Latest Surfski News

Tuesday, 17 October 2023 07:11
“What the bloody hell are you doing here?” I thought to myself a few moments after launching on the brand new V10 4G for the first time. It was getting dark; it was raining; the squalls were lifting sheets of spray off the water… directly offshore. What WAS I thinking? The answer is that I’m a sucker for new toys – and if I get my hands on one, I HAVE to play with it. Damn the weather, full speed ahead… Since then I’ve paddled the boat many more times, in much pleasanter weather. Here’s what I think of this,…
Thursday, 08 June 2023 12:42
East London, South Africa: Angus Warren watched helplessly as the shark’s teeth crunched through the hull of his surfski. “It seemed to go on and on,” he says, “pushing and chomping. I was thinking, why is it not working out that it isn’t food? “I can’t tell how long it took, but I had enough time to shout a couple of times to the others.” The next thing he knew, he was in the water…
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Thursday, 27 April 2023 18:42
CAPE TOWN - Hank McGregor and Josh Fenn convincingly claimed back their Prescient Freedom Paddle title on Thursday in a dramatic race marked by tough conditions and a rain-delayed start.  Conditions were extremely tough - a brisk northwester blowing spray from the big confused chop into the paddlers' faces as they headed out to the island.  Huge breaking surf on the far side of the island ensured a wide line but the wind dropped as the fleet started on the journey back to the finish, making it that much more difficult and energy sapping to catch the runs.  
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Tuesday, 25 April 2023 11:50
Last Friday, however, I paddled with Dawid on a windless autumn evening in Cape Town. Cruising from Fish Hoek to Muizenberg, we paddled together, stopping at all the coves to surf a few waves. In short, the operative word was "fun". This was a different Dawid - off duty - and, well, I've never paddled with anyone so noisy before. Whistling, singing, shouting to folks on shore - yahooing as he caught a wave. Heading home at dusk we crept up behind a group of seals lazing on the surface. Dawid began barking like a five-year-old paid by the bark...until…
Thursday, 09 February 2023 07:39
A look back - aaaaargh! A mountain. Let it go through... A smaller one, with a glimpse of something massive lurking further out to sea. Catch it, catch it! Sprint, sprint, you’re on it, here’s the break zone, keep going, keep going, the roar from behind and the sudden acceleration as a massive foamy caught up to me, keep it straight, keep it straight... Phew. Arrived. Panting. Stop the watch. ok. Made it. Empty the boat, pick it up to prevent it knocking you down. Done.
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Saturday, 26 November 2022 17:16
The South Africans cleaned up today at the most prestigious surfski race in Australia – arguably the most prestigious race in the world - taking five out of the top six places and the entire podium at the Shaw and Partners “The Doctor” in Perth. Defending women’s champion, Kiwi Danielle McKenzie won the women’s trophy.
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Saturday, 19 November 2022 13:01
Gold Coast paddler, Cory Hill, took first scalp in the five-event ocean ski racing series, the Shaw and Partners WA Race Week, winning the inaugural race today, the 24km Fenn West Coast Downwinder from Fremantle, just south of Perth, to Sorrento Beach. In fine conditions with a 16 knot SSW wind courtesy of the famed Fremantle Doctor, the start off Port Beach was intense with the top paddlers in a terse battle to make the first break.   But it was 33-year-old Hill – the 4-times DOCTOR champ who relishes the Perth conditions – who was able to shake the field…
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Tuesday, 16 March 2021 13:54
It’s not easy to catch a rolling, runaway single ski in 30kt of gusting wind – and as they attempted to grab it, Alex and his doubles partner lost their balance and fell into the water. By the time they’d remounted, the single ski was gone – blown away by the strengthening near-gale. They turned and paddled back upwind to find their buddy.
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Wednesday, 03 March 2021 12:08
Accident reports are easy to write when the story ends happily, but this one didn’t and it’s with a very heavy heart that I’m writing this, with a view to learning what we can from it.
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Wednesday, 15 July 2020 09:13
When the NSRI found Duncan MacDonald, he was approximately 6km off Smitswinkel Bay, drifting rapidly further offshore. Gale-force squalls whipped sheets of spray off the waves, reducing visibility almost to nothing. What Happened? Given the small size of the surfski community, there’s always intense interest whenever there’s a rescue. What happened? What did they do wrong? What can we learn from it? Clearly there are lessons to be learnt from any mishap – so here’s a description of what happened, shared with the permission and cooperation of the folks involved in the hope that we might all learn from this…
Friday, 24 April 2020 11:41
Durban – As the continued coronavirus lockdown grips the country, Canoeing South Africa will host a 24 hour Canoeing4COVID-19 event this weekend as a way to raise funds for members of the broader paddling community that have been badly affected by the lockdown.
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Wednesday, 11 March 2020 14:35
“Hey, Rob! Help!” The shouts penetrated the sound of the howling wind and crashing waves – and even through the noise it was obvious from the tone of his voice that something was seriously wrong. I turned and headed back upwind.
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Tuesday, 03 March 2020 14:43
Many paddlers use Personal Locator Beacons, or tracker apps like SafeTrx on their mobile phones. But handheld VHF radios are also a great choice to consider – especially when they’re DSC-capable like the Standard Horizon HX870E.
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Monday, 24 February 2020 12:01
I finally got my hands on a demo Fennix Swordfish S this weekend and did two Miller's Runs in succession to see if I could feel any difference in handling between the 2018 Swordfish S and the new Fennix model.  Conditions were challenging: False Bay was covered in whitecaps, whipped by a combination of a 25-30kt southeaster and small, confused seas.  The result?  I definitely want to spend more time in this boat.
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Thursday, 26 December 2019 10:30
The shark smashed like a freight train into Roger Swinney’s surfski in an explosion of noise and spray, knocking him off into the water.  “I managed to get back on the ski,” he said, “but I fell off again and as I remounted the second time, I saw the swirl and tips of the shark’s fins. “I didn’t see it clearly, but from the force of it and the movement in the water, it looked big!”
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Rob Mousley

