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Three weeks to go before the first race of the 2007/2008
World Rankings: the US Championships in San Francisco...
Here's an update on the World Rankings...
 Simon Blackburn at Cape Point (Photo: Alan van Gysen)
Men's Health Cape
Point Challenge 2007
Over July and August, Surfski.info ran a poll, asking readers
to vote on the following issue:
Should the Cape Point
Challenge be included as part of the 2007/2008 Surfski.info World Rankings?
247 votes were registered as follows:
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Yes
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127 votes
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No
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120 votes
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By a simple majority, readers have therefore decided that
the Cape Point Challenge is part of the 2007/2008 World Rankings.
 The Dragon Run
The decision to include the Hong Kong Dragon Run race was
easier for the following reasons:
- Significant prize money
- The course is approximately 30km, at least half
of which is downwind - this fits the trend of most other World Cup style ski
races.
- They have already secured international
participation from at least four top South African and Australian paddlers.
- We felt it desirable too to include a race in a
new area in the world - there's no doubt that this race will promote surf ski
paddling in this part of the world. (And
we know of at least three Japanese entries in the race already.)
For more information click here.
Global Representation
- Europe next?
   
In the last year we've reported on events all over Europe:
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Belgium: North Sea Championships
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Germany: Hawaiian Festival (Rerik, North
Germany)
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Sweden: National Surf Ski Championships
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France: Ocean Kayaking Championships (we're
hoping for some reports from France...)
The point is, Surf Ski paddling is taking off all over
Europe and we hope that in the 2008/2009 season to include a European race in
the World Rankings.
World Rankings
Future?
The idea seems to be gaining traction:
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We've been told that several internationals are
basing their 2007/2008 campaigns around the races in the series.
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Fenn Kayaks have stated their intention to support
the "big races" with the Fenn Hotspots (e.g. $1000 to the first paddlers past
three designated hotspots in the Dubai Shamaal; one hotspot in San Francisco).
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We've been told that inclusion in the rankings
helps event organizers to interest sponsors.
So it seems to be going the right way.
Our aim is to find a global sponsor to support the entire
series and to take Surf Ski paddling to a new level (whatever that might be!).
Sponsorships
Sponsorship of events has reached record levels in the last
year and is still increasing:
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The 2007 ARB Surf Ski World Cup in Durban, South
Africa saw the winner walk away with R80,000 (approx $11,000) and saw
unprecedented video coverage - a two hour DVD release is imminent.
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The 2007 Dubai Shamaal sees a $12,000 first
prize along with three Fenn hotspot prizes of $1000 each. And of course the $12,000 Dubai Anchorman
promotion which sees Epic Kayaks giving away a $6,000 V10 Elite Surf Ski to a
lucky draw winner who'll be flown to Dubai to take part in the race.
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Rumors are circulating of massive sponsorship
for next year's Molokai...
And in other news...
Surfski.info Reader Demographics
We reached our millionth page view on 1 July 2007 after
being in existence since November 2005.
Just two months later we've already passed 1,500,000 page views.
The reader demographics are changing too - while the
majority of our readers are still located in the USA, we have consistently more
readers from Australia/NZ than in South Africa.
And around 15-20% of our readers are now logging in from Europe (in fact
we often have more readers from Europe than South Africa!)
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