Philippe Bernardino: Building the Tahitian Va’a Team for the World Speed Championships

With just a few weeks to go before the 2026 World Speed Championships in Singapore, Tahitian Va’a coach Philippe Bernardino is entering the final stages of preparation with the national selection. After months of selection and training, the focus is now on fine-tuning the crews, building cohesion and making sure every paddler is ready to perform when it matters most.

We caught up with Philippe during one of the team’s latest training sessions to discuss the preparation, the challenge of bringing together athletes from different clubs and the importance of teamwork inside a V6 crew.

Three weeks to go: are you feeling confident?

Yes, I’m confident. We still have three weeks before we leave, but there is still some work to do. We need to make a few adjustments within the crews and focus on the details. We have two more training weekends left, so the final sessions will be intense. Today was already a long training day, and the athletes were heavily involved throughout the session.

With so many different races, how do you structure the preparation?

The challenge is that we don’t see each other all the time. Most of the time, we only meet on Saturdays, so we have to make the most of those days. We need to work on the different races because there are so many events: the 500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, V12 and V1. There are a lot of races to prepare for, so the training days can become very long.

This selection has been several months in the making. How did the process begin?

We made our selections in February, but the federation has such a busy calendar that there are competitions almost every weekend. After Heiva and the lagoon race, we blocked four Saturdays for the selection process. We have already completed two of them, with two more weekends remaining.

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Bringing the best individual paddlers together is one thing. Building a strong crew is another. How do you create that cohesion?

That’s the difficult part. We selected the athletes based on their individual performances, so we could say that we picked the best paddlers. But then you have to bring them together as a crew. Cohesion is extremely important.

I’ve been coaching the selection since 2002, so I’ve been involved for more than 24 years. At this level, experience and observation are very important. For me, it’s about having the eye. Some athletes are extremely strong individually, but when you put them in a V6, the cohesion doesn’t always work. That ability to come together isn’t given to everyone.

You have to accept that you are part of a crew and understand how to work together. In a V6, there is a captain. You listen to the captain, you listen to the coach, and you work together without overthinking.

How important is the relationship with the athletes’ clubs and coaches?

We have a good relationship with the clubs and their coaches, and we communicate with them. I’ve given them a general direction for the preparation, and we work together around that.

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Tahiti is always highly anticipated at the World Championships. Does that create additional pressure?

Not really. We’re used to it. There are strong teams from all over the world, but we can deal with that. Last year, for example, we were in Brazil, and Brazil performed very well. New Zealand was also strong. At the end of the day, it’s also about timing. You have to be ready on the day.

Is there a particular category you are especially focused on this year?

What’s interesting this year is that, for the first time, we have some of the best paddlers from Shell in the selection. Six Shell paddlers are part of the team. We have never had the Shell team represented like this before, so that is a major new development for us.

What is the key message you are giving the paddlers during these final weeks?

Accelerate all the way to the finish. Even if you feel like there is nothing left, you have to keep accelerating. If you slow down, the other crews can pass you.

That’s what we need to prepare for now. When you’re training, you have to accelerate towards the finish. That’s why I said it this morning: the role of the captain is extremely important.

For Philippe Bernardino and the Tahitian selection, the final weeks are therefore about more than physical preparation. The individual talent is already there. The challenge now is to turn that talent into a unified crew, capable of staying together and pushing all the way to the finish when the pressure is at its highest. With two training weekends still to come before Singapore, the final details are now being put into place. The next step will be to see how the Tahitian crews perform when the countdown is over and race day finally arrives.

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