Latest News
On Training: Orientation and Pattern Recognition
Your nemesis is two kilometers of confused water where the swell from the south meets a cross-chop off the eastern point of land. You've paddled it dozens of times. For most of those sessions it's just been noise. Water moving in competing directions, and the mission was to react to each [...]
On Training: Attention and Its Limits
The paddler to your right has been pushing the pace for the last few minutes, and you've been tracking them. Watching their rhythm, watching the gap, watching whether they're going to open it further. Somewhere to your left, a run has been developing for the last few seconds. It would have [...]
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 [...]
Surfski Reviews
Looking for an ocean ski? Check out the surfski comparison chart!
Huki S1X Special Surfski Review, Big FUN!
If you have paddled the second generation Huki's that came out in April 2012, no doubt, they have left an impression on you. Just a few days ago, another Huki paddler told me the Huki's paddled so well in downwind conditions that they have "Soul". That phrase resonated with me. [...]
Stellar Double (SE2) 1st Impression
Maiden Voyage I am not sure who was more excited me or Tim(my training partner) over the arrival of the new Stellar double(SE2). The SE2 is just one of the new models coming out for Stellar this year. My previous experience in doubles was demoing two popular models [...]
Epic V12 Ultra Review – by Wesley Echols
April 2009 - First Impression My curiosity (re: obsession/compulsion/enjoyment) got the best of me once again courtesy of my friends from The Kayak Centre in Wickford, Rhode Island, who asked me if I might possibly have any interest whatsoever in the new Epic V12 (Note: slight tongue in cheek reference [...]
What are my favorite skis? by Wesley Echols
Over my years of racing, my goal has been to try to optimize my boat choice for a particular race based on the conditions of that race and my skill level at that point in time. As we all know, our skill level changes over time if you paddle regularly (2-5 [...]
Think UNO Review – by Wesley Echols
Special thanks to Mark Ceconi who has edited all my reviews. First Impressions: I first paddled the Uno on the ultra flat Charles River back in April 2009 (see clip), thinking to myself; “There is no way I will be able to paddle this in the ocean.” I did not [...]