Leif and Natalie

In April 2024, I was invited to give a motivational speech about kayak racing at a women's happy hour event in Seattle at the Rough and Tumble Pub organized by Megan Kelly and Anastasia Alder. I was invited to do this partially because of the blog I wrote in 2021 titled “ Motivations for competing in Whitewater Kayaking ”, and because I was currently coaching one of the organizers on an online race team with my husband, Leif.  I was honored and excited to be invited and speak of my journey because  (in the words of a mentor of mine, Abby McHale ) I truly believe that “ we must foster reverence for the courage of uninhibited expression in one another because when we show ourselves to one another, we realize we are not alone and that our experience is simply the experience of woman. And when a woman is in her power, fostering her sisterhood, it makes all woman feel safe. ”  The following speech is an uninhibited expression of the wisdoms I have learned from my experience ka...

So, you've spent a season or two making sure that your mental base is solid and you're centered, well adjusted, and happy. You're competing for all the right reasons, with a zen-like detachment from any results. But… wouldn't it be nice if those results were maybe just a little better? How exactly can you work on racing faster? Here are some strategies and tactics that we’ve found helpful. What follows are not physical training tips to improve fitness, although fitness is a big part of racing and there are many dimensions to fitness. These tips are also not specific technique tips, like “take a more vertical stroke,” although again, paddling technique is perhaps more important than fitness. Instead, these are meta-tips. They’re tips that should help you analyze your own paddling so that you can figure out what small changes to make to your technique or to your lines. The tips break down into a few easy steps. observe others figure out what makes them faster l...