#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

Blackburn Challenge: Mixed Blessings

While the Olympic athletes of the world held their collective breath to see if they'd be allowed to compete in Tokyo this year, Northeast paddlers similarly awaited news of the Blackburn Challenge.  Of course, there was one critical difference:  In our case, half the field was praying for deliverance from the three-hour sufferfest.  [...]

View from the South: 2021 Around the Cape by Sean Brennan

Not to let Rhode Island one-up the great Garden State in the first official weekend of summer, New Jersey hosted the 2021 Destanick Fountain’s “Around the Cape” on Sunday, June 25th.  Formerly known as the Cape to Cape Race - before COVID put a stop to the two-state logistical challenge - [...]

Sakonnet Surfski Race: Head Start

The newly rechristened Sakonnet Surfski Race is the prescribed venue for New England paddlers to ease into the open water season.  It's much like the fable in which a frog won't notice he's being boiled alive if you slowly raise the temperature.  The Sakonnet is a skinny bay that might be called a [...]

Battle of the Bay: Fine Line

You might think that a race held in a gated community situated on a semi-private island within the genteel city of Newport would attract only the finest breed of paddlers - athletes with refined tastes, ivy league degrees, and the highest standards of personal hygiene.  But maybe by chance you'd overhear [...]

Narrow River Race: Redux

After months of intensive lobbying of race director Tim Dwyer, I managed to have last year's Narrow River Race expunged from the records.  Delayed from April to October by COVID and subsequently capped at only 10 paddlers, one can hardly tolerate such an illegitimate farce disgracing the official annals.  I felt [...]

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Think Evo Kevlar Review – by Wesley Echols

My first paddling experience with my Evo was a 37 mile circumnavigation of Aquidneck Island with my partner in crime, Tim Dwyer. I had purchased the glass Evo the previous day and was excited to try out my latest acquisition. Tim paddled my Huki S1R. So, in comparable boats, we [...]

Mako XT Review – by Wesley Echols

The Mako XT was my 1st surfski I got a number of years ago. It was affordable, had adjustable foot pedals, and most of all, it was stable. Back then there were not too many choices within the stable class of skis. Within a few weeks I was comfortable on [...]

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