Toby Ireland: Setting the Pace

Toby Ireland may still be a teenager, but he’s used to being interviewed. That is not surprising when you learn about the long list of achievements Toby has already accomplished in his life. The 18-year-old from Wellington, New Zealand, set five New Zealand and indoor rowing records in 2025 alone and has added another five this year.

There’s more. 

Toby is a competitive flat-water and coastal beach sprint rower. He has come to rowing from a sports background that includes sailing. He is an accomplished pianist. He has HSAM (Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory) and he is blind.  

HSAM is not well-known, partly because so few people, maybe 100 in the world, have the condition. People with the condition have an exceptional memory for personal life events and experiences. Couple HSAM with blindness from birth and for Toby it means his memory of non-visual senses are exceptional. He has total recall of events on each day of his life since he was three years old. He has a ‘feel’ that is different for every day.  

“Tuesday 8th of July feels like a tire swing. Wednesday is in the shape of a ‘C,’ like tiles coming together with a split in the middle. Any Wednesday the 8th is like a squishy thing.”  

Indoor rowing has its own feel for Toby, especially given that he is unsighted. “The feeling is sort of a seat on water, on an egg. It feels like you're working out but it's not as tight as rowing (on the water) because it's normally just you and you don't have to worry about the water.” 

Indoor rowing came to Toby through on-water rowing. His club rows on the sea and for many of the training sessions the water is not rowable. So, there’s a lot of gym work and Erg workouts when Toby’s crew can’t get on the water. The club has its own gym and Ergs and Toby also has a Concept2 rower at home in the garage.  

“The club (Petone Rowing Club) has a lot of Concept2 RowErgs, about 15,” says Toby. “They’re very well used.”  

Saul, Toby's dad, began researching indoor rowing records and soon found a long list worth pursuing. Toby has since accumulated so many records that he struggles to keep count, leaving his mother, Nikki, to look them up.

"He did the 1-minute, 4-minute, 100m, 500m, 1,000m and 5,000m records over two nights," she said.

The condensed schedule was intentional. With his 17th birthday approaching, Toby wanted to make the most of his remaining time in the under-17 age category. As a result, he tackled four records in a single evening, all while studying for exams during the day.

The rest of Toby’s records were achieved over a longer period of time.  

The records are spread across two categories – visually impaired (VI) and PR3 categories. 

As a blind athlete Toby is not staring at the Concept2 monitor while he’s on the Erg. Instead, Toby has someone calling out the numbers – the split, the stroke rate and how long to go or the meters.  

So, what is he thinking about while working out on the Erg? 

“I try to focus on the numbers and on my score. I try to hold a set score (per 500m split) and if I’m out, I try to get back to it. If it’s within the ballpark, say within two seconds, that’s ok. If not, then I’ll fix it. I have an app, but it only calls out the splits every 15 seconds, and it has a second or two delay. That can be quite a bit for some tests."

This is just the beginning for Toby. 

“I want to do as many records as I can before I turn 19,” says Toby although he’s not keen on the longer distances. “I can’t handle sitting on an Erg for more than an hour without a break so maybe the longer ones I’ll do as a team event.” 

One record that has eluded him is the 2k. Toby is aiming to get better on this one before he submits his score. 

“The hardest is the 2000m Erg test. In the shorter tests you can go hard and it’s over, in the longer ones you don’t have to go as hard. But for a 2k it is hard and it’s long.” 

And for his go-to Erg piece; “My favorite workout is doing 1 minute on 1 minute off ten times. It gets you puffed but not next level puffed.”  

Want to view Toby's world records or rank your best workouts and see how you stack up against the world, check out all the Concept2 rankings.