NAARS 2014 Series Update

Hello Everyone,

I hope this finds you all doing well and in good spirits. We would like to thank all of you for your support in building such positive energy  for the sport of adventure racing in 2013. It is hard to believe that the The Maya Mountain Adventure Challenge is only a few short months away, and we will soon be starting another season of the NAARS. We have already seen an increased interest in race inclusion for 2014 from across the U.S. thanks to all of us working together.  Our crew is excited for yet another year and the opportunity to  learn and grow. The 90 minute Docu-Adventure following TeamSOG in the 2012 Season will be airing around the Holiday season on NBC Universal Sports. We will provide more information on dates and airtimes as the air date approaches.

Some of the major subjects that have been thrown around by different RDs that we feel are directly relevant to our sport are:

A.      Having a non-profit governing body. USA triathlon, USA Cycling and  USA Running have all been directly responsible for the unprecedented growth of their sports. USA Triathlon has seen a 300% growth over the last decade. It is imperative that any governing body for our sport be NON-Profit.

B.      GPS?! Everyone has it, it is nearly impossible to officiate its use or (non-use), and it brings a map to your device.

NAARS would like to facilitate a chat session among Race Directors on this and other subjects in late November. If you would like to participate or if you have suggestions that you feel would help our sport continue to grow, please let us know by emailing info@americanadventuresports.com to provide you a date, time, and invite to the chat room.

From a logistics stand point, Gnarly Crew Media has rebuilt the NAARS website for 2014 in hopes of making it cleaner, the results submission process more streamlined, and make the rankings easily accessible for racers. Basically, we think it’s a lot better and welcome any feedback for improvements that we can make upon the platform prior to our series' start in March of 2014. As always we will be trying to get SWAG out as quickly as possible this season with the hopes that our sponsors provide the items upon schedule.

 With the addition of new sponsors already, we have been enabled to offer the Regional Championship races over $5,000 worth of gear including a bike rack from the folks at Kuat and a $300 certificate for the winning coed elite team to use towards the 2014 Championship produced in the Badlands, ND  by Andy Magness of ENDAR. Prestige and Prime race inclusion will both still be available as well with the same premise as last year. You can review all the perks of each sanctioning level under to Directors page on the new site. The race addition process for the calendar is now open along with the new race results submission form. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns, we look forward to working with all of you again in 2014 and hope to see you in Belize racing or volunteering. Please contact Doug at doug@americanadventuresports.com if you are interested he can help/hook you up with pricing for traveling and/or competing.

Best Regards,

Ashley Reefer

Director of Business Development

American Adventure Sports

ashleyreefer@americanadventuresports.com

Kuat joins NAARS for the 2014 AR season

The North American Adventure Racing Series (NAARS) is embarking on its second year with the International Series Championship the Maya Mountain Adventure Challenge just around the corner in February of 2014. The NAARS Maya Mountain Adventure Challenge has attracted teams from Denmark to Brazil and has stolen coverage from the AR World Series championship by blogger extraordinaire/AR enthusiast Gear Junkie.

NAARS is thrilled to announce the recent acquisition of partnership between the platform and Küat (koo-at) bicycle rack and accessory company. Küat will be providing six of their racks for each of the Regional Championships in the U.S. and Canada and one for the 2014 Legendary North Dakota Series Championship up to a $3,300 value, pro-deal cards for Prestige Race Winners and the American Adventure Sports Adventure Racing Team.

About Küat: The Küat team embraces style and substance equally, but doesn’t stop there. With each product, they strive to improve the look and functionality, and then find ways to exceed expectations through innovative features and impeccable detailing. Leading the industry in innovation and design the company produces the best hitch rack on the market the NV including a rear ratchet system, hitch lock, integrated cable lock, and a built-in repair stand for pre-ride prep or post-ride cleanup- a fully loaded stunner. The company also delivers at the same high standards for roof rack lovers with the Trio system featuring the 3 Way™ fork mount system, the TRIO can handle any bike you own. Top that off with a slim line design, security system, and rugged good looks and you have the most complete fork mount rack ever designed.

About NAARS: The North American Adventure Racing Series was launched in 2012 as a way to expand our former platform The East Coast Adventure Racing Series. NAARS is a series of 50 international adventure races ranging from Canada to Belize. We pride ourselves in having the largest prize purse of any Adventure Racing Series in the World. Races are sanctioned three ways Prestige, Prime and Basic. These designate how much gear and ranking points that will be up for grabs at each event for participants.  The series Championship The Maya Mountain Adventure Challenge will be in February of 2014, get ready