As they raced under the Golden Gate Bridge, Dawid Mocke and Simon van Gysen were neck and neck, charging towards the Fenn Hotspot and its $1,000 reward.  The last time they’d raced, in Spain, van Gysen had pulled away and won.

San Francisco: 96 athletes from 11 countries will line up later today to race the new US Surfski Championships course, among them a fair selection of the best surfski paddlers in the world today.

Yep, it’s that time of year again when all eyes turn to the long range forecast for the Kaiwi Channel.  Will it be the raging open ocean downwind mayhem that made this race famous, or a hot, oily-calm killer?  It’s a massive challenge either way.

“I could not believe it; finally I was competing against the best in the world.”  Danny Sanchez Villoria – on paddling in the front group at the US Surfski Champs two weekends ago (he finished a highly creditable 5th).  And now here’s Rambo’s presentation of the race… Enjoy!

“Race delayed – bit of a curved ball – but we’re getting used to that,” said Dawid Mocke as the Chicago Shoreline Marathoners took shelter from the lightning, 50mph winds and driving rain.

The perks of paddler on tour are many: meeting new people; catching up with friends from all corners of the globe... All after the same thrill of a crack downwind run, a hard dice and (my favourite) paddling in unique places.

The Aussies showed up in force, but where were the South Africans? Hank McGregor, Lightie Pretorius and the Chalupsky brothers, who'd combined to win 15 Molo titles, were no-shows, as was perennial top-dog Dawid Mocke. In fact, the field featured just one Springbok of note.

A unique 15 mile stretch of exposed open coast in northern California offers world class ocean downwind conditions for expert surfski paddlers.

A huge international squad hits Portugal for the Nelo Summer Challenge while the Mocke/Cotter duel moves on to Chicago…

The US Surfski Tour kicks off this weekend in New York City on August 14 with a classic tussle as two of Australia’s finest ski paddlers bang boats with two of South Africa’s finest over a 45km course that frames one big-ass chunk of rock...