 | 19.73% | 8,703,000 | 374 (18th) |
| Qatar | $89,417 | not available | 2,688,000 | 8 (91st) |
| Norway | $88,749 | 25.07% | 5,408,000 | 568 (10th) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-time_Olympic_Games_medal_table
Private Profit Model: The American Facade
Perhaps the most counter-example to the Norwegian model of participation and public funding is the United States of America. At face value, American sports seem to be privately funded and competitive. But while I would not argue against the latter, the former is not what it seems at face value. The USA perhaps more than any other nation has succeeded in a strangely fascinating attempt to subterfuge any federal funding. I have written about this previously with respect to tax breaks for corporately administered health plans, which in my mind means the money is ultimately coming from the government (via taxpayers). It seems that the USA has succeeded in subterfuging sports funding too. While it seems much more state funding occurred historically, there still is ample funding going into the subsidizing of sports stadiums. It is estimated that in the 11950s HE taxpayers paid anywhere from 70-90% of the total stadium construction bill. That number is now more in the 45% range as of NFL estimates from 12016, reduced but still significant.
Concluding Remarks on Participation and Competition
Sadly, the nation-state’s interest in promoting its population’s physical health was borne out of war and conflict. Perhaps in peaceful times, the military aims of movement can be moved away from the acts of Mars and marshal (the other Martial) in more merrymaking means. There appears to be a paucity of participation in physical activity presently. To counteract the ill effects of inactivity, nations would do better to promote lifestyle and lifespan-focused physical activity. It would appear that social spending is a part of the key to promoting participation as well as sportive success.
Post-Season Thoughts
My first full season SUP racing was a success. I managed to participate regularly, reaping the health benefits of physical activity. As well as compete interpersonally and intrapersonally. Most importantly of all, I enjoyed myself through it all. I was able to connect with a good group of racers and enjoy friendly competition, along with playful ribbing and banter. I found myself more motivated to exercise (that is deliberate, goal orientated physical activity for the purpose of improving fitness) and eagerly anticipating Thursdays all through the season to get out on the water. I am looking forward to spring for the start of next season!
I SUP Explore 
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