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18th Sakonnet River Race 2026
The 18th Sakonnet River Race went off without a hitch with a small group of New England surfski paddlers. Conditions were ideal for the 9.4 mile course. It was not the total grind up to the 1st turn buoy at Black Point as the wind died just a little from the [...]
On Racing: Current, Tide, and Timing
Current is the quiet architect of many races. Unlike wind, it rarely announces itself. There is no sound, no visible force—just the subtle difference between working hard and going nowhere, or moving efficiently with effort that suddenly feels justified. Paddlers who ignore current tend to misinterpret both. Tide charts offer certainty [...]
On Downwinding: Decision Scope
Around the ninety-minute mark, a bump builds ahead and gets left alone. Not because of anything physical. The opportunity was real. But a sprint that reads as obvious on a twenty-minute run reads differently when the landing beach is still forty minutes away. The conditions haven't changed. The calculation about what [...]
On Training: Recovery and Adaptation
The main concept behind "training" of any sort is that damage accumulates when work occurs, and adaptation happens during recovery. There's a well-established process at this point for optimizing our adaptation mechanism to quickly achieve substantial gains, particularly in younger people, but it works for everyone. Arriving at the next session [...]
Nationals: Shifting Context
The first thing you notice at an unfamiliar venue is the water: how it flows, how the wind sets up, how the waves stack, whether there's chop on top of swell or just one or the other. You start reading conditions before you put your boat in. You start reading conditions [...]
On Racing: Wind Direction and Strength
Wind strength gets the headlines. Wind direction decides the race. Many paddlers fixate on how hard the wind is blowing, yet struggle to explain from where it is actually affecting them once they are on the water. This misunderstanding leads to poor lines, wasted effort, and missed opportunities. A strong headwind [...]
Surfski Reviews
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Comfort is King – Uno Max 3G- Sean Rice
Reposted with permission, from Think Surfski Journal, Think Kayaks NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMFORT IS KING – UNO MAX 3G – SEAN RICE Sean Rice was directly involved in the refinement and design process that developed the 3rd generation Uno Max. He then paddled it to his first victory at [...]
2018 Stellar S18S 2G Ultra Update
Stellar S18S 2G Ultra, September 3, 2018 Over the last few months I was able to paddle the 28lb Ultra layup in a varied conditions. So this lighter version was a welcome relief over the 35lb advantage layup I had originally paddled. I don't like time trialing or paddling skis [...]
Nelo 550 Surfski Review
My Search of the "Perfect" Surfski My search since 2003 for the "Perfect" surfski has gotten easier with so many surfskis brought to the market since then, most notably in the last two years. Before 2003, I paddled and raced sea kayaks since 1993. My surfski experience started off with [...]
Mako 6 Fiberglass Review – by Wesley Echols
The glass Mako 6 comes in at 37 pounds. The weight difference between the glass version and the carbon version is substantial. The glass version, like most other same model skis in different layups, handles similarly but the heavier layups tend to dampen the overall feeling of the ski. So [...]
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 [...]