Gearjunkie.com’s Adventure Racing Recommendations, 15 Years on
In 2010, Gearjunkie.com founder and editor, Stephen Regenold published an article entitled, “ An Open Letter To: Adventure Race Directors.” In it, he describes his experiences as an avid racer and journalist with a strong desire to grow the sport and makes a call to race directors for improvements. Looking back at his list of 22 suggestions 15 years on I wanted to take a moment to see how we, the adventure racing community, have responded. We’re all trying to grow the sport and there are some really great suggestions in this list. What have we done well? What still needs improvement?
1. Quit calling it ‘Adventure Racing.’
Since I watched it in my youth on TV and then when I became involved with the sport on a media level in 2016, I have always known it as ‘Adventure Racing.’ While I personally found it interesting, I often shared the author’s dismay at the vagueness and informality it seemed to convey to the uninitiated. As years have gone by, my experience has been to see the “AR” abbreviation used more commonly than spelling the whole thing out. Logos more prominently feature the letters A R as well and I believe there has been a real effort to make this happen. It doesn’t change the fact that we still have to then explain that “AR” is “adventure racing” to anyone who asks.
2. Allow GPS.
Thanks to Adventure Enablers we finally tried this in 2024 at the Shenandoah Epic to…. mixed results. After the race, AR Insider spoke with a few teams. Some racers felt that it provided an unfair handicap to less experienced navigators, while others felt it made little to no difference at all. Still others remained cautiously protective about the sanctity of the sport and its ‘offline’ nature and some really seemed to enjoy it.
While the use of GPS still remains controversial, I believe there is enough interest, especially in shorter races for more attempts to be made at a similar format. I don’t see it being implemented at the highest levels of the sport anytime soon though.
3. Vet the Course.
* Have a third-party expert evaluate and run the course for a thorough vetting.
In 2025 I shudder to think about a course that has not been vetted by a third party. With the prices being paid for registration, race directors really need to have their courses dialed in and ready to go. Expectations are high, especially when you factor in travel time, costs, training, and so forth. An unvetted course can damage a race director’s reputation and throw a race into chaos. Standards (I hope) are now high enough that the vetting of the courses has become common practice.
4. Simplify the Sport
I definitely agree with the sentiment that adventure racing should strive to make itself less complicated and I think many in the community are with me on this. As a racer, I don’t like to get tripped up on vaguely worded rules, especially when misinterpretation can sometimes mean disqualification. I sincerely hope that race directors are now trying to be extra careful with rules and wording to avoid situations like this. Every layer of complexity in course design presents new challenges for rules and communication thereof and I believe race directors are doing well to simplify their courses when possible to avoid confusion.
AR is still a wilderness sport though and mandatory gear will sometimes need to be robust. Courses can be simplified more easily though, and I think the design of courses up to 2025 speaks to that sentiment. Many adventure races are being designed in a circular pattern, using a combination of mandatory and optional points to guide and challenge teams from all levels of the sport. While traditional point to point adventure racing is still popular, a linear course design presents greater logistical challenges than a course that is based around a central location. We may never get away from a multitude of rules in the sport, but I believe race directors are designing courses now that allow teams to choose their own level of complexity and intensity, to a certain extent.
5. No UTMs.
Looks like we took this advice to heart. Rarely do I see UTM point plotting at races anymore. I agree it’s a total pain and a very good way to make tiny mistakes ruin your entire day. Luckily this has mostly gone extinct and race directors are providing teams with pre-plotted maps at nearly every race.
6. Boat Choice. Racers get to pick their bikes. Why not their boats, too?
Oh, how I dread paddling a cheap plastic sit on top tandem kayak or a bulky, heavy Old Town recreational canoe in a race. I saw a bit more of this when I first became involved with AR and I know it’s kind of a sticky wicket. The use of a large volume of cheap boats can be a result of low or unreliable rental availability for the race. It can also be a measure taken to even the playing field, so to speak, such that everyone is using the same, albeit old and busted, equipment.
