Ep. 1057: The Longest Annual Paddle Race in the US - Revisited - Greg Wingo

Adventure Sports Podcast

Curt Linville

Sports, Science, Fitness, Nature, Health & Fitness, Wilderness

4.6 • 579 Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2024

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Paddling: Greg Wingo on Directing the Great Alabama 650 – 650-Mile Scenic River Trail Race from Mountains to Gulf, Facing Whitewater, Tidewater Currents, Dam Portages, and 7-10 Day Endurance Challenges. You might not think of Alabama as holding many records in the world of endurance races (at least I didn’t), however, you’d be wrong! Alabama is home to the Great Alabama 650, a 650-mile paddle race down the Alabama Scenic River Trail going from the northern part of the state out to the Gulf of Mexico. Racers face whitewater, battle tidewater currents, and hike around a dozen dams in an effort to reach the ocean and are expected to finish between 7-10 days.

Today we’re talking with the AL650 race director, Greg Wingo to learn just how challenging a race like this is to plan as well as compete in.

Also, Adventure Sports Podcast is now a sponsor of Greg’s other race, Last Paddler Standing. Mason will be commentating during the LPS in December.

To learn more about the Great Alabama 650: https://www.alabamascenicrivertrail.com/great-alabama-650/

To learn more about the Last Paddler Standing: https://lastpaddlerstanding.com/

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey folks, welcome to the Adventure Sports podcast. I'm your host, Mason Gravely. Today's episode,
0:12.0	as you probably saw, we did not have an episode go live on Monday. I'm still behind, but today's
0:18.3	episode is a throwback with a good friend of mine. Greg Wingo, this goes back
0:22.4	four years when I first asked him about the longest annual paddle race in the world at the time
0:28.8	was the Alabama 650. And you don't think of Alabama as an adventure hub, but it is home to now
0:36.5	the longest annual paddle race in the USA, and that is the 650-mile
0:43.7	paddle race, basically across the entire state of Alabama, and yes, that is the longest annual
0:49.8	race in the U.S. It's, I mean, just an enormous challenge. We've had John Nippers on back in, gosh, what was that?
0:57.2	November, December, talking about paddleboarding it, the first person to paddleboard it.
1:01.3	And Greg is the race director of that and also the race director of last paddler standing,
1:07.6	which the Adventure Sports podcast is going to be a sponsor for this year. So you probably saw some news about that on our social media, maybe on LinkedIn or something. But we are the, I don't know, audio podcast sponsor for Last Padler Standing. And Greg does other things. He does all kinds of cool stuff. He does running trips to
1:28.9	Albania that are like, you know, small groups, amazing adventures. He does all kinds of just really
1:35.4	cool stuff. And I'd say he's someone I look up to and learn a lot from, but in the Alabama
1:41.2	650, but it, which by the way starts in just over two weeks, 15 days from now,
1:46.2	I'm linking in the show notes where you can find out more about it. And also, I'm going to be
1:51.7	commenting or commentating again at the last Padler standing this year. So please check all that out.
1:57.5	Greg, thanks for being a great friend. It was great to kind of re-listen to this, our very
2:01.6	first conversation. So, man, times have flown by and cool things have happened. So, all right,
2:07.1	let's dive in.
2:20.9	All right, folks, welcome to the Adventure Sports podcast.
2:28.6	Today we've got really interesting idea, interesting concept for a show and for an adventure.
2:32.9	And, yeah, the kind of the mad scientist behind it all is Greg Wingo.
	...

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