Latest Surfski News

Tuesday, 17 October 2023 07:11
“What the bloody hell are you doing here?” I thought to myself a few moments after launching on the brand new V10 4G for the first time. It was getting dark; it was raining; the squalls were lifting sheets of spray off the water… directly offshore. What WAS I thinking? The answer is that I’m a sucker for new toys – and if I get my hands on one, I HAVE to play with it. Damn the weather, full speed ahead… Since then I’ve paddled the boat many more times, in much pleasanter weather. Here’s what I think of this,…
Thursday, 08 June 2023 12:42
East London, South Africa: Angus Warren watched helplessly as the shark’s teeth crunched through the hull of his surfski. “It seemed to go on and on,” he says, “pushing and chomping. I was thinking, why is it not working out that it isn’t food? “I can’t tell how long it took, but I had enough time to shout a couple of times to the others.” The next thing he knew, he was in the water…
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Thursday, 27 April 2023 18:42
CAPE TOWN - Hank McGregor and Josh Fenn convincingly claimed back their Prescient Freedom Paddle title on Thursday in a dramatic race marked by tough conditions and a rain-delayed start.  Conditions were extremely tough - a brisk northwester blowing spray from the big confused chop into the paddlers' faces as they headed out to the island.  Huge breaking surf on the far side of the island ensured a wide line but the wind dropped as the fleet started on the journey back to the finish, making it that much more difficult and energy sapping to catch the runs.  
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Tuesday, 25 April 2023 11:50
Last Friday, however, I paddled with Dawid on a windless autumn evening in Cape Town. Cruising from Fish Hoek to Muizenberg, we paddled together, stopping at all the coves to surf a few waves. In short, the operative word was "fun". This was a different Dawid - off duty - and, well, I've never paddled with anyone so noisy before. Whistling, singing, shouting to folks on shore - yahooing as he caught a wave. Heading home at dusk we crept up behind a group of seals lazing on the surface. Dawid began barking like a five-year-old paid by the bark...until…
Thursday, 09 February 2023 07:39
A look back - aaaaargh! A mountain. Let it go through... A smaller one, with a glimpse of something massive lurking further out to sea. Catch it, catch it! Sprint, sprint, you’re on it, here’s the break zone, keep going, keep going, the roar from behind and the sudden acceleration as a massive foamy caught up to me, keep it straight, keep it straight... Phew. Arrived. Panting. Stop the watch. ok. Made it. Empty the boat, pick it up to prevent it knocking you down. Done.
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Saturday, 26 November 2022 17:16
The South Africans cleaned up today at the most prestigious surfski race in Australia – arguably the most prestigious race in the world - taking five out of the top six places and the entire podium at the Shaw and Partners “The Doctor” in Perth. Defending women’s champion, Kiwi Danielle McKenzie won the women’s trophy.
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Saturday, 19 November 2022 13:01
Gold Coast paddler, Cory Hill, took first scalp in the five-event ocean ski racing series, the Shaw and Partners WA Race Week, winning the inaugural race today, the 24km Fenn West Coast Downwinder from Fremantle, just south of Perth, to Sorrento Beach. In fine conditions with a 16 knot SSW wind courtesy of the famed Fremantle Doctor, the start off Port Beach was intense with the top paddlers in a terse battle to make the first break.   But it was 33-year-old Hill – the 4-times DOCTOR champ who relishes the Perth conditions – who was able to shake the field…
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Tuesday, 16 March 2021 13:54
It’s not easy to catch a rolling, runaway single ski in 30kt of gusting wind – and as they attempted to grab it, Alex and his doubles partner lost their balance and fell into the water. By the time they’d remounted, the single ski was gone – blown away by the strengthening near-gale. They turned and paddled back upwind to find their buddy.
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Wednesday, 03 March 2021 12:08
Accident reports are easy to write when the story ends happily, but this one didn’t and it’s with a very heavy heart that I’m writing this, with a view to learning what we can from it.
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Wednesday, 15 July 2020 09:13
When the NSRI found Duncan MacDonald, he was approximately 6km off Smitswinkel Bay, drifting rapidly further offshore. Gale-force squalls whipped sheets of spray off the waves, reducing visibility almost to nothing. What Happened? Given the small size of the surfski community, there’s always intense interest whenever there’s a rescue. What happened? What did they do wrong? What can we learn from it? Clearly there are lessons to be learnt from any mishap – so here’s a description of what happened, shared with the permission and cooperation of the folks involved in the hope that we might all learn from this…
Friday, 24 April 2020 11:41
Durban – As the continued coronavirus lockdown grips the country, Canoeing South Africa will host a 24 hour Canoeing4COVID-19 event this weekend as a way to raise funds for members of the broader paddling community that have been badly affected by the lockdown.
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Wednesday, 11 March 2020 14:35
“Hey, Rob! Help!” The shouts penetrated the sound of the howling wind and crashing waves – and even through the noise it was obvious from the tone of his voice that something was seriously wrong. I turned and headed back upwind.
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Tuesday, 03 March 2020 14:43
Many paddlers use Personal Locator Beacons, or tracker apps like SafeTrx on their mobile phones. But handheld VHF radios are also a great choice to consider – especially when they’re DSC-capable like the Standard Horizon HX870E.
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Monday, 24 February 2020 12:01
I finally got my hands on a demo Fennix Swordfish S this weekend and did two Miller's Runs in succession to see if I could feel any difference in handling between the 2018 Swordfish S and the new Fennix model.  Conditions were challenging: False Bay was covered in whitecaps, whipped by a combination of a 25-30kt southeaster and small, confused seas.  The result?  I definitely want to spend more time in this boat.
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Thursday, 26 December 2019 10:30
The shark smashed like a freight train into Roger Swinney’s surfski in an explosion of noise and spray, knocking him off into the water.  “I managed to get back on the ski,” he said, “but I fell off again and as I remounted the second time, I saw the swirl and tips of the shark’s fins. “I didn’t see it clearly, but from the force of it and the movement in the water, it looked big!”
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Rob Mousley

