Latest News
Great Stone Dam Classic: Startled by a Turkey
When they named the Great Stone Dam Classic 10+ years ago, co-chairs Francisco Urena and Shawn Burke were taking a risk on the initial and final words. Great and Classic. OK, it's named after the Great Stone Dam on the Merrimack River. And, yeah, "classic" is sometimes used as a synonym for "race". [...]
2021 Blackburn Challenge Goes On.
Despite Covid 19 restrictions, a scaled-down version of one of the most popular races on the East Coast went off albeit at your leisure. With advertised no timing, just a safety check, the time you got on the water at the dock, and the time you got off the water, many [...]
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 [...]
Surfski Reviews
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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 [...]
Wesley’s Next Surf Ski Review:Think Uno 2G
The video by Chris Chappell, above, is me demoing the Think Uno 1G on the Charles River in 2009. I bought that boat knowing I could only paddle it on flat water or calm ocean conditions. Although I paddled it once on part of the Ride the Bull Course, one [...]
Epic V10 Sport Performance Review – by Wesley Echols
The Epic V10S( Sport) is one of a group of more stable surfskis along with the Think Evo, Mako XT, and Huki S1R. The Sport, along with the other Epic skis, is offered in several different layups. I have personally owned the Ultra(24 lbs) and the Performance (32lbs). Like all [...]
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 [...]