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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 [...]
Fun evening of boatwake surfing with @nuriroeleveld1640 part 2 / Nelo 550 surfski / 18.08.2026
Surfski Reviews
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South African, Ian Black’s SEL 2G Review
I couldn't wait another 2 days for the truck to deliver the boats, so I borrowed a trailer and drove to the depot in peak traffic to unpack the crate and bring them home. At first sight I could see the effort put into the preparation of the craft and [...]
2014 Think Ion Surfski Review
Like many of you I searched the internet for information on the Think Ion when I heard it was coming out. The main points I garnered were that it had plenty of rocker with a bucket like the Evo 2 and is a big water ski. So I asked myself [...]
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 [...]
The Green Machine: Vajda Hawx Elite Review
A number of years ago Mark McKenzie ,co-owner with Mark Smith(pharmacist by trade), of Elite Ocean Sports, US distributors of Vajda skis and K1's, called me to discuss options for purchasing another ski. As I recall Mark, an ex cyclist, and novice surfski paddler, and veterinarian from South Carolina wanted [...]
Stellar Elite Assassin (SEA) Surfski Flat Water Review
Many paddlers first laid eyes on Stellars latest surfski, the (Stellar Elite Assassin) at the 2018 Downwind Championships (the Gorge). I saw the pictures taken at the Gorge of this ski paddled by Stellar team rider, and elite paddler Ian Black. Needless to say I was very intrigued. Dave Thomas [...]