#1 in Surfski News and Reviews2026-05-11T09:09:44-04:00

  • 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • NK Rapido Surf Ski Review at 40 miles

    Review by Wesley Echols Intro I got my NK Rapido, Carbon Lite layup(Green Tip) at the Run of the Charles Race in Boston, Massachusetts on April 27th, 2026. I had previously paddled the Storm for [...]

  • On Downwinding: Preparing for Wind, Without Wind

    Not every downwind season begins with downwind conditions. In many places, spring offers fragments rather than full runs: partial wind, confused chop, short fetch, or days that never quite organize. It is easy to treat [...]

  • On Equipment: Leashes

    "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, [...]

  • On Training: Endurance as Structural Tolerance

    Something went in a shoulder during what should have been a recovery paddle. Not a hard session, not a race, just an hour on flat water at a pace that required nothing in particular. The [...]

  • Nationals: Shared Uncertainty

    There are paddlers in the launch area you've never raced before. Names you've seen in results from the other coast, or heard mentioned by someone who trains differently, in water you've never paddled. They're rigging [...]

Latest News

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 and (for us) Pan American Continental Championships.  The venues for these international competitions are fantastic -- [...]

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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