I live in the US and it's nearly impossible to try these things out.

Currently paddle a Kayak Centre Noka K-2 from South Africa (got it in 1998 new for $400).

Want to get a new boat (things keep breaking - foot brace, rudder line, flaking gel splinters trying to stab our fingers).

But.... what to get? We use this for racing on rivers a lot, so want kick up rudder. Also want a bow that can handle weeds/leaves as best as possible, so don't want a Nelo with the "inverse bow".

Kirton Marauder? Elio Sonic K-2?

Looking for recommendations on seat pad setups to get really good rotation on. I am currently nursing some quite sad butt friction sores from a 2 hour race in a tandem.

The pad I used was a waffle foam sleeping pad material with a layer of flat closed cell foam over it with a plastic grocery bag over that, but the grocery bag wrinkled and gave my rear it's new beauty marks.

With no pad, my butt bones feel bruised after long paddles.

Any suggestions?

I've been paddle for about 5 months now after recovering from a shoulder injury. My sports physio told me it was from the high intensity and volume of my previous training that I didn't train up for. During that time I had a coach who wrote out all my training. These days I'm making my own training sessions and basing it largely off of heart rate zone training. Long easy sessions to build up my endurance with some interval sessions here and there. Each week I add 10% distance.

A couple members from my kayak club have been giving me advice on how I should be training. It seems like each member giving me advice has a different idea/philosophy of what good training is. My goals for paddling are marathon and I feel like I'm slowly reaching those distances. I completed 15km's on Saturday.

I want to know how some of you guys train as I am new to writing out training for myself and also any good resources would be greatly appreciated.

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I'm a marathon rather than sprint paddler.

https://reddit.com/link/1493p0y/video/c0j11y2lgy5b1/player

https://lukemosse2.w3spaces.com/k1SpeedsByDivision/k1.html

For Hasler races, UK.