"I'm a good swimmer, I'll be fine." The boat is five feet away, then ten, then fifteen. The hull is above the water, catching air, rolling with the waves. You are floating in the water, catching nothing. The distance continues to increase. You can't reach it. Even without your PFD [...]
Downwind runs push a paddler several miles offshore. Training sessions run the same distances in the other direction. Racing happens in conditions that include the real possibility of multiple capsizes, and the conditions that flip a surfski tend to be the same conditions that make swimming uncomfortable. In that context, [...]
Downwind paddling is often described as a balance problem, but it is more accurately a connection problem. Staying upright matters, but staying connected to what the boat is doing matters more. That connection is built through contact points, especially the feet and legs, which quietly transmit information long before it [...]
By the time March and April are here in New England, most of us are pulling on the lead to start paddling. Here are some tips to get ready for the season. Hopefully, you stored your surf ski to protect it over the off-season. Before you get on the water [...]
If you paddle long enough, probably in the early phases of your career, you probably have been lost in the fog while paddling. This has happened twice to me, once paddling on my home waters, the Sakonnet River in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and the other on Narragansett Bay at the [...]
