On The Water

The human body has unlimited potential. We are lucky enough to live in an era where sports physiology has been studied and applied for a long time and has demonstrated with scientific rigor how exercise duration, intensity and frequency can affect muscle composition, capacity, efficiency, energetics and ultimately, human performance. Kayaking shares many aspects with swimming because they are both highly technical sports and require a vast cardiovascular capacity and engagement across all types of muscle fiber no matter the distance or duration of the event. In terms of performance, there is always a fine balance between technique , muscle development (and proper engagement) and cardiovascular ability . The holy triad of any sport as I call it, gives us the opportunity to continue to grow as athletes in any and all of those three aspects continuously. All three are tightly interconnected and while during specific training periods we may focus more on one or another, they all deserve at...

I grew up in Greece, in one of the oldest and more traditional societies in Europe. Exactly where big changes rarely happen in people's lives. In Greece, you grow up in a house or apartment with your parents and siblings, and with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins around and on top of each other. You finish school, go to a technical or academic college nearby, specialize in an area, get a job, get married and live with spouse and kids in the same town you were born or maybe in a town a few miles away. And although this is a lovely way to lead a life, offer to the society, feel secured and beloved and maybe do great things, it is very limiting and can be truly unbearable for the more curious, adventurous and rebellious mindsets.  At the age of 23, although full of passion and restlessness, I wasn't quite en route to start a revolution but at the same time, I felt I couldn't quite fit in such a culture. I was constantly judged and rejected within my family, my schoolmat...