PPP Episode 30: Michele Eray, You Regret More The Things you Didn’t Do

In today’s podcast I managed to catch up with Olympic athlete, coach, and co-founder of Paddle California, Michele Eray. I somehow coerced her into sitting still just long enough to record a great podcast session. The title of this episode and Michele’s personal mantra says it all, “You regret more in life the things that you didn’t do than the things you did”. Michele takes her mantra quite serious and I’m certain you’ll agree after listening to our conversation.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode, below are just a couple of the highlights:

Michele’s early days of paddling in her home town of Plettenberg Bay, SA (see the video below to get a sense of how beautiful it is)
Getting started in surf lifesaving and high school racing
Going to University to study bio-kinetics (Athletic Training / Physical Therapy)
Racing the Berg River Marathon
Making the decision to give up her bio-kinetics practice and become a full time paddler
Seizing the opportunity to race for SA in the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Five years of incredible support from the team at Nelo and racing all over the world
Coaching at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics
The decision to open Paddle California and bring Olympic level coaching and Nelo surfskis to the West Coast
Thoughts on Surfski becoming an Olympic Sport
Thoughts on paddling a K1 versus a surfski
The importance of cadence training and the power of the Vaaka Cadence Sensor to guide training (For an in depth podcast from the co-founder of Vaaka check out this link and to purchase one from TC SURFSKI click here)
Common beginner mistakes
Thoughts on downwind paddling
Favorite downwind paddles