SurfSkiRacing.com – Page 69 – #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

Blackburn 2010: Double the Fun – by Mark Ceconi

The Blackburn Challenge. Long considered the premier race of the northeast, conditions can vary from mild to wild, although for the last several years, the former has been the case. The conditions of the icy paddle made by Howard Blackburn that set the stage for this circumnavigation of Cape Ann were [...]

My View from the Bucket, Blackburn 2010 – by Eric McNett
Gallery
My View from the Bucket, Blackburn 2010 – by Eric McNett

Blackburn Challenge, NE US Surfski Race Reports - 2010, Race Reports

My View from the Bucket, Blackburn 2010 – by Eric McNett

Hot day and flat conditions. It doesn’t get any better than this! Okay, maybe not for the pure enjoyment of surfski racing(catching waves) but those conditions suit me and I look forward to them. When the weather forecast for the Blackburn Challenge was calling for hot and flat, I was pretty stoked. Craig Impens - [...]

Blackburn 2010: A Sea Kayak Account – by Rick Carter
Gallery
Blackburn 2010: A Sea Kayak Account – by Rick Carter

Blackburn Challenge, NE US Surfski Race Reports - 2010, Race Reports

Blackburn 2010: A Sea Kayak Account – by Rick Carter

It is axiomatic that in almost any race, the lighter you are the faster you go. At about 8.3 pounds per gallon, a small amount of water can be deceptive. Twelve gallons in your boat becomes a hundred pounds of slippery, shifting payload. Not only have you acquired a load that [...]

2010 Sakonnet River Race: Every Year is Different! – by Wesley Echols

This was the third year of the Sakonnet River Race. For the past two years we had roughly twenty-five paddlers, I expected about thirty paddlers this year but due to the violent and scary thunderstorms that moved up the East Coast, we had a small but competitive group of paddlers. There [...]

The Perfect Storm: 2010 Sakonnet River Race – By Mark Ceconi

Saturday, June 5, 2010, Portsmouth, RI The days ticked off on my calendar leading up to Wesley Echol’s Sakonnet River Race…a hard, but oh so fun 14 mile course out the tidal river starting at McCorrie Beach and out past third rock. You are assured of some fun rides as well [...]

2010 Essex River Race – by Wayne Lysobey

A Rower's Perspective - by Wayne Lysobey Whaleboats were floundering in the wind. At least the one with kids was having difficulty getting pointed in the right direction after they rounded the island. Fixed seat workboats were having trouble making headway. Stable Echo rowing shells flipped over. A Little River (I [...]