More Oz Surf Photos

Monday, 05 March 2007 14:18 |

ImageHarvie Allison sent us some more pics of Aussie lifesavers playing in 6ft waves - at the NSW Titles...

Some cool shots.  (Harv uses a Canon 30d & 600mm f4.0)

 

 

Sharks and Skis

Saturday, 03 March 2007 06:47 |

ImageIn the last ten years there have been a number of interactions between paddlers and sharks off the South African coast.  This article describes the incidents and debunks some of the myths about the animals.  Paddling is a much safer sport than most – in spite of the emotion and fear associated with sharks.

Awesome Oz Surf Photos

Wednesday, 28 February 2007 12:24 |

ImageSomeone posted a link on the yahoogroups surfski newsgroup a couple of days ago.  It simply said, "rough stuff" and gave the link: http://www.harvpix.com.

 

We checked it out to find a series of great shots of surf skis going out through some mean surf...

Surfski Video

Wednesday, 07 February 2007 11:54 |

ImageSan Francisco based photographer Martin Sundberg made this video clip about the sport of Surfski.  It shows Zsolt Szadovszki (a top US paddler, came 5th in the 2006 US Champs) talking about what he thinks of surfski, and then goes on to show Zsolt paddling in front of the SF skyline.

 

Apart from the beautiful photography, Zsolt’s words really resonate with me - and the clip is worth watching for Zsolt’s immaculate paddling stroke.

 

Enjoy!

Nathan Baggaley Arrested on Drugs Charge

Tuesday, 06 February 2007 11:27 |

More bad news about Nathan Baggaley.

Australian newspapers and websites are carrying the story about his arrest on serious drug charges.  It seems that police stopped Baggaley and a companion in Mermaid Waters, northern NSW and on searching their car found "nearly 800 ecstasy tablets, an unspecified white powder, cannabis and cash".

Millers Run: Youngest Paddler?

Thursday, 01 February 2007 14:45 |

Image The "Millers Run", a downwind route between Millers Point and Fish Hoek in Cape Town can be pretty daunting when the southeaster is up and False Bay is full of breaking waves.

But Duncan Buchanan, a 14 year old visitor from Auckland, New Zealand, was keen to give it a go.

Surfski.Info is One Year Old

Tuesday, 19 December 2006 21:23 |

Image 2006 has been an exciting year for surfskiing and for surfski.info. When we started out last year we had the objective of developing the world's premier Surfski website - we like to think we have achieved that objective.

In our second year we are going to crank it up an notch or two and we have a number of initiatives in the pipeline.  To help fund these initiatives we are now inviting selected advertisers to purchase advertising space on the site.

Thanks to Google Analytics we have some very interesting information about surfski.info.

Click here to read more...

V10 Rip-off?

Wednesday, 08 November 2006 12:35 |
ImageIn the last two years the surf ski market has seen a revolution in terms of ski design.  Skis have become more stable and faster.  In fact, fast, stable skis, with a single footwell and adjustable rudder pedals have become the norm.

 

How has this come about?  At least part of the reason is that Epic were prepared to invest heavily in R&D to design and develop the V10 surfski.  The very name gives a clue to the amount of effort that went into it - the V10 was the 10th version of the design

 

Extreme Surfski - Oscar shows the way

Thursday, 19 October 2006 21:25 |

ImageOn the Surfski newsgroup there's been much discussion recently about how the northern hemisphere is approaching winter.  The denizens of the far north are discussing the finer points of dry suits, hypothermia and the benefits of slipstreaming icebreakers...

In an astonishing scoop, Surfski.info is proud to reveal how South African paddlers tackle cold weather...  See below. 

Surf Ski Attacked by Great White

Saturday, 29 July 2006 00:31 |

ImageFish Hoek, Cape Town, South Africa - 16h40, Friday 28 July 2006

It was supposed to be a normal Friday winding-down paddle from Fish Hoek to Roman Rock lighthouse and back.

Five paddlers were bunched together about 30m from the catwalk near Sunny Cove when a Great White shark attacked the ski closest to shore.