A sea full of flailing, swimming paddlers and drifting skis bore testimony to the lively surf line that was challenging Dawid Mocke’s surf ski school students on Saturday morning.

Surf Ski School currently uses heavy old Hammerhead skis for teaching, and our purpose was to see how total beginners would cope with the V10 Sport.

Although the ski clearly isn’t totally fool-proof, as evidenced by several spills as the beginners took it through the surf line and back, I could see that the paddlers were not overwhelmed by it either. I watched a couple of the beginners take the ski out and all three attempts followed the same general pattern – a very wobbly beginning and a spill more often than not when the first wave hit accompanied by yells from Oscar, “don’t stop paddling, keep going!” A dodgy turn would be followed by an uncertain surf back to the beach. But all the paddlers were noticeably more confident on the second and subsequent trips.

...noticeably more confident

It certainly appears that this is a ski that can be handled with a fair degree of confidence even by absolute beginners.

While we were on the beach, South African lifesaver legend “Bones” Barrett arrived (on his V10). After a spin in the V10 Sport he exclaimed “you can’t fall out of this thing even if you try…” (Take this whence it comes - Bones is of course one of the most experienced paddlers in South Africa!)  

Springbok lifesaver Bones Barrett