History of the Concept2 SkiErg
Concept2 started in an abandoned dairy barn in rural Vermont, where brothers Peter and Dick Dreissigacker could design and manufacture on-water racing oars. As winter approached, the Dreissigackers needed to find ways to train for competitive rowing. They set out to create a rowing machine that mimicked the full-body workout of rowing on water. This new rowing machine grew into Concept2’s first indoor rower: the Model A. Concept2 currently offers the Model D and Model E Indoor Rowers.
Skiing has been a part of Concept2 since these early years: Vermont offers plenty of opportunities for recreational and competitive skiing, and the brothers experimented with using parts of the indoor rower to create ski training equipment. The Concept2 SkiErg builds ski-specific strength and endurance, provides a quality aerobic workout and encourages proper and effective Nordic skiing technique—the result of years of tinkering, testing, and training for competitive ski racing.
Dick Dreissigacker and Jon Williams experimenting with a ski machine in the original Concept2 barn (Summer 1982).