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!
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 [...]
Stellar SES Review – by Wesley Echols
Disclaimer Unlike my other reviews where I had no formal industry ties; this review is unique in that I am the Northeast Sales Representative for Stellar and based on my experience of paddling and reviewing surfskis have provided Stellar with feedback both during the prototype testing of the larger Stellar [...]
Huki S1R Review – by Wesley Echols
Let me begin by saying I have owned three S1R’s over the years in different layups. As the chart indicates it is in the stable class of surfskis. It has excellent initial stability. I have seen experienced sea kayakers demo my S1R’s and feel relative comfortable just sitting in this [...]
2020 Surf Ski Comparison Chart
I updated the 2016 Surfski Comparison Chart with many new skis. Please click on the CHART ALL SKIS header tab above or on the Home page to view the 2020 Chart and the 2016 Chart. Be sure and read the text accompanied with the Chart for clarification. Enjoy! More boats [...]
Think Zen Surfski Review
Update June 2019. Since my January post about the Zen I have much more bucket time. I even raced the Zen in the June 2019, Ride the Bull Race on a 20 mph day in mixed conditions that included some downwind, quarter beam seas at 25mph, mega big boat chop, [...]