In subsequent years, I do believe race directors have made big efforts to increase the quality of boats available for races. However I certainly understand from a race director’s perspective the challenge that comes with deciding whether to rely on local rental companies or own a dedicated fleet of better quality AR-only boats.
Enter Tug Hill Outfitters. Based in Western NY State, just north of Syracuse is the small canoe and kayak outfitter owned by Emily Hart and Chris Legard. In 2021, they held their first 8 hour adventure race as a “Bring Your Own Boat” event. Teams were allowed to bring their own racing kayaks, canoes, and even surfskis for the race. High end rentals were available on site for teams without their own boats.
A wide variety of boats at the 2024 Tug Hill Extreme AR
I was on the winning premier coed team at the first Tug Hill Extreme AR so I may be a little biased but I think the adventure racing community has started to embrace this B.Y.O.B. format. As Tug Hill Outfitters have expanded the scope of their courses, they have stayed with the Bring Your Own Boat format to promising success: In 2023 they expanded to a 12 hour race which sold out well in advance. The 2024 edition saw the same success, with Emily and Chris gaining high regard for their course design from some top American teams and international athletes. In 2025, the Tug Hill Extreme AR will expand again to 24 hours and serve as a qualifier for the USARA National Championship and the ARWS North American Championship. Seeing the success of Tug Hill, other race directors may be encouraged to try this format out and I say go for it. It’s so much more fun to race in a fast boat, even if it’s just a rental. This format has also been a bridge for many athletes from the competitive paddling world to enter AR. More racers, better paddlers as teammates and fun boats? Sign me up.
7. Whitewater, Please!
A solo racer paddles a packraft through Class I and II+ whitewater at the 2024 GMARA Hard Fall
While I appreciate the fact that not every race location has access to whitewater, I’m disappointed if it does and I don’t get to paddle it. In my experience, race directors are keen to add whitewater sections whenever possible but drought or severe weather events often place those sections in danger of being cancelled at the last minute.
Guided whitewater on stage 1 of the NYARA 24 hour Longest Day AR
Thanks in no small part to the proliferation of lightweight packrafts, when whitewater is available, it is becoming more accessible as a stage choice for race directors. Modern inflatable boats are durable enough for whitewater, yet pack down to a very small size, allowing teams to access more remote sections of potentially fun whitewater. As such the packraft has become an indispensable tool in the race director’s course design kit in recent years. It is also another response to the desire for a Bring Your Own Boat concept. Many racers now own packrafts and for those who do not, a rental fleet of these is much easier to manage than rigid frame boats.
When big whitewater is on the menu, it lights up a race. In 2024 Bend Racing famously took Expedition Oregon racers over a section of Class V rapids that included an epic 15 ft drop. Earlier this year on the East Coast, The New York Adventure Racing Association started off their 24 hour race, “The Longest Day” with a long and thrilling guided whitewater paddle.
8. Good Maps.
*Please, please give us good maps, including sharp printing, contour lines, a scale, grids, and accurate representation.
I have seen a lot of improvement here too. At a base level, it seems to me that my collection of race maps has shown consistent improvement over the last several years. The print quality has been the first notable improvement with many race directors opting for water resistant papers and inks. The maps themselves are improving too: we’re getting bigger mapsets with more details and smaller scales, local park supplemental maps, and in some cases, orienteering-level quality maps for portions of races. While the US certainly lags behind Europe in the overall availability of high detail maps, efforts are being made to bring in professional mapmakers to survey sections of a course specifically for an adventure race. With the introduction of high resolution GIS imagery, LiDAR scanning and drone technology, it has become easier to make these detailed maps and out here on the East Coast I know that folks like Mark Lattanzi (Author, “Squiggly Lines”) and Tom Rycroft are using this tech to improve the detail and quality of adventure racing maps, one stage at a time.