Oscar Chalupsky to retire from surfski?

Wednesday, 23 July 2008 08:23 |

It appears that the big O, as he's affectionately known, is retiring from surfski paddling at the top of his game.  Unconfirmed reports suggest that he's tackling a much bigger challenge...

Oscar for President
Has the big man finally bitten off more than he can chew?

Mossel Bay Shark Incident – Details and Pics

Wednesday, 09 July 2008 09:16 |

We have more details of the incident and some photos of the Fenn Millennium surfski that was chomped by a Great White Shark in Mossel Bay on 28th June.

 

Shark bite on Kobus Maritz' surfski
Damage to Kobus Maritz' ski

 

Breaking News: Shark Attack on Ski near Mossel Bay

Wednesday, 02 July 2008 12:05 |

Mossel Bay, South Africa, 28th June, 2008. Jan-Hendrik Barnard and his friend Kobus Maritz were paddling near Bay View when a shark hit Kobus' Fenn Mako Millennium surfski from underneath.  "The shark bit the ski near where the Fenn Mako logo is," said Jan-Hendrik...

Great White Shark
Great White Shark (Photo by Terry Goss, copyright 2006. Taken at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico, August 2006.)

Surfski v Ocean Liner - the day Mary came to town

Sunday, 28 March 2010 08:31 |

It's not every day that a 75m tall (23 storeys!), 345m long (54 ski lengths) ship comes to town... So the Durban Underwater Club Geriatskis got up early and went to welcome the Queen Mary 2 as she arrived for a one day visit...

Survey Results

Saturday, 31 May 2008 06:19 |

What's the most popular brand of ski in the world?  Where are the surfski.info readers from?  How often do you paddle?  The answers are revealed here - in the results of the 2008 Surfski.info Survey...

Surfski.info survey

Revolutionary Breakthrough – Ski-Cart

Sunday, 25 May 2008 11:15 |

With the astonishing and frightening increases in the oil price, Lance O'Conner from Red7 Australia has come up with a brilliant idea: the paddle powered Ski-cart...  Matt Carter sent us these photos.

Ski-cart
Lance O'Conner's amazing Ski-cart

Happy 45th Birthday Rob Mousley

Saturday, 17 May 2008 15:52 |

VIP Rob enjoys a beer in Dubai
VIP Rob enjoys a beer in Dubai

[Editor: This feels weird - I knew nothing about this article until a few minutes ago - but it's a nice surprise! Thanks Al!]

Since you are reading this article on surfski.info, it is very likely you will come across the name 'Rob Mousley'. Rob is the joint founder of surfski.info and is a prolific writer and avid surf-skier. In the 3 years of surfski.info's existence, Rob has published over 600 articles which have generated nearly 5 million pageviews from readers all over the world.

Sunday 18th May is not only the day of surf-skiing's most famous race, the Molokai Crossing, but, by some huge co-incidence, it is also Rob's 45th birthday. Rob is currently in Hawaii and will be realising a dream of taking on the winds and ocean swells to make the 56km crossing from Molokai to Oahu. In the last few weeks Rob has written a number of articles profiling the world's top surfski paddlers, and I thought it would be a good idea to profile Rob himself!

The Great 2008 Surfski.info Survey

Monday, 14 April 2008 04:18 |

Take the survey!  C'mon, please - it'll just take a few minutes!

Surfski.info Survey

Surfski.info Server Upgrade - Done & Dusted

Tuesday, 08 April 2008 16:36 |

After some late nights and many emails to our service provider we are glad to report that Surfski.Info is up and running on our very own managed server. We were basically given final notice last week by our service provider to vacate the shared server or be shut down. We had outgrown the neighbourhood and were taking up more resources than was permissible.

With the new server we have plenty room to grow, in fact we are only taking up a third of the space that we are paying for. So if you would like to make use of that space to host your website (and help out with the cost of hosting surfski.info) then please let us know by emailing us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you don't have a website yet then this is the ideal opportunity for us to help you build one.

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Soul ski - from down under

Sunday, 09 March 2008 11:27 |

Our story on New Zealander Brad Haye's wooden surfski, aroused plenty of interest including a comment that it was ‘great to see some "SOUL" in the sport'... Well, it seems there's plenty of "soul" down under - here's news of another timber-ski project, this time by Stephen Kelly of Brisbane, Australia.

Surf ski with soul!

Soul ski! (Pic: Stephen Kelly)