Peak Paddle Performance Podcast

In today’s podcast we catch up with Boyan Zlatarev of the Tarifa, Spain Surfski Center.   Boyan recently executed a spoof on Social Media known as the Surfski 600 Project.   The goal was to get the attention of the paddling community and ultimately drive a mindset shift into how we view the capabilities of boats that have traditionally been labeled as  “beginner” craft.

While the feedback and support was overwhelmingly positive, there were some who were not thrilled with the spoof.

In this podcast we go deep to understand what was behind the inspiration and motivation for Boyan to do this.

“Stability before Ability” is a term first coined by Oscar Chalupsky and while many of us have been preaching it solidly for a few years now,  Boyan felt there was still more that could be done.   In addition to the stability discussion, comes the discussion around recognizing that surfski paddling is not all about racing and statistics, and we should all do more to attract and welcome those who simply want to be on the water for the pure enjoyment of it all.

This is a relatively short discussion, but as always, Boyan is both entertaining and though provoking.  He is constantly studying people, markets, other sports, and industries to glean examples and concepts that can be applied to drive further growth of surfski.    I think you’ll really enjoy this discussion

Today we connect for a second podcast with the red hot Sean Rice. Sean may well be the fastest surfski paddler in the world right now. He started off the year with a win and course record at the Amsterdam Waterland Marathon, then took his first win at Molokai and just recently won the Nelo Summer Challenge.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a win this weekend at the the Canadian Surfski Champs and next weekend at the Gorge Downwind Festival.

Below is just a highlight of some of the key topics we cover in this 1 hour conversation:

In today’s podcast we have the honor of sitting down with Dr. Kelly Starrett—waterman, coach, physiotherapist, and author of multiple New York Times bestsellers including Becoming a Supple Leopard and Ready to Run, as well as his most recent book Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World

Kelly and his wife Juliet started one of the first ever Cross Fit Gyms (#30 to be exact) in San Francisco out of a couple of shipping containers sitting in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.    Kelly Worked on site as a PT watching and studying closely the movement patterns of the athletes.   The observations and learning from this experience then led to the founding of MobilityWOD a website dedicated to becoming the ultimate guide for eliminating pain, preventing injury and maximizing athletic performance. The idea was to produce a video every day that explained proper movement mechanics as well as tips and tricks for achieving them.

Through all the invaluable content Kelly has produced, he has quickly become recognized around the world as one of the foremost experts on human performance.   He now works with olympic athletes, professional sports teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, and Special Forces Units.    In his work, Kelly travels the globe sharing his wealth of knowledge

I could go on for hours writing  about Kelly’s credentials and accolades, but suffice it to say, he is an absolute guru and millions of people around the world have taken note

Lucky for us, Kelly also happens to be a super passionate waterman and even met his wife Juliet (who is also a world class whitewater  paddler)  at a paddling competition in Chile.   Safe to say, the entire family is obsessed with paddling.    Kelly started paddling whitewater at age 12 and was a captain of the US Canoe and Kayak white water slalom team where he won 2 national titles. Eventually he had to stop paddling due to overuse injuries that led to limited neck movement and numbness in his hands.   This led him down the classic rabbit hole of cortisone shots, prednisone, etc.   Ultimately Kelly took it upon himself to get to the root cause of his ailments and begin the process of healing himself through proper movement.     This became much of the inspiration for his life’s work

Kelly competed in the 2015 Maui Jim Molokai in an OC1 and actively coaches OC1 paddlers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Today Kelly spends time paddling everything from whitewater, SUP, OC and his Epic V10 Sport surfski.

This podcast is fast paced with a ton of information, you’ll probably want to listen to it a couple times and reference Kelly’s website and youtube videos to put it all together,  but there is no doubt in my mind that following Kelly’s guidance will be critical to ensuring a long, healthy and optimal paddling journey.   Below are just a few of the topics we get into:

As a deskbound weekend warrior in my early forties who fully plans to paddle for at least another 40 years, I plan to take Kelly’s guidance to heart and implement his suggestions into my daily routines.   There is no doubt he is one of the foremost gurus in the world in the movement and mobility space and we are so fortunate that he is also such a passionate paddler and has given considerable thought to how proper movement and mobility applies to paddling!

Joining us on the podcast today is Matt Myers.   Husband, father of 2 young boys, co-founder of Broneah Kiteboarding, co-founder of the hugely successful Northern Michigan lifestyle brand M22 and co-founder of the now infamous M22 Challenge. If all that wasn’t enough, Matt is a 5 year Chordoma Cancer survivor, an accomplished kite surfer, motocross racer, mountain biker, and stand up paddle boarder.

Matt and I became friends over 9 years ago when his then fiancé Stephanie and my wife Kim started working together. Over the years we’ve had many dinner party conversations and he has inspired me with an  infusion of entrepreneurial spirit.   In fact, Matt wife’s Stephanie created my first TC SURFSKI Logo which was instrumental in getting the business off the ground.

Matt and his brother Keegan were two of the first pioneers to realize how phenomenal the wind and waves are in our special spot along Lake Michigan. They saw and promoted the world class potential, much as I have tried to do with surfski. The M22 Lifestyle brand evolved from that passion for the wind, waves, and beaches, and the M22 Challenge brings it all together with a run on the sand dunes, a bike ride around one of the most beautiful inland lakes in the world, and a paddle that has become the single biggest exposure for surfskis across the Great Lakes.   The race is capped at 900 participants and sells out in 3 minutes.   This year I expect to see at least 70 surfskis.