9. Clues. Don’t be clever with checkpoint clues.
While I agree here on keeping the clues simple, I don’t think the practice of unique names for them is going away entirely. Many race directors put a lot of their own personality into course design and they enjoy the goofy and sometimes cryptic clues. I think racers enjoy them to the extent that the unique clues provide clarifying information, rather than unnecessary distracting information. Race directors: please don’t lose your unique style but let’s try to keep it simple.
10. Mandatory Gear.
*Make your race’s mandatory gear list simple but complete for the task.
I feel as though mandatory gear lists have become more concise but they are still quite extensive in some cases. This is the nature of a wilderness sport and I don’t think we can get too far away from this complexity, especially with race insurance requirements. It’s a delicate balance for a race director to manage but one helpful change I can note is that there seems to be a trend toward requiring an “adequate first aid kit” with recommended contents, rather than nitpicking individual items. It seems silly to me that I might be subject to a penalty if I don’t have a specific size bandage in my kit and I think race directors are lightening up on enforcing some of the particulars there. Overall I don’t see a lot of frivolous items being added to these lists either, especially in races with strict weight restrictions imposed on teams’ gear boxes.
11. Inform the Volunteers.
I’m happy to report that in recent years with the race directors on the US East Coast, I have seen a big improvement in overall organization and communication with race staff and volunteers. It is a huge advantage for a race director to have highly informed volunteers on course. Ensuring that you have a group of well informed volunteers starts with detailed preparation. Assigning clear roles to individuals and having a well defined schedule with alternate plans in place is crucial for a race to run smoothly.
A great example of this kind of efficient organization can be seen at the Maine Summer Adventure Race. There, race directors Cliff and Kate White carefully orchestrate three simultaneous races: a 24 hour qualifier for USARA and ARWS North America, an 8 hour intermediate race and a 3 hour beginner and family friendly race. Volunteers are made to feel very much a part of the race as they are given specific instructions ahead of time and know they can rely on each other and the race directors for guidance. It sure helps to have a dedicated group that returns year after year too.
"Like all adventure races, our event could simply not exist without our passionate, dedicated volunteers. We try to make sure to place them in their desired roles, give them clear instructions as well as the freedom to make spot decisions if necessary, and to ensure they're having fun, including being well-fed and given all the swag that racers get. We also give them a free entry into a future race. Most importantly, we treat them as equal members of our team and we dole out heavy doses of appreciation and respect." - Cliff White, Strong Machine Adventure Racing
Communication tech has improved here as well. With the advent of devices like Garmin InReach and Starlink mini satellite dishes, race directors can establish more robust communications with remote transition areas and folks on the ground at these races. These advances have been put to use pretty thoroughly in the past 3-4 years especially, as it’s now common to see several Starlink access points active across a course, along with multiple InReach devices in the field.
12. The Coed Rule. One idea: Eliminate the divisions.
Does the coed rule limit the sport? The 2022 short film “Mandatory Gear” might have you believing otherwise. We can’t run away from the fact that women in adventure racing have historically been seen as a token spot on a team - there to fill a requirement for a coed team. What have we done in the last 15 years to change this?
Notably the foundation of the group, Women of AR in 2022 has played a crucial role in increasing representation for women in the sport of adventure racing. We all knew there were tough, driven, elite female athletes that could ‘kick our butts on course’ but I don’t think we realized how many there were. With the establishment of Women of AR, organizer Stephanie Ross hopes to continue the expansion of competitive all women's teams in the sport of adventure racing.
“I've been overwhelmed by the support we've received from race organizers for our Women of AR Race Team program. In 2025 and the coming years, we'll be focused on growing our base through our Ambassador program, which aims to draw more beginners into the sport and give them the tools to succeed. Our Ambassadors have an infectious enthusiasm for AR and are key to our outreach efforts around the country.” - Stephanie Ross, Women of AR
In recent years we have seen a huge rise in all female adventure racing teams that compete on the national stage. An all female team under the aegis of Pennsylvania based Rootstock Racing and led by navigator Nicki Driscoll took 4th place out of 71 teams at the 2024 National Championship. This year’s national championship event also saw the largest field of all female teams in USARA history.
