Rob joins the Peak Paddle Performance podcast for the second time. But this time, it’s all about an epic 80 mile adventure crossing Lake Michigan this past August.

Now in his mid fifties, Rob continues to paddle and race at a very high level. I’m not sure he has ever been beat in the Great Lakes region. In the last two years he held the lead at Chattajack going into the final sprint finish. Suffice it to say, Rob is an incredibly strong paddler both on flat water and downwind.

But this isn’t a racing story, this story is about a personal journey to cross Lake Michigan solo, intentionally choosing a day with some decent wind. It was a big undertaking and there were unforeseen circumstances that made it a serious challenge. I hope you enjoy and learn from our discussion!

It’s been way too long since we had a chance to catch up with Oscar Chalupsky on the Peak Paddle Performance Podcast. Although battling an incurable cancer, Oscar hasn’t slowed down a single bit. He remains a man in perpetual motion. Despite being read his last rights twice in the last two years, Oscar has launched a Motivational Speaking Business and website, appeared on several podcasts and attended endless media events to spread his message of No Retreat No Surrender. There is no doubt he is walking the walk and inspiring thousands as he does.

In this podcast we cover a range of topics including but not limited to:

In this podcast I sit down with Matt Drayer who is part of a small team including Greg Barton, Jesse Lishchuk, and Geoff Pearson who are dedicated to promoting surfski development in the US via the Ocean Racing Committee (ORC) which is part of the competition arm of the American Canoe Association (ACA).

Matt and the team have been hard at work over the past year building out a National points based ranking system that allows competitors around the country to submit race results from any surfski race and earn points. They are also launching a pilot program to establish an athlete classification system, that will allow paddlers to progress along a continuum based on race performance over the long term. Last, but not least, the ORC is very much involved working with the International Canoe Federation (ICF) on the Surfski World Championships that are now held annually. This year they will be in Madeira Portugal.

In this podcast we cover Matt’s background, as well as go into detail on all of the above and what has inspired Matt and the team to take on this intitiatve.

If you aren’t yet a member, we encourage you to check out the ACA website and offerings. The organization has been around since 1880 representing a broad spectrum of paddle sports. In the last few years they have made a concerted effort to recognize and embrace surfski paddling, and they can bring a lot to the table to help us all promote this sport that we love so much!

If you have any questions or suggestions for Matt, he can be reached at : [email protected]

In this podcast I check in with Brendan to review how the past 10 weeks of training have gone and what I need to focus on in the final four weeks leading up to the Gorge Downwind Champs.

If you missed Podcast Episode 43, I would recommend checking it out, and don’t forget you can download the training plan there. But if you’re limited on time, you’ll still learn a lot from this discussion where we cover:

In this episode of the Peak Paddle Performance Podcast, I reconnect with Dr Brendan O’Neill creator of the Vaaka Cadence Sensor. In 2019 Brendan graciously put together a 14 week cadence based training plan to prepare an intermediate level paddler for racing the 14 mile Gorge Downwind Champs. COVID disrupted everything, and I never got around to publishing the plan as I originally intended. In 2021 I was planning to be back at the Gorge and so dusted off the plan, and loosely followed it. I had great results, so in 2022 I used it again, at around a 65% adherence.

In 2022, at the age of 48 and after 15 years of paddling, I set several personal records. This made me a believer in the methods and approach that Brendan outlined, and I thought it would be a disservice not to share his detailed knowledge with the paddling community.

This is the first of a few coaching sessions that I’ll record with Brendan. You can click the link below to download the training plan and tweak it for your needs. The plan is a great start, but it is not a replacement for working with a coach. I highly recommend finding a coach if you want to take your paddling to the next level.

This year I’m hoping to follow the plan 100% and am super excited to see what kind of results I can achieve

In this podcast I interview Giant Fish founder Scott Darling. Scott launched the initial Giant Fish collection of paddling shorts, pants, and tops in the summer of 2020. Right at the height of the Covid pandemic. Of course it wasn’t planned that way, but despite all the obstacles, the product spoke for itself, and quickly became a go to piece of kit for paddlers in the Pacific Northwest. It has been growing steadily from there.

