Rob Mousley

Durban, South Africa - Sunday saw a moderate field take on the world's oldest surfski race, the Illovo Pirates Umhlanga Pirates Surfski Race, with paddlers encountering some tough conditions with South African surfski ace Hank McGregor claiming the overall win with Nicole Russell finishing as the first lady home.

The West Coast Downwinder was run and won over the weekend and despite lackluster downwind conditions it turned out to be a great afternoon for all involved. The event lived up to the pre-race hype and paddlers were greeted with calm, hot, flat, grind conditions for the 17-kilometer event. Over 100 paddlers took to the start line and a blistering pace was set early on. 

“Teneale Hatton from NZ is 20 seconds behind Michelle Eray, with 4 kms to go, with NZ’s Rachel Clarke taking the outside line and now in 3rd place!” The Tahitian live TV coverage of the Woman’s long distance surfski event of the 2nd International Canoe Federations World Ocean Racing Championships is second to none.

Surfski.info is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy applies to the Surfski.info Web site and governs data collection and usage. By using the Surfski.info website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection of your Personal Information

Surfski.info collects personally identifiable information, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number. Surfski.info also collects anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by Surfski.info. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring Web site addresses. This information is used by Surfski.info for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Surfski.info Web site.

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through Surfski.info public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others. Note: Surfski.info does not read any of your private online communications.

Surfski.info encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from Surfski.info so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. Surfski.info is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the Surfski.info and Surfski.info family of Web sites.

Use of your Personal Information

Surfski.info collects and uses your personal information to operate the Surfski.info Web site and deliver the services you have requested. Surfski.info also uses your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from Surfski.info and its affiliates. Surfski.info may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.

Surfski.info does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. Surfski.info may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party. In addition, Surfski.info may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to Surfski.info, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

Surfski.info does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

Surfski.info keeps track of the Web sites and pages our customers visit within Surfski.info, in order to determine what Surfski.info services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customized content and advertising within Surfski.info to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

Surfski.info Web sites will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Surfski.info or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Surfski.info; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Surfski.info, or the public.

Use of Cookies

The Surfski.info Web site use “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize Surfski.info pages, or register with Surfski.info site or services, a cookie helps Surfski.info to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same Surfski.info Web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the Surfski.info features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the Surfski.info services or Web sites you visit.

Security of your Personal Information

Surfski.info secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Surfski.info secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Changes to this Statement

Surfski.info will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect company and customer feedback. Surfski.info encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how Surfski.info is protecting your information.

Contact Information

Surfski.info welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that Surfski.info has not adhered to this Statement, please contact Surfski.info at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.

Surfski sites

• Hawai'i Island Paddlesports Association 

Official Website of the Hawai'i Island Paddlesports Association

• Kanakaikaika Racing Association (Hawaii)
  Surfski/outrigger race series in Hawaii - these are the guys who organise the Molokai Challenge.
• Ocean Paddler (Australia)
  The home of the Australian Ocean Racing Series, the Doctor, Palm 2 Pines, the Bridge to Beach races and more.
• Saunton Sands Surf Life Saving Club (UK)
  Super Club of the Year 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 2009!
• Singapore Paddle Club
  Singapore Paddle Club is an independent, non-profit sports club dedicated to outrigger canoeing and dragon boating in Singapore. There is a small but growing band of surf ski paddlers.

Manufacturers

• Aquarius Sport (Poland)
• Epic Kayaks (USA)
• Manufacturers of V10, V10L, V10Sport, V12
• Fenn Kayaks (South Africa)
  Manufacturers of XT, Mako 6, Mako Elite, Tarpon, Double XT, Double Elite
• Honcho (South Africa)
  Make a range of single skis
• Huki (USA)
  Make a range of OC1s and surfskis
• Kayak Centre (South Africa)
  Manufacture a range of skis including the EOS 660.
• Nelo (Portugal)
  Manufacture Ocean Ski M, Ocean Ski L, Ocean Ski Vintage
• Nordic Kayaks (Sweden)
  Fusion single ski
• Point65 (Sweden)
  Long time kayak manufacturer, first surfski in 2010.
• Red7/Green7 (South Africa)
  Make a range of surfskis
• Sipre (Portugal)
  Make a range of skis
• Spirit (Australia)
  Range of single surfskis
• Stellar Kayaks (USA)
  Make a range of single skis.
• Think Kayaks (Canada)
  Range of single surfskis

Retailers

• Kayak Racing com.au (Sydney, Australia)
  New & used equipment, coaching, training & advice. Australian agents for Red7 surf skis.
• Republic Sports (Durban, SA)
  Republic, based in Durban, South Africa manufacture their Arrow range of skis, the Arrow being the beginner/intermediate ski and the Arrow Pro the ski for elite paddlers.
• Tripper Sports
  Tripper, based in Durban, South Africa, supply everything from boat covers to PFDs to drinking systems.
• Republic Sports (SA)
  Republic, based in Durban, South Africa manufacture their Arrow range of skis, the Arrow being the beginner/intermediate ski and the Arrow Pro the ski for elite paddlers.

Weather

• Global: Buoyweather
  Excellent site (subscription), shows wind speed and direction; wave height and direction. Two day forecast free, seven day forecast paid. (Mobile application for paid subscribers)
• Global: WindFinder
  Free forecast: Wind strength & dir; cloud cover/rain forecast (Cool iPhone app)
• Global: Magic Seaweed
  Surf forecast with some real time wind stations
• Global: WindGuru
  Global site, shows wind speed and direction; wave size and direction; cloud cover; rain forecast (Cool iPhone app.)
• Australia: Seabreeze
  Seven day wind and swell forecast plus current weather conditions
• Australia: Willyweather
  Five day forecast: wind, swell (in some places), tides.
• South Africa: Roman Rock Weather (Cape Town)
  Real time wind speed & direction (not always operational)
• South Africa: Wind SMS
  Get current wind and swell conditions off South Africa by SMS.
• Australia: Weather Zone
  Seven day forecast: weather, wind.

There’s just nothing like the feel of taking your feather-weight 24lb (11kg) surfski off your car racks with one hand, carrying it to the water with one hand, and with one hand setting it down gently onto the H2O while all about you other paddlers are lugging kayaks apparently constructed of depleted uranium. Until you get into your boat and paddle it into some rougher water.

Durban – The final race of the 2015 FNB Durban Downwind Series saw some fantastic downwind conditions as paddlers made their way from La Mercy on the North Coast to the Marine Surf Lifesaving Club on Saturday with Australian Michael Booth narrowly claiming a beach sprint over Matt Bouman with Michelle Burn showing her class to claim victory in the women’s race on Saturday.

New Zealand’s National Ocean Racing Championship once again graces the Surfski World Series on the 7^th March 2015, after a hiatus of a few years. International paddling greats have used this event to pick up some much sought after points in order to determine the best marathon distance surfski paddler in the world, and last year’s winner South African Dawid Mocke (3 X World Champion) was no exception. 

The first guard directed me to another guard across the lobby who sent me downstairs to the main dressing room but, wait, the walkie-talkie wielding guard said that Caine Eckstein was in the upstairs Green Room, just past the spacious kitchen set where co-anchor Matt Lauer, his nose freshly powdered, read a teaser on the Ebola scare in the U.S, followed by a look at rocker Billy Idol's wild partying past and a preview of Pierce Brosnan's latest film How to Make Love Like an Englishman.

On 23 August, 2014, the inaugural Canadian Surfski Champs was held in coastal British Columbia, one week after the US Surfski Champs in San Francisco, attracting the top 8 finishers as well as Hank McGregor, who flew out from South Africa for the event.