Left to right: Britt Mason, Nicki Driscoll, Karyn DuLaney
Photo: Vlad Bukalo
Most races do declare an overall winner alongside the division winners now and that practice seems to be pretty widely accepted in the adventure racing community, at least in my experience. I don’t think we should stray from the Premier Coed division being the top tier of AR though. That’s one of the things that makes our sport unique and I doubt the community at large would want to change it either… Especially when it presents another avenue for growth within the sport.
13. Ropes.
*If the rappel in a race is only for the photographic effect, it’s not worth the hassle.
As a photographer I’m a sucker for a cool rappel shot but from a racer’s perspective I like to see ropes sections in courses as long as they don’t take away from the overall flow of the race. Waiting in line at a guided ropes section can be kind of a bummer during a race and it can happen easily when there are a limited number of stations for teams to complete the section. Along with Mystery Challenges discussed later, ropes sections can add to a race if placed well but also detract from it quite a bit if they cause traffic jams.
14. Lower Entry Fees.
*When possible, make the sport more affordable. Sticker shock keeps many people away.
99% of Adventure Racing is sticker shock: from the gear to the travel expenses, this sport ain’t cheap. I do see efforts being made to reduce the cost to new racers though. Aided by the generosity and coordination with many of our race directors, the aforementioned Women of AR group was able to sponsor entry fees for their team across the entire 2024 season. Other efforts to reduce costs have come in the form of gear swap forums and better access to rental equipment like packrafts.
Organizing an adventure race in 2025 is unfortunately not a particularly profitable exercise and many race directors do it ‘for the love of the game.’ Margins aren’t too great, and RDs often walk a fine line between producing a quality event and keeping entry fees reasonable.
Consider this as well: Like it or not, AR is now competing worldwide with sports like obstacle course racing (OCR) and its multiple variants. These shorter, popular events offer a pretty reasonable comparison for 2025 entry fees:
As of the time of writing, these are actual race entry costs: For $92, (early entry price) you can register for a 4 hour obstacle course race with a big OCR organization. That’s $23 per hour of type II fun. Alternatively you can register for a 24 hour adventure race for $213 (also early entry.) If you’re keeping score at home, that’s just $8.87 per hour of type II fun. While AR may seem more expensive up front, it’s a much better deal if you buy your type II fun in bulk.
15. Elevator Pitch.
*Craft a one- or two-sentence “elevator speech” on what AR is.
This is one area where AR can use the benefits of additional media representation to help explain our sport. Since the writing of the original article on GearJunkie.com, we have seen a few notable examples of adventure racing in mainstream media. In 2020 the world saw the 10 episode run of World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji on Amazon Prime, hosted by none other than Bear Grylls. Still streaming online and rated at 7.6/10 on IMDb and 90% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, this series is something we can easily point to when describing AR. More recently in 2023 the film Arthur the King, starring Mark Wahlberg portrayed the sport of adventure racing on the big screen with a drama filled journey of one team and one dog who made it through an AR World Series championship race together.
These two major media pieces that hit the mainstream have certainly helped to bolster the prominence of adventure racing and they’ve made it much easier to deal with questions like, “You do WHAT with your weekends??”
16. Distinct Navigational Features & 17 Don’t Hide the Flags.
Points 16 and 17 are about the details of course setting, in particular the placement of control flags. There seems to be improvement here but it is less quantifiable for me and I do hear from race directors that they are listening to these concerns. Starting with better quality orienteering maps they can now set controls more accurately and with more consideration. Adding one or more optional rogaine sections during a race has become a popular way for race directors to raise the difficulty of their courses too. The racers I know tend to demand high accuracy for these maps and they appreciate careful course design by the setters. That pressure seems to be driving forward the quality of course design overall.
