Latest News
On Training: Seeing the Water
The first time something catches your eye before you understand what it means, you almost dismiss it. A change in texture fifty meters ahead, a slight darkening of the surface, the way another paddler two boats over suddenly lifts their pace before you've registered anything worth responding to. It registers briefly [...]
National Series Notebook: A Loaded July
Patrick Dolan flew 5,000 miles from Hawaii to Massachusetts and won the 2026 USA COR National Championships on a grueling open water course against a stacked field of athletes. Five days later, Austin Kieffer won the showcase race at the Gorge Downwind Championships paddlesports festival in the biggest conditions the event [...]
On Training: Physical Integration
The race was two-thirds over and the aerobic system was still running cleanly. Breathing had stayed in control, the stroke hadn't collapsed, and the pace was within the range that should have been sustainable. But something had shifted in the last thirty minutes. A shoulder carrying something separate from the general [...]
On Downwinding: Leveraging Energy
The difference between flatwater paddling and downwinding isn't subtle. Grinding a flat stretch is the opposite: all work and no rest, every foot of distance earned stroke by stroke with nothing free about it. Catching a wave takes a handful of hard strokes, sometimes just one, and then the boat rides [...]
On Training: Efficiency and Friction
During any long session or race, most of each stroke converts cleanly into forward motion. A small fraction gets diverted into correction, stabilization, and adjustment. Some of that cost comes from outside: the ocean pushes, the boat responds, and effort goes toward holding a line and keeping the hull settled underneath [...]
On Racing: Finishing Strong
Finishing well has little to do with who is most tired. Everyone is tired. What separates paddlers at the end of a race is not how much they have left, but how clearly they can still act with what remains. The finish is rarely a single effort. It is a sequence [...]
Surfski Reviews
Looking for an ocean ski? Check out the surfski comparison chart!
New Surfski Reviews Coming: 2012 Nelo Vintage(30lbs), 2010 Nelo Vintage(23lbs) and Van Dusen Mohican
Team SurfskiRacing.com Chris(web master) and myself will be reviewing the 2012 Nelo Vintage in the WWR construction(30lbs), a Nelo Vintage in the E construction at 23lbs, and the pure flat water surf ski, the Ted Van Dusen Mohican. It will probably be a month before we get everything posted but [...]
Stellar Elite Low Volume (SEL) Full Review
Stable as V10 Sport Ultra, Fast as V12, not Quite but not Far off. I know the above statement for some will be hard to believe especially since I am the Northeast Stellar Rep. However, my reviews have been substantiated across the world. My advice to any paddler is get [...]
2015 Surfski Comparison Report
Over the next several months, I will be adding the Think Ion, Think Evo 2 Ultimate, Fenn Elite, Fenn Spark, Stellar SR (2nd Generation), Stellar SES(2nd Generation) (Review Pending) to my Surf Ski Comparison chart and my Surf ski Reviews. I have reviewed all but the new SES so I [...]
Fenn Elite Tandem: A “Very Cool” First Paddle with Cliff – by Susan Williams
Cliff Roach and I set out to paddle Mark Ceconi’s brand new Fenn Elite tandem surfski for the purposes of writing a review for surfskiracing.com. Clearly, Mark has been hanging out with his eternally optimistic elementary school students for too long, the poor trusting soul had no idea what we [...]
Nelo 550, Think Evo 3, Stellar SEI, Surfski Time Trials
In my garage and basement I have my favorite skis. As usual it is a mix of advanced skis (Think Uno 2g, Ion 3G, Epic V12 2g, Stellar SEL 2G, Nelo 560M and intermediate skis( Nelo 550, Stellar SR 2G, SEI 2G, Think Evo 2, Evo 3). Of the advanced [...]