SurfSkiRacing.com – Page 27 – #1 in Surfski News, Reviews and Used Surfskis For Sale

On Training: Efficiency and Friction
During any long session or race, most of each stroke converts cleanly into forward motion. A small fraction gets diverted into correction, stabilization, and adjustment. Some of that cost comes from outside: the ocean pushes, [...]
On Racing: Finishing Strong
Finishing well has little to do with who is most tired. Everyone is tired. What separates paddlers at the end of a race is not how much they have left, but how clearly they can [...]
On Racing: Expecting the Unexpected
The forecast you checked the night before is completely different when you wake up. The wind has increased, the swell period has changed, and there's a conversation happening near the water's edge about which direction [...]
On Downwinding: Reading Lines
The line appears before the decision to take it is fully formed. A shift in the water texture, maybe forty meters ahead, something about the way a long roller is organizing at an angle to [...]
On Training: Chain of Fools
The stroke catches and the boat runs. There is a feeling to it, a brief firmness in the water that holds long enough for the body to push through, and the boat moves with more [...]
Nationals: Meet the (Blackburn) Challenge
Every local racing community has a structure. You know who the fast paddlers are, roughly how you stack up against them, and what a good day on the water looks like for you. That knowledge [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]

Latest News

Casco Bay Challenge: Paradise Lost
Gallery
Casco Bay Challenge: Paradise Lost

Race Reports

Casco Bay Challenge: Paradise Lost

While it's not unknown for a paddler to diverge slightly off the best line or inadvertently cut (or extend) the course by turning on the wrong waypoint, most New England races follow simple routes that would make it impossible to get truly lost. If you wander astray in Eric McNett's Casco [...]

2016 Canadian Surfski Champs-Great Video
Gallery
2016 Canadian Surfski Champs-Great Video

Race Reports, Videos

2016 Canadian Surfski Champs-Great Video

My 2015 Video. &nbsp Canadian Surfski Championship by Wesley Echols of Stellar Kayaks and Surfskis from Wesley Echols on Vimeo.

Blackburn Challenge: Northern Hospitality
Gallery
Blackburn Challenge: Northern Hospitality

Blackburn Challenge, Race Reports

Blackburn Challenge: Northern Hospitality

You may remember the cliffhanger finish to last year's thrilling episode of the Blackburn Challenge, in which we were all left wondering whether our heroes would ever be paddling around Cape Ann again. With several boats literally falling apart mid-race, a third of the field DNFing, and many other racers clearly [...]

SurfskiRacing.com 2016 Blackburn Results

SurfskiRacing.com Blackburn Results There seems to a consistent 4.20 minute difference between the Preliminary Official Times of the Blackburn Results and what we posted here. My time here correlates with what was on my GPS, along with others. The order should not change and I am sure the Blackburn "official" results [...]

2016 Blackburn Challenge, #14
Gallery
2016 Blackburn Challenge, #14

Blackburn Challenge, Race Reports

2016 Blackburn Challenge, #14

This is half of the race. My Garmin Virbs ran out of juice as I almost did in the first 8 miles in the flattest section. I wanted the footage from the just prior to Dog Bar that would have captured my 2 mile interval finish with Peter Kahn who got [...]

2015 Blackburn Challenge, A Race to Remember with Video
Gallery
2015 Blackburn Challenge, A Race to Remember with Video

Blackburn Challenge, Race Reports

2015 Blackburn Challenge, A Race to Remember with Video

At the Captains Meeting Rich K., the Race Director, went down the line asking the 300 plus paddlers: " Who is here for the first time?" hands raised and cheering ensued. " Who has done this 5 times", 10 times, 15, 20, 28 times. I raised my hand on 15. I [...]

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You may need to turn on your brain’s synthesizer turbo boost function to follow my (somewhat convoluted) “creative rationale”:
1. This past Saturday (the day I did the editing of this video) was Mandela Day in South Africa, the day on which we recall his 67 years of public service and are encouraged to engage in 67 minutes of public service for those in need. This sets the scene with a shift in focus from ourselves, to others esp. those less fortunate than ourselves.
2. Regardless of one’s stand on religion, I believe that it is difficult to disagree with the assertion that our mission on earth (or at least, a significant part thereof), as individual human beings, is to do our best to make life on earth more like life in heaven. Where goodness, justice, mercy & love, firmly prevail over their evil counterparts.
3. Freddy: It just so happens that I have in fact heard God’s prompting, powerfully, through his music before**.
4. So, the implied question for each of us is: “What can I change in my life to bring the reality of heaven just a little bit closer to the here and now ?” ……….because, Heaven should be HERE and NOW !
5. Even if you don’t like the bigger existential assertion and personal question then, perhaps if you know Cape Town and its immeasurable physical beauty, you may agree, with my secondary, lighter, notion, that when God created Cape Town, he was experimenting with designs for heaven !

** I don’t wish to offend conservative Christians; I am not suggesting that Freddy IS a Divine messenger - I am merely asking you to imagine him as one, and with that mindset, to listen to any promptings you may hear in the song.

Music: Queen "Heaven for Everyone"

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YouTube Video UEx1eWtnNFdlNWNfQUZsT1FUT3dfc2NYeFpFSnRad3RpOC4yMkNCNDUwMTZGMzQ4NzA3

Surfski is Life HEAVEN should be HERE

SurfskiTV July 20, 2026 07:39