As for hiding the flags, I hope nobody does this anymore, do they? Although some racers’ definition of “hidden” may not align exactly, I do think the vast majority of CPs I come across have been set with a reasonable amount of prominence. Race directors also know that if they “hide” a point that they’ll certainly hear about it after (or during) the race from frustrated teams.
18. Inflatable Boats.
Yes, inflatable boats were kind of a drag in 2010. They were not the ultralight, ultra durable, sleek craft that we see in adventure races today. More prone to failure and generally not very hydrodynamic, inflatable boats of that era were largely confined to running swift water. Over the past 15 years improvements in design, technology and materials science have been substantial. Companies like MRS Packrafts are now producing high quality, durable inflatable boats that perform well on both swift and flat water. One of their packrafts, the Barracuda, has become the gold standard for tandem inflatable kayaks in adventure racing. The boat performs exceedingly well in rapids and on lakes and packs down nicely.
Now with the overall rise in packraft ownership, the onus to bring a fast inflatable boat (if the race calls for it) has shifted a bit to the racers. It’s not common to see a rental fleet of 120 identical high end packrafts for a race (although they do it in Brazil.) There are echoes of the desire to bring our own boats here too. Have the improvements and proliferation of modern packrafts allowed for more creativity for paddling in the sport of AR? Definitely. Race directors have that new tool for course design and it seems like they are using it creatively.
19. No Support Crews.
* Support crews are for the most part a thing of the past. Let’s keep it that way.
Support crews do not belong in traditional adventure racing and I have never seen them in my tenure in the sport. AR is an unsupported discipline at its core and that seems to be the unanimous opinion in 2025. However, we are now seeing a variant of AR becoming more popular and that’s Stage Racing. Similar to AR in almost every way, Stage Races differ in that the race stops every evening for rest and restarts the next morning. Stage races are much faster affairs and the transitions for teams are managed by support crews. Events like this aren’t as common as traditional adventure races but we are seeing a few new ones pop up with good success so far. I see nothing to indicate that dedicated support crews are coming to world championship level adventure racing but adventure racers themselves seem to be embracing the alternate format of stage racing.
20 + 21. No more Mystery Challenges & Standing in Line
Archery was used as a brief side quest during a 2021 race in Portugal
When deployed appropriately, a “mystery challenge” can be helpful and fun during a race. For instance, a simple puzzle can be used as a prologue to separate teams early in the race. During the race, there may be additional challenges and I don’t mind that too much as long as they aren’t too numerous and don’t affect the flow of the race. These challenges can be anything from archery to soda chugging, and as long as teams are able to get through them without excessive waiting around I am okay with seeing one or two in a race. Again these are usually good photo opportunities for me though so I might be a bit biased.
22. Changing the Rules.
*Don’t change the rules during a race. Don’t move cut-off times around or eliminate CPs unless utterly necessary.
This is something that race directors have struggled with since time immemorial. Things happen during races that cause timings to shift, sometimes drastically. Weather and other unforeseen events can also cause changes to courses that may not be communicated to the racers and when that happens, it can ruin races for teams. I have personally had a race completely derailed by a tiny lack of communication about the changed location of a transition area. It’s super frustrating and nobody likes to be in a position like that.
Hopefully we are seeing evidence that incidents like this are becoming less common. The race directors I work with have delved ever deeper into planning for all contingencies for their races. Alternate plans, backups, and backups of backups are becoming the standard for race organization. We all know things probably will go at least a little bit sideways at some point during the race. Good race directors know how to plan for that stuff and then communicate it appropriately. With the addition of AR World Series referees at major events, race directors can now rely on an official reference for how to proceed when the unexpected happens, as it always does.
So what do you think? Based on these suggestions for improvement from 15 years ago, is adventure racing (or AR) moving in the right direction in 2025?
Let me hear it in the comments.
