He and his two Kiwi teammates met in Denmark for the world championships and acted as support crew for each other.
Thompson said they were the best team he'd ever been a part of.
He said that, at the age of 23, it had been a confidence boost to finish second in the B Final and be the 11th-best paddler in the world.
“The guys I was racing against weren't nobodies. (My result) is on the verge of the A Final, and once you make that, it's getting that last little bit.
“Another year, and I think it'll be time to start having some good results.”
While he's home, the training doesn't stop. Six days a week, he has a minimum of two to three hours of training; some days he has a full day of non-stop action.
Thompson also fits in part-time work as a lifeguard at the Olympic Pool. He has to save what he earns to compete at events as well as train.
“Especially in New Zealand, there's no sustaining funding and support to train at that level.”
He said he had received some support from Canoe Racing New Zealand, but he still had to cover the gaps in funding that inevitably arose.
“It's the dilemma of a semi-professional. To get better you have to train more to get the results, but you have to work more to pay for it.”
Thompson's trainer is his father, Alan Thompson, an Olympic gold medallist in the New Zealand K1 and K4 boats at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Quaid Thompson said his training programme was based on the methods that brought success through the 1980s in New Zealand, combined with the modern Hungarian programme.
While the training and gym work had become more specific and targeted over time, he said that on the water, the training hadn't changed much over time.
Long, hard days doing big distances on the water were a theme of the training.
“It's very Arthur Lydiard in style.”
The Gisborne rivers provide a challenging training environment, with unpredictable currents and the low tide slowing down the boats from the underwater wake off the riverbed.
Thompson said they reframed the challenge of training on the river as an advantage — they liked to train in harsh conditions.
“You get a bit of adversity (racing), but you deal with it because it's way worse at home.”
His goal for the next year is to get his K1 1000m time under 3 minutes 28 seconds.
Thompson says that as a K1 paddler he has the freedom to do whatever he wants, as long as the results keep coming.
He enjoys being out of the system on his own, and joining the men's squad would mean relocating to Cambridge.
“I've got my coach here. I'm sort of doing the same thing Aimee (Fisher) is.
“I'll keep doing what I'm doing.”
