I had been thinking about investing in a smart watch, with GPS for a little while and was kindly given the opportunity to test out the Suunto Race S watch in collaboration with being a 2024 Ordnance Survey champion. When the watch arrived in the post, it was in beautiful packaging and I was very excited to get it open and set it up! I love the options you can make to personalise the watch to you, getting the best out of it to suit your needs.
As the new Suunto Race S is waterproof, I thought what better way to try it out for the first time on a coastal hike and sea swim on adventure on the Cornish coast.
I picked Harlyn Bay as my destination, somewhere I had not visited before. Harlyn Bay is situated on the North Cornish coast and is three miles from Padstow. The area is known as the ‘Seven Bays’, due to the seven beautiful, sandy beaches along this stretch of coast – not forgetting the many stunning small coves as well and these were the ones that I was on the lookout for!
Organising the route was easy, I used the OS app to look at which OS route map I wanted to follow, I then exported the GPX and uploaded this into the Sunnto app and added the route to my watch. This was straight forward to do.
When I got to the starting point, I bought up the GPS function on the Race S watch to follow my route. It was a bright, sunny day and I could see the GPS on the screen really well as the watch has AMOLED display.
Following the GPS, I headed from Harlyn Bay towards Mother Ivey’s Bay, admiring the beautiful scenery and looking for swim spots that I could stop off at. The watch has many options for tracking activities and is waterproof so includes pool swimming and open water swimming as activities you can track. As a cold-water lover, I wanted to put it to the test in the ocean and it worked perfectly.
The Suunto app is also brilliant for looking back at your activities, the app is easy to navigate and the data is broken down and easy to read through. Having never had a smart watch before, I have used my Suunto watch LOADS, on hikes in England, Wales and Scotland, local coastal adventures and at the gym – it has helped to push my fitness limits and motivate me. It’s also really comfortable to wear and has a great battery life.
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If you have found Holly’s Suunto Race S Review useful and you want to find out more read all of the OS Test The Best Suunto Race S Adventure Reviews from our OS Champions.
By Holly Atyeo
Meet Holly @life.through.hollys.lens, a keen hiker based in South Devon who loves to find hidden coves to swim in!
Find out more about Holly Atyeo
