I enjoy the science and design of surfskis nearly as much as paddling them and have experimented with a number of things including:

• A low aspect ventral fin under the seat of the paddler
• A winged rudder with an endplate
• A hydrofoil located on the bow of the ski

Dale Lippstreu's articulated rudder (Pic: Dale Lippstreu)

Take the survey!  C'mon, please - it'll just take a few minutes!

After some late nights and many emails to our service provider we are glad to report that Surfski.Info is up and running on our very own managed server. We were basically given final notice last week by our service provider to vacate the shared server or be shut down. We had outgrown the neighbourhood and were taking up more resources than was permissible.

With the new server we have plenty room to grow, in fact we are only taking up a third of the space that we are paying for. So if you would like to make use of that space to host your website (and help out with the cost of hosting surfski.info) then please let us know by emailing us on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it If you don't have a website yet then this is the ideal opportunity for us to help you build one.

[Editor: South African Ian Gray is following the World Series races around the world. Sadly, due to political unrest, the Tahiti race was cancelled - but he went anyway.  Here's his account of his stay in what has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.]

Paradise Tahiti Style? (Pic: Ian Gray)

Do you ever find yourself with an injury and you have to stop paddling?  Does your routine get thrown off and then your training program lapses?  Well, who you gonna call to get it back on track? 

Who you gonna call?

Our story on New Zealander Brad Haye's wooden surfski, aroused plenty of interest including a comment that it was ‘great to see some "SOUL" in the sport'... Well, it seems there's plenty of "soul" down under - here's news of another timber-ski project, this time by Stephen Kelly of Brisbane, Australia.

Soul ski! (Pic: Stephen Kelly)