Latest News
Ride the Bull: Back At It
While the rest of us have been comfortably lounging in our homes with nary a care, Wesley and Tim have been busy worrying about how to salvage the lucrative Rhode Island racing circuit without killing off their best customers. A plan to quarantine all paddlers at Wesley's house for the entire [...]
Ride The Bull Race 2020
With COVID 19 Restrictions and the cancellations of many races, the Ride The Bull Race went off without a hitch. Rhode Island is in the second phase so gatherings can take place with a 15 person limit. Most paddlers were got to the race early looking forward to whatever the ocean [...]
Newbury Kayak and Canoe SD6(Social Distance 6mi)
The SD6 is a way for surf skiers to get some competition and community while all the races and gatherings are prohibited by social distancing.Instead of having actual race meets, everyone will race where they are: Find a convenient body of water, turn on a tracking device and race for six [...]
Chattajack 31: Togetherness
When Mary Beth told me back in May that she wanted to paddle the Chattajack 31, my initial reaction was "Great! I can reciprocate the dedicated support she provided me in last year's race." Fortunately, before that thought had sufficient time to bubble through my brain and rashly express itself verbally, [...]
Plum Island Lighthouse Race Oct 19, 2019
Last Race of the Season. Get registered. https://paddleguru.com/races/PlumBeachLighthouseRace2019 The 2nd annual Plum Beach Lighthouse Race will be held on October 19, 2019. Hosted by Wesley Echols, this 7 mile race on Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay is one of the final open-water race of the New England season. Although primarily for surfskis, [...]
Lighthouse to Lighthouse: Stocked Sound
In what has become something of a yearly ritual, Gary Williams summoned paddlers and rowers of all stripes to Shady Beach with promises of wealth and glory. Such is the Shangri-la allure of the Lighthouse to Lighthouse Race that we keep returning, even though what actually awaits most of us is blisters and [...]
Surfski Reviews
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Epic V12 2G Surfski Review
My Epic V12 story started in 2009 when I got the first V12 1g on the East Coast. I paddled it for 3 months, reviewed it and sold it to my training partner Tim who paddled it for years. The 1G had a distinctive roll but once you got used [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Huki S1XL Surfski Review by Wesley Echols
History with Huki My history with Huki dates back to 2004 when I got my first Huki S1X(orange in pic below) with a fix leg length. That was my second surf ski after a 3 month stint with my first surf ski, a Mako XT. As I have told the [...]
Epic V10L Performance Review – by Wesley Echols
For several months I paddled a fiberglass ‘performance’ layup V10L. What immediately struck me back when I owned that boat was how comfortable the cockpit is. The bucket is very shallow compared to the other High Performance Skis (HPS), however, your feet are below your seat. Because of this, leg [...]