My initial plan was to get Matt out surfing some waves on Lake Michigan in my tandem surfski, but as all of us wind chasers know all too well, when you actually build plans around wind it never comes. We didn’t get a chance to get out in the Epic V10 Double, but I won’t let this summer go by without giving him a true surfski downwind experience

As it goes when young kids are in the mix, time was limited and we only had a short window to record this podcast, so we didn’t go deep in all areas, but we did have a great conversation and covered a lot of ground including:

Here is a great article that goes much deeper on Matt’s Chordoma Experience

And another article on how it all began

Joining us on the podcast today is Pat Langley founder of Vaikobi. Pat left a successful career building a large Sailing technical apparel brand to strike out on his own and address what he saw as a big gap in the paddle sports market. Designing technical apparel for the paddle sports athlete. Pat recognized that most of the major brands were focused on either white water or touring gear and no one was  serious about developing clothing that was optimized for paddle athletes pushing their heart rates to the max on the water.

When I first laid eyes on the Vaikobi gear in late summer of 2013 I knew immediately that this was a brand TC SURFSKI would get behind. Without having a chance to try the gear, the style alone was in a league of its own.  But of course, upon using the gear I quickly realized the function was even better. Pat and his team have done an amazing job evolving the line-up and as we go into our 5th season representing Vaikobi I’m more excited than ever. While it is great to talk about the gear, it is even better to hear the full story behind how it came to be. In this podcast we cover:

In this podcast I sit down with Oscar Chalupsky in his home in Porto Portugal on the last night of a three day visit.   The primary focus of the discussion is for Oscar to provide coaching and guidance to prepare me to have the best race possible at the Gorge Downwind Champs in July.    We certainly get into this discussion and Oscar provides some excellent and specific training guidelines for me to follow.

There was a bit of  delay between recording this podcast and now getting it published, which gave me a chance to reflect more on the three days that I spent with Oscar.   In the podcast intro I share 2 of the key insights I came away with that begin to explain how Oscar has become the master of downwind.

I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I enjoyed spending the time with Big O and his lovely wife Clare

Today I sit down with Andre Santos CEO of Nelo Kayaks one of the world largest and leading manufacturers of performance kayaks.   While Nelo is a relatively new brand to the US market,  on the world stage it has been highly regarded for over a decade as the leading innovator and pioneer in building the boats that own the Olympic podium.   In 2016 Nelo boats won over 75% of the sprint kayak medals in Rio.   While Nelo has built a few surfskis over the years, they got very serious about expanding into surfskis when they brought on Oscar Chalupsky as CEO of Nelo SURFSKI.    Oscar has been working closely with Andre and the Nelo team  applying their deep expertise in producing the fastest boats in the world, to very quickly launch an entire line-up of new and innovative surfskis.

This is my first ever in person Podcast.   Andre and I grabbed a quite space at the Douro Academy after the 510 Winter Cup race, to catch up and discuss all the latest and greatest happenings at Nelo.  We cover a wide range of topics including:

I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I enjoyed my three days in Porto paddling the Nelo boats, touring the factory, touring the Douro Valley Wine Region, and of course soaking up every bit of wisdom I could from a great team of boat experts and paddlers.

Today’s podcast guest Kenny Howell might just be the ultimate renaissance paddler. In his 38 years of paddling Kenny has been in virtually every type of kayak in every type of condition. A long time Californian with blue eyes, blond hair, and aura of a man who knows adventure,  his backyard includes the infamous Mavericks break in Half Moon Bay, so suffice it to say, Kenny has seen seen a few.

Kenny has decades of sea kayak and white water experience, but his passion for the past several years has been all surfski. Kenny currently works as the West Coast sales and marketing rep for Epic Kayaks.   In addition to his work with the Epic Team,  Kenny has been working with the American Canoe Association to have surfski recognized as a unique paddling discipline, a critical step to pave the way for future growth of the sport.

In this podcast we try to cover the full 38 years of Kenny’s paddling life and wild experiences on the ocean including:

I thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to catch up with and go deep with Kenny on all sorts of exciting paddling stories.   I’m certain you will as well

p.s.  check out these cool videos of Kenny surfing his brains out

Today we catch up with the legendary Oscar Chalupsky, just a week after he scared the world with a FB post of him in a hospital bed surrounded by nurses and doctors. In our discussion today, Oscar gives us the blow by blow detail leading up to his episode of Arterial Fibrillation. While the incident was not life threatening it was a serious wake up call that has forced Oscar to considerably cut back his alcohol consumption.

Beyond discussing A-Fib we also took this opportunity to catch up with Oscar on what is new at Nelo. Lots of great stuff happening there including a new tandem and some plastic boats coming out very soon.

And of course a podcast with Oscar is not complete if we don’t dive deep into downwind paddling. Today Oscar discusses some new concepts that I haven’t heard before including how he catches waves on the shoulder first then maneuvers into the steeper power zone of the wave. This had me scratching my head and contemplating for a long time, it isn’t easy to articulate, but I have to wonder if this is one of the secrets that makes Oscar so good in big conditions where you simply can’t paddle directly onto the steepest part of a wave. Similar to the concept of using small waves to build speed and catch the bigger waves, perhaps there is also this idea of catching the wave on the shoulder and surfing into the steep power zone.

Below is a brief summary of all the items we covered in this Podcast:

Today’s podcast guest is the always affable, ever insightful, and fun loving Carter Johnson. Carter is now best known as the founder and organizer of the Gorge Downwind Paddle Festival in Hood River, OR. After just two year this festival has established itself as the biggest SUP, Outrigger, and SURFSKI event in the US and is drawing a significant international crowd. 2017 is already 2/3 sold out and may well be completely sold out before the end of the year. A little less known is the fact that Carter holds two Guinness world records for distance paddled in 24 hours on an inland water and distance paddled in 24 hours on flowing water, and at one point he even held the record in every major  long distance race in the US.   Not too shabby for a self described “technique hack”

In this podcast we have a lot of fun as we cover: