tips

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.

Alex Matthews is a Sea Kayak instructor from British Columbia.  Bob Putnam lent him a Think Eze surfski for the winter (eeek - that's cold!).  Bob said that Alex "had been resistant, almost anti-surfski."  Clearly though, sea kayakers are a tough breed and Alex is now hooked on surfski and has been playing in a tidal race called Baynes Channel.  The first thing he had to do though, was practise remounting the ski.

[Editor: I’m currently battling with a low-level chronic inflamed rotator cuff. This kind of injury is endemic in our sport and whitewater professional Kim Russell wrote this article on rotator cuff rehab.  She kindly allowed us to republish the piece…]