On the surface, Christopher Bak looks like a regular guy. Part of it is his stature—at six feet tall and a tick under 200 pounds, he’s muscular, but not massive—his frame hidden by an oversized swim shirt. Another part is his demeanor—relaxed and affable, one would be hard pressed to assume that Bak had just competed for his athletic career hours prior. And yet he had.

On June 17, Bak was stationed at South Lido Key for the US Rowing Beach Sprint National Team Speed Orders. Bak is, by all measurements, the most decorated athlete in the history of beach sprint rowing. A five-time National Team member and four-time Beach Sprint World Champion, Bak had just competed for a chance to go to selection camp for the national team. In typical fashion, he blew the competition out of the water.

After the Speed Orders, however, was the US Rowing Beach Sprint Youth National Championships. Set to debut in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Beach Sprint Rowing is a dynamic, short-form discipline of coastal rowing. A 500-mete total race, rowers start on land, sprinting out to the water and jumping into a modified skull, before slaloming 250 meters out around buoys and rowing back to shore. Once back on land, each rower sprints from their skull to the finish line. A former lightweight flatwater rower, Bak attests that adaptability is the key to success in Beach Sprints. “Staying flexible and staying dynamic are the two key points,” he says. “In flat water, you try to find the perfect stroke. In coastal rowing, you try to find the stroke that’s good enough to keep the boat moving forward.”

What differentiates beach sprints from flatwater rowing is more than just the style of the sport itself. The entire atmosphere of a beach sprint competition is more laid back than that of a traditional regatta. Think X Games skateboarding final as opposed to a track meet. “What I love about it, aside from the format and intensity, is the camaraderie of the athletes,” says Bak.