Rob Mousley

Early in 2005 an outspoken manufacturer told me, “90% of paddlers can’t cope with top-end skis and shouldn’t be on them.” He was referring to the then current crop of tippy high-end surf skis.

Then the Epic V10 burst onto the scene – and here was a fast, fun, top-end ski that could be handled by paddlers with less than perfect balance.  (Click here for our review.)

And last week a demo Fenn Mako 6 arrived in Cape Town. Reports from Durban and East London spoke of its speed and stability.

How would it compare with the other new skis? Would it be as stable; as fast; as comfortable? Could it be even better?

To my delight, I got hold of it last Saturday, and this review is the result…

• Length: 6.42m (21ft)
• Construction: glassfibre sandwich or composite carbon/glassfibre
• Weight (glassfibre, average): 15kg

For long distance races, most paddlers (in South Africa at any rate) use drinking systems comprising a plastic bladder, a rubber tube and a clip. In order to drink, you’re obliged to stop paddling momentarily in order to insert the tube in your mouth and to undo the clip. And when you stop drinking, you have to pause again to fasten the clip to prevent your juice from draining into the sea.

Clearly you want to minimise breaks to your rhythm – so most paddlers leave the tube in their mouths for extended periods.  And therein lies a problem...

Towards the end of 2005 a distinctly different ski made its appearance in Hout Bay in the hands of Tom Thring, and it made an immediate positive difference to his race results… Knysna Kayaks, the ski’s manufacturer, is known more for their river craft, but they seem to have scored a hit with this design.

It’s been a long time in the making. The design was started in the late 1980’s by the late Daniel Conradie but was shelved when he died. Hubby Sandberg took it on and the final result is the culmination of years of iterative prototyping and testing.

Hear Oscar talk about the Epic surf skis and the message is clear: "The V10 is the fastest, most stable, best designed, best built ski in the world and the V10 Sport comes a close second!" It’s more stable and slightly slower but, “On the V10 Sport, I could still win the Molokai against anyone on any ski (except the V10)”!

But there is only one Oscar – what do lesser mortals think of the ski? Said lesser mortals had the opportunity to try out the V10 Sport this weekend here in Cape Town...

The metrics commonly used to compare surf skis are length, width and weight. 

But it seems to be a commonly accepted fact that stiffness also affects a hull's performance.  A Google search resulted in a number of articles that had a common theme: if the hull flexes as you pull a stroke, energy is absorbed (and wasted) that would otherwise propel the hull forwards.

Red7 have been awfully quiet for the last couple of months. 

An advert in the latest SA Paddling gives a hint about what they've been up to...

Red7 have been busy: gearing up to manufacture no fewer than five new skis.  They've gone the CAD and modelling route, with all the designs being submitted to Intelligent Fluid Solutions in the UK for analysis using advanced fluid dynamics modelling systems.

Anyone who's had the sales pitch from the Big O, knows that "the plug for the V10 was CNC machined - that's why the hull has such accurate lines."

Oscar always goes on to point out the myriad of other features - the computer design, the venturi drain, the cockpit design, and so on.  One thing's for sure: the guys at Epic are not shy about their achievements - and when I asked, I was presented with a range of fascinating photographs and information about the development of the V10 ski.

(By Rob Mousley) 

In my first conversation with Mark Lewin in 2003, he told me that I should be banned from paddling…

The 2003 Cape Point Challenge Qualifier was held in a fierce southeaster and I had joined the race at Millers Point to do a downwind run. On my own, I had counted on the race’s safety organisation to help me out if I got into trouble. As Mark later put it, how would I have felt if the rescue crews had had to leave a competitor to drown while rescuing me?

But he didn’t put it like that to begin with – he calls a spade a spade and his initial bluntness took me aback. It was quite an introduction to one of the most visible (at 6’10’’ tall) characters in South African Surfski.

 (by Rob Mousley)

Keith Fenn

I love my parents in law (really!) but the thought of spending my Christmas vacation with them was daunting. Why? They live in East London, 1100km from my home in Cape Town... and, having logged many, many hours training for the 2005 Cape Point Challenge I had agreed to play family man and leave my ski behind. Ten days with no paddling...? It couldn't be done.

A cunning plan occured to me however - the Fenn Kayaks factory is also located in East London. Could it possibly be that Keith Fenn might agree to lend me a ski so that I could write a review for surfski.info?