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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First Looks: FLOW Kayak’s Superstar

Thursday, 14 June 2012 15:25 | Written by 
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Flow-Kayak’s new Superstar ocean surfski, turning heads ‘down-under’. Flow-Kayak’s new Superstar ocean surfski, turning heads ‘down-under’. Credits: Flow Kayaks, 2012

What do you get if you take a tiny South Pacific Nation, mix this with a (borderline obsessive-compulsive) national fervor for all-things-adventure-sport, add a pinch of tight exchange-rates, stir in a very precise quantity of hi-tech engineering prowess, and ladle in a generous dollop of gutsy, dogged determination to out-perform countries 10 times their size (and budget!) on a world stage?

The answer is quite possibly Flow-Kayak’s latest offering, the long awaited Superstar!

The Boat:

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The new Superstar in profile: Shorter, less-rocker, good secondary stability, centre-of-gravity further forward

Still warm out of the mold, the pics of the long overdue Superstar graced Flow Kayak’s Facebook page an hour ago, as I write this. 

  • Length: 5.95m
  • Width: 48.9cm
  • Weight: approx. 12kg
  • Construction lay-up: Carbon/Kevlar Epoxy

Make no mistake: this is not a ‘plug’ of an existing boat, tweaked to cover copyright risk. This boat has been designed from grass-roots-level upwards, with the blank cut on a 3-D shaper with state of the art modeling software, meticulously tweaked and honed with every prototype released, so the finish is robot-perfect, with none of the tell-tale signs of a hand-shaped or adjusted plug. As are the Flow wing paddles, which are made with the same care.

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A well finished, well thought-out intermediate to advanced level boat.

The Design:

The design for this boat has been a long-time coming. A series of prototypes have been crafted, paddled and tried and tested over the last 1 and a half seasons. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Sharpski 6.5 prototype, one of the forefathers of the Superstar, which I have fallen completely in love with. There are many common features but the Superstar has been further developed off this concept and tailored to suite the fast-growing intermediate-to-advanced paddling world. Unlike South Africa, but like many other world markets, New Zealand has a non-discriminating mix of estuarine and ocean paddling conditions: many races may start on a river, head out through an estuary and end up with a romping downwind section in big surf. The Superstar caters for this versatility with 2 options for self-bailers: the ‘bullet’, or manual Anderson style. Additionally, the optional under-steer rudder or flip-up over-steer rudder on the tail adds a whole new dimension to the versatility, making the boat suitable for a significantly wider range of paddling conditions than any other ski. The design of these rudder options make these easy enough for our support-crew to swap over at a transition in a multistage race!

“That’s what I’ve found from the races I have done in Sweden. There’s a HUGE market for a cross-over-boat, and there is nothing on the market like this.” states Richard.

The under-steer rudder is located further forward from the tail (85cm) and the cockpit is significantly further forward than most other contemporary ski designs. This has the effect of allowing the boat to drop down over the run beautifully. I have found myself dropping down runs I am unable to catch in other boats. I am so conscious of this now in my prototype that I make sure I tie my juice-bladder in front of my feet, as the extra weight behind me can be felt when paddling for the runs.

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This boat appears to have a refreshingly versatile, all round performance integrity, with easily interchangeble over-steer flip-up tail rudder, or understeer downwind rudder

Small Bottomed?

The arse-end of this new Superstar appears to be padded out a bit to stop the nose rising out of the water when accelerating or pulling over the wash, which is something I am noticing more on the prototype (see above comment re weight of juicebag). And speaking or arses, I find that I really feel like I am wallowing around in the Elite or Epic seat buckets compared to this seat bucket, which is much narrower, and tighter. (I do have a small bottom, and some of the bigger boys have moaned that this seat has taken some getting used to, right Jeremy Kuggeleijn?)

Tough!

My lovely wife (who likes my small bottom by the way!) drove into the garage the other day with my beautiful prototype ski still on the roof of the car. Long story short, the garage roof beam was munted, as were my roof-racks, but thanks to the super-strong carbon-kevlar lay-up my surfski is still perfect. Note – this is different from a carbon/Kevlar honeycomb sandwich lay-up typically used on other 12kg carbon surfskis, which once bruised is not easily repaired… almost like my marriage following this little altercation! My opinion – you will do well to get a tougher sub-12kg carbon ski.

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Flow-Kayaks is the love-child of Richard ‘The Crusher’ Ussher, (above) and Andrew ‘Master-Crafter’ Martin.

The Sportsman: Richard ‘The Crusher’ Ussher

Richard has amassed an impressive resume of achievements, including such varied disciplines as Adventure/Expedition racing teams, numerous individual Multisport events including the famed Coast To Coast self-professed World Championship Multisport race, traditional triathlon racing Iron distance events and the off road formats, and even representing NZ in the Men’s Moguls skiing event at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. What stands out for me is that the one year Richard is winning the Coast to Coast for the (3rd year in a row) and next he clocks a 3rd placed Quelle Challenge Roth Ironman event in Germany with an impressive 8 hours, 2 minutes and 15 seconds, making him the fastest Kiwi ever over an Iron distance course.

The Carbon-Craftsman: Andrew Martin

Andrew has been designing boats for over 20 years and through his expertise and skill has designed and built a range of boats with a superior reputation. After only a few years of living in New Zealand, through no conscious design I found that I personally possessed an entire range of carbon boats hand-crafted lovingly by Andrew in his shed in Nelson. My K1, Sharp2 Adventure-Racing Double and SharpSki were superior quality boats in finish, construction and design. Andrew has been racing kayaks for 30 years and has represented New Zealand many times, including in the down river racing team that won the 1995 world championships.

Conclusion

Like everything, try before you buy. This boat appears to have a refreshingly versatile, all round performance integrity. I eagerly await the arrival of the first container in Melbourne to gauge the feedback from others, and see if my bottom is still as perfect a fit (the seat bucket has been modified on the Superstar compared to my boat), but I am convinced you will find this boat quite different from what is available on the market at the moment. Flow Kayaks are already close to finalising the advanced boat, which will be slightly longer, and very similar to the prototype I am paddling currently. This has proven to be a very popular design in New Zealand, and will be improved upon by the team at Flow.