Last year I got the idea that it might be interesting to write a little article on the North American surfski scene for my blog (Full Tilt). Over the past few years I’ve gotten to know the New England circuit pretty well, but other than the US Surfski Championship and the Molokai World Championship, I didn’t have a clue what was going on outside of my cozy six-state neighborhood. I started poking around on the web, grew unhealthily obsessed with cataloging my findings, and ultimately decided that I needed to back-burner the article idea in favor of something that could really keep me planted in front of my computer.
After a year of collecting race information and preparing some simple methods to present this data, I’m relieved beyond words to finally announce the launch of Surfski America. And for our Canadian friends – that “America” is meant to represent the whole continent, not just the US. This project is presented in collaboration with Wesley Echols and Chris Chappell, who will include the site right here within SurfskiRacing.com. Just look for the link in the sidebar to the right or in the menu at the top.
The simple idea behind Surfski America is to provide a single web site that provides a comprehensive list of races likely to be of interest to surfski paddlers. For each race, I’ve attempted to collect a consistent set of key information – location, date, distance, course maps, water conditions, etc. Where possible, I’ve also compiled and integrated past results for these races (limited to surfskis only). I now have a database of 185 North American races that have included at least a handful of skis, have an explicit category for skis, or are particularly ripe for a surfski invasion in the future.
Through the Surfski America page, you can browse races presented in three different formats: a sortable and searchable table, a monthly calendar, or a map of North America. Regardless of the presentation method, clicking on a race will take you to another page with more detailed information on that race. If past results are available, they are presented in sortable tables on the corresponding race page. In all cases, direct links to the race host site and to official results are provided. I’m hoping you’ll find it all pretty self-explanatory. Here are some sample screen shots…
You’ll find more details about the project on the “About” tab – including how I decided which races and results to include, what the various table entries mean, and how the 5 star rating system works. I’m interested in your feedback in the site, as well as your help in correcting errors in the data and keeping me up-to-date on the latest race developments. Drop me a line at greg.lesher@gmail.com with any remarks, suggestions, corrections, or interesting recipes.
The initial release of Surfski America is very much a first draft. Over the next few months, I’ll be implementing additional functionality – as well as updating results and adding new races, of course. To improve the browsing experience, there will be additional methods to filter which races appear. I’ll also provide control over exactly what information is presented in tables. And I hope to integrate some of the race visualization tools that I previously developed for New England races (see RaceTrackA and RaceTrackB). Stay tuned for these, and other, developments.
Hope you enjoy the site!
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