What's the wave deflector for?

that's a great turn of speed robin.  what's best you're recorded?  pete

I'm not sure!  On that run my max speed was 26kph.  I think my max ever is somewhere around 37kph on a double on single I want to say 34kph, but don't ask me when that was.

We don't often get the massive ocean swell that they get, say, in Durban where you really get up to speed.  Whenever I'm on a downwind run, Oscar Chalupsky's voice rings in my ears (it's terrible!) "Stop paddling early!"  "Stay on the crest of the wave!"  So I usually work at trying to keep the average up, not going full out down the face, because I usually run into the next wave, bury the nose and stop in a flurry of spray.  This was a fun one though...



This was near the start of the Miller's Run a year ago, when I got my current Personal Best time for the run.  Conditions were just about perfect - a very strong wind with small waves...

But this wave gave me a real boost and I got all the way up to 30kph - happens at 1:04

great reply robin but you might have to turn this into another thread!  

this is  a screenshot of Boyan at the Surfski Centre in a V5 like mine which i assumed was going about maximum speed.  i'm just happy if my surf rudder starts humming on a good wave.  any idea how fast that would happen at.  it used to happen on this other ski of mine at the same sort of speed.  totally different rudder shapes though
  

Thanks for the nice photos, the original question though was about PADDLING UPWIND INTO THE WAVES. I gather that in the age of the miller's taxi folks in S.A. no longer know what that is...

you're quite right tve.  i got caught out a couple of days ago when it went from glassy to 15kts plus in minutes. it was a  very slow paddle back from my surf reef break into a short sharp chop that seemed to be 1 foot high and 2 feet apart.  i like the "millers taxi" quip