Taryn Smith once wrote in a school essay that if she could go anywhere in the world, it would be the middle of the ocean. The 25-year-old, who hails originally from Omaha, Nebraska, but has spent the last five years living and working at Redfish Lake near Stanley, Idaho, is currently living that dream, having started the World’s Toughest Row on December 12, a solo, unsupported row across 3,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean.
To say that Smith’s committing to race in the World’s Toughest Row was a bold move is an understatement. Prior to signing up, the Nebraska native had never rowed a day in her life, and while adventure has called to Smith numerous times, this level of undertaking was unprecedented. After learning about the race, she said, “My gut instinct was, ‘That’s the coolest thing in the world.’ It’s so outrageous and audacious. It’s been hard to explain to people sometimes. I want to do something scary, push myself out of my comfort zone, but a lot of my why for this endeavor can’t be explained with words.”
Smith’s family has a deep love for the water. Both her grandfathers were avid sailors, and she grew up sailing on Johnson Lake in her native Nebraska. While attending college at Nebraska Wesleyan University, she got her first taste of the Sawtooth Mountains when she visited Fishhook Yurt with a friend from Boise. “I thought it was the most gorgeous spot, and I knew I had to come back,” said Smith.
Smith relaxes at Redfish Lake
Photo courtesy Taryn Smith
Her friend’s dad recommended she apply for work at Redfish Lodge, which she promptly did, thinking that post-graduation she would spend one season there before moving on. That one season turned into five. Smith spent the summers working as staff developer, in human resources, as general store manager, and yoga instructor. During the winter months, with Redfish closed, Smith began to tap into her call to adventure, spending the 2022 ski season in Chamonix, France, running the New York City Marathon, and trekking through Patagonia.
It was that same year that she picked up an issue of Vogue, which happened to have an article about four women rowing across the Pacific Ocean for the World’s Toughest Row. Smith’s initial reaction was that you’d have to be an Olympian to row across the ocean, but after researching the race and its previous competitors, she learned that many regular people participate. She signed up quickly thereafter.
While the race combines Smith’s love of adventure, endurance sports, and time on the water, competing is no easy feat and will test the young woman in many ways. The World’s Toughest Race offers a Pacific and an Atlantic course, the latter of which Smith will do, starting in San Sabastian de La Gomera, In Spain’s Canary Islands, and ending at Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua. About 40 teams compete each year; Smith is the first American woman to compete in the race as a solo athlete. The race will take her anywhere from 60 to 90 days, with her rowing in two-hour shifts and experiencing waves up to 20 feet high, temperatures as low as 10 degrees Fahrenheit at night, and any manner of trials: from sleep deprivation to salt sores and hallucinations. The journey could be full of unexpected joys as well, though, with potential run-ins with whales—one contestant had a whale join her journey for seven days—rowing through bioluminescence, and gazing at the vast expanse of starry skies at night.
To make such a journey requires an extensive amount of planning and training, which Smith has been in the throes of since 2023. “They say the hardest part of an ocean row is getting to the starting line,” said Smith just two months before the start of her race. “It feels that way right now.”
For the rowing novice, enlisting the help of ocean-rowing performance coach Gus Barton was crucial, and she has been working with him since September 2023 to prepare physically for the feat. In spring 2024, Smith spent three months in the United Kingdom, first learning navigation, sea survival, first aid, and weather routing, then learning to row. She went back to England in the spring and summer of 2025 as well, living on an ocean rowing boat and doing longer and longer training rows (with the longest being five days).
All this preparation doesn’t come cheap, with a journey like this costing upwards of $150,000. Only through numerous sponsors has Smith’s journey been possible. To give back, she is rowing for the charity Girls on the Run, a nonprofit that empowers girls through athletics.
To fuel her journey (rowers burn more than 5,000 calories per day), Smith will eat mostly backpacking meals, as well as oatmeal with extra granola and protein powder for breakfast, and high-calorie snacks like candy, trail mix, Nutella, peanut butter, and olives.
The view from the rowing seat.
Photo courtesy Taryn Smith
Smith’s vessel is the R25 by Rannoch, a self-righting ocean rowing boat that’s 24 feet long with a fiberglass hull. The forward cabin has a sleeping/navigation area while the rear cabin holds storage. Given the size of the boat, space is at a premium, but Smith does plan to bring a few items beyond what is absolutely necessary: photos and quotes to put up in her cabin, as well as some fun treats for Christmas and New Year’s.
Despite her bravado going into this adventure, Smith has plenty of fears about the race. “I am most nervous about the sleep deprivation,” she said. “I’m nervous about a big freighter hitting me in the middle of the night. I’m nervous about blue marlin, fish that sometimes pierce the hull of the boat. Sometimes I get nervous about the power going out and having no way to navigate or call for help. But the good thing about this is there’s so many redundancies in communication and safety—that’s why this race is so successful.”
In terms of communication, Smith has numerous devices, including a portable solar panel for charging, Starlink, a Garmin InReach, two satellite phones, and EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indication Radio Beacon) that notify the Coast Guard in case of an emergency.
By the time of publication, Smith will already be on her journey. But what comes next for Smith? How will she follow up this extraordinary feat? She is thinking of applying to law school, so she will study for and take the LSAT, but she’s not making any commitments for now.
“I have no idea how this endeavor will shape me and how I’ll be changed after it, so I’m leaving that time open after the row is done. But I’ll definitely visit Redfish next summer.”