#1 in Surfski News and Reviews2025-12-31T20:30:22-05:00

  • On Downwinding: You’re Not Surfing

    Most paddlers learn to think about downwind paddling in terms of waves.  You catch a wave, you ride the wave, and you look for the next wave.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  That model works well enough [...]

  • On Training: Stress and Adaptation

    Nothing in training happens without stress.  In the absence of a stressor, our system remains exactly as it is.  But stress alone is not improvement, and in an ocean environment, misunderstanding that difference is one [...]

  • On Racing: Starting Right

    Most races are decided long before the first buoy or the first run.  They begin in the final minutes before the start, when paddlers are already spending physical, mental, and emotional energy, whether they realize [...]

  • Blackburn Challenge to host 2026 National Championships

    The American Canoe Association has selected the Cape Ann Rowing Club's Blackburn Challenge as the host venue for the 2026 USA Canoe Ocean Racing National Championships, placing one of America’s most iconic open-water races at [...]

  • USA Surfski Paddlers @ 2025 ICF COR World Championships

    The 2025 ICF Canoe Ocean Racing (COR) World Championships were held in Durban, South Africa this past October.  Worlds is the pinnacle international competition for surfski paddlers all over the world, in addition to World Cups [...]

Latest News

Sakonnet River Race August 23, 2025

The 14th Sakonnet River Race will take place Saturday, August 23, 11 am start time at McCorrie Beach, Portsmouth, RI. 9 miles, small bay conditions with downwind likely for half of the course. I changed the course to be more paddle friendly and shorten the race to  9 miles vice 12 [...]

2025 Bay State Games 6 mile Paddle Race

I was not sure what to expect for the Bay State Games 6 miler, except it was only an hour ride from my house, a triangle course of roughly six miles and hosted by Matt Drayer, surfski paddler of this site and more.  For this article I did a quick query [...]

2025 Blackburn Challenge: Sixth Sense by Greg Lesher

Thursday, July 24, 2025, Full Tilt Blackburn Challenge: Sixth Sense The Cape Ann Rowing Club restored the Blackburn Challenge course to its traditional 19.5 mile incarnation for 2025. The results of last year's experimental choose-your-own-adventure race were catastrophic. While undeniably capturing the spirit (and length, in some cases) of Howard Blackburn's [...]

2025 Ride The Bull

"They Don't Call It Ride The Pony" now a laughable quote from John Hair, a many time racer of Ride The Bull. John, Jim, Tim, Mary Beth In 2013, I had to idea of having a rough water race, not too long in length, not too exposed, but would [...]

2025 Nashua River Race

It was a great turnout at Nashua River Race in Groton, Ma. The Nashua River course is 9.69 miles laid out very nicely by Race Director Steve Miller. The venue is perfect with super easy access and parking at the Petapawag Boat Launch. A big shout out and Thanks to Steve [...]

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Epic V14 Ultra, My First Impressions by Wesley Echols, SurfskiRacing.com

I spent many years running road races and I rarely talked to my training partners about anything other than "training". The topic of conversations were how many miles did you do this week? Did you do interval training? How is your recovery? Are you at optimal weight? How many long [...]

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 [...]

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 Ultra 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 [...]

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