Why kayaking over rowing?
Kayaking was what I started with in high school and had almost immediate success at it. My second summer of kayaking, I was the top junior in the U.S. When I went off to college, I wanted to do a collegiate sport and have that experience. At that time, no colleges had kayaking. Since then, a couple of colleges have started kayaking programs. … But without having that option and being an outrigger paddler and kayaker, rowing seemed like the most natural transition. So I rowed through college just to get that collegiate experience but was always a kayaker at heart. Is one advantage of kayaking that you actually get to face forward? Yes. I like to see where I’m going. 7. How much of kayaking is mental? I’m learning more and more that it really is a lot. There’s a lot of mental that goes into it. At this level, everyone is reaching the human peak as far as physical fitness and strength, and when it comes to race day, it’s very mental this year. You can look at the U.S. Olympic trials (K-
