#1 in Surfski News and Reviews2026-07-21T11:02:44-04:00

  • 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

Downwind Delight — Jamestown Double Beaver 2011 – By Tim Dwyer

In complete contrast to the silky smooth, records to be broken conditions of this year's Blackburn, the 2011 Double Beaver offered unruly, chaotic waves and the season’s best downwind runs. This was surfski heaven and the course did not disappoint. My weather predictions made a liar out of me. The night [...]

Latest Videos

NSIR Donations: https://www.nsri.org.za/support-us/donate 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"

NSIR Donations:
https://www.nsri.org.za/support-us/donate

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

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Epic V10L Ultra Review – by Wesley Echols

For several months I paddled a fiberglass ‘performance’ layup V10L. What immediately struck me back when I owned that boat was how comfortable the cockpit is. The bucket is very shallow compared to the other High Performance Skis (HPS), however, your feet are below your seat. Because of this, leg [...]

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