"I'm a good swimmer, I'll be fine." The boat is five feet away, then ten, then fifteen. The hull is above the water, catching air, rolling with the waves. You are floating in the water, catching nothing. The distance continues to increase. You can't reach it. Even without your PFD [...]
Something went in a shoulder during what should have been a recovery paddle. Not a hard session, not a race, just an hour on flat water at a pace that required nothing in particular. The work earlier in the week had been heavier, and none of it had produced a [...]
There are paddlers in the launch area you've never raced before. Names you've seen in results from the other coast, or heard mentioned by someone who trains differently, in water you've never paddled. They're rigging boats thirty feet away. This is the part of Nationals that has no equivalent at [...]
Downwind runs push a paddler several miles offshore. Training sessions run the same distances in the other direction. Racing happens in conditions that include the real possibility of multiple capsizes, and the conditions that flip a surfski tend to be the same conditions that make swimming uncomfortable. In that context, [...]
Editors Note: 2026 Nationals is hosted in collaboration with the Blackburn Challenge. Register today at capeannrowingclub.com! Every edition of Nationals is a distinct test, shaped by its own water, its own wind, its own current. No two competitions are the same, even at the same venue. One year the wind [...]