As a long time dealer and huge fan of both Vaikobi and Mocke, I wasn’t thrilled to have a new competitor enter the space. But after meeting Scott for the first time in 2021, and talking with paddlers using his gear, I was definitely intrigued. It took another year before I met Scott again, and this time decided to purchase some shorts and a top. I used the Giant Fish shorts, pants, and tops this past fall and have been very impressed.

In the short term, there is probably a negative financial incentive for me to have Scott on the podcast and promote his products. But I believe that the more creators like Scott who invest their passion, time, and unique skills into the sport, the more it benefits all of us and enables greater overall growth. Starting any new business is incredibly challenging, and the paddling world is no different. I believe we have to all support each other.

Use this link for $20 off any Giant Fish Order

I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I did!

We’re back with our most frequent and popular podcast guest, the infamous Oscar Chalupsky. It’s always informative and exciting to catch up with Oscar and this podcast is not exception.

If you haven’t read Oscar’s book, order it now, it is an absolute must read. If you’re like me, you won’t put it down until it is finished. I’ve known Oscar for 10 years, but reading this book, I realized there is still a lot I don’t know. Oscar has led an action packed life and this book is his best attempt to tell it all.

In addition to discussing his book, we cover much more including:

The title of this podcast says it all about Oscar. They Said….

Over and over again, Oscar has challenged the conventional wisdom and proven it wrong. Here’s to hoping he doesn’t stop! No Retreat, No Surrender

On October 8th the Great Lakes paddling community suffered on incomprehensible loss when Nick Walton succumbed to hypothermia in a downwind race on Lake Michigan. Nick was a professional canoe racer and over the past couple of years had discovered a love for surfski racing. You can read his full obituary here

I was a participant in the race and have spoke with many of the racers since the incident occurred. This podcast is my best attempt to explain what I know from this very tragic day.

There are lessons to be learned from what happened to Nick, and my sincere hope is that these lessons will save many lives in the years to come.

My sincere condolences to Nick and his family.

Below is the YouTube recording of this podcast. As we get into the podcast I use my Garmin track to show the race route and provide more context to the location where we were racing.

This podcast was an experimental downwind jam session. The idea was to setup a Zoom call open to any and all paddlers to join and share their stories and experiences around downwind paddling. We got off to a rough start when the initial call was highjacked by hackers, but were able to regroup and have a great session.

I was hopeful that we could share video over the Zoom call and narrate the paddling. That sort of worked, but I missed some key optimization settings in Zoom which resulted in the video recording being choppy, so I haven’t yet posted the video to YouTube.

We had a great group of participants from the US and Canada and they shared a wealth of experience that I feel will be helpful to those just getting into downwind paddling of any kind.

My guest on the podcast today is long time friend and paddler Rob Hartman.

Rob is a husband and father of three girls. He works full time as a software developer, plays the Upright Bass as an accomplished jazz musician, and has long been one of the top masters paddlers in the US. In recent years Rob has competed primarily East of the Mississippi, where he is a top contender in any race he enters. His most recent racing efforts were focused on the Chattajack where he narrowly missed the overall Surfski win when Carter Johnson came off his draft to outsprint him at the finish.

In our discussion we talk about Rob’s first exposure to kayaking in an old school fiberglass surf kayak. Rob talks about his early days as a teenager fearlessly playing in the cold and crazy surf on Lake Michigan. This ultimately led to a couple of Sea Kayak races, which led to Rob joining the US Canoe and Kayak Team and training and racing with them for a couple of seasons.

One of the things that has amazed me the most about Rob is his ability to consistently paddle at a very high level despite the demands of family and career, and of course aging. At 52 Rob is as fit as ever. What became a key theme in this podcast, as evidenced by the title, is that there is no shortcut. You’ve got to show up and consistently do the work if you want the type of results Rob has been able to achieve.

I always enjoy spending time with Rob, and this podcast was no exception. It went a little longer than most, but we had a lot to catch up on. I hope enjoy the discussion as much as I did.

P.S Below is a little bonus if you want to see Rob in action on the Bass. He doesn’t know I’ve linked this, and would probably be embarrassed by it, but it is a great demonstration of his humble talent!