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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Review update: Paddling a Carbon Fenn Mako 6

Monday, 19 June 2006 22:47 | Written by 
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ImageI recently bought a Carbon (vacuum bag lay-up) Fenn Mako 6.  I’ve had my new ski for nearly five weeks now and have paddled it in a variety of conditions.

 

I’m astonished at the improvement to my paddling – both in terms of race results and sheer enjoyment.

 

First Impressions

 

It's light - just 11.4kg.  (The spec sheets say the ski should weigh around 12kg.)

 

It's sensitive to knocks.  The ski was sitting on the car on the roof racks when I opened the boot - and to my horror, the windscreen-washer fitting left a slight dent in the bottom of the ski. 

 

(I later confirmed that these carbon sandwich skis are very susceptible to damage from sharp objects - woe betide you if you put them down on gravel for example.)

 

Updates

 

There are some fixes to the problems previously reported, as well as some improvements:

 

  • The extreme narrowness of the rudder pedals. The design of the foot strap has been changed so that there's now another 3-4cm of room.
  • The flimsy foot plate. In my ski this has been significantly beefed up and is made of carbon/Kevlar.
  • The rudder cables have been moved slightly so that they no longer rub the sides of the cockpit.
  • Finally Fenn Kayaks have started producing a new slim-line rudder that is much narrower in cross-section than the older model. Mine is made of Carbon/Kevlar and is extremely light (around 80g of materials excluding the steel shaft).

 

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Reworked footplate and rudder pedals

 

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New slim-line rudder
 

 

So what's it like to paddle?

 

I'd been told that carbon skis were twitchier than their glass counterparts; that this is due partly to the lightness and partly to the increased rigidity of the hull.  Since stability was a major factor in my buying the ski in the first place, this was not good news.

 

However, I haven't found any significant difference in stability between the two versions; I find the carbon ski just as comfortable as the glass version even in the nastiest side-chop.

 

The Single Footwell

 

Is the single footwell a problem in terms of filling up with water?  When going out through waves, the cockpit fills with water; the ski does feel heavier and the water does noticeably slosh around in the cockpit.  And the drainage is not great.

 

But how much of a problem is this?  The ski is maybe 5-10kg heavier getting out through the waves, but once you're past the backline, the water drains quite quickly, and otherwise the ski is dry in my experience.  I've not had the cockpit fill on a downwind run (yet).

 

So for me this isn't really an issue, especially as we don't often have to go out through surf in Cape Town.

 

Stability

 

For all my raving about stability, it must be noted that this is not a beginner's ski.  The stability is somewhere between a Fenn XT and a Fenn Millennium.  A friend who has been paddling a Fenn XT is finding his new Mako 6 quite a handful in choppy water.

 

But if you've been paddling a Fenn Mako, a Fenn Millennium, a Red7 70 (old version) or an Icon, you'll find the Mako 6 significantly more stable.

 

Racing the ski

 

Overnight my race results in the Hout Bay Winter Series have improved by about 5%.  This is a huge difference.

 

The first race was held in classic Hout Bay winter conditions - not much wind but chop, caused by deep sea swell ricocheting off the sides of the bay, going in all directions.  On my previous ski I'd have been wasting half my energy staying upright.  On the 6, I was head down focussing all my effort into moving forwards.  Result: my fastest average speed ever for a non-downwind race of 11.4km/h.  In those conditions, astounding.

 

Since then we've had two other races, one in flat conditions.  In both I finished far higher up the order than usual.

 

Having fun on the ski

 

Last weekend I found myself paddling downwind in a north-easterly near Simonstown harbour wall.  The waves were hitting the wall head on and were being reflected with almost 100% energy straight back into the bay.  The chaotic sea conditions near the wall can be imagined.

 

The stability of the ski meant that even in the slop I was able to power onto the waves heading towards the wall and crash through the oncoming reflections.  It felt as though I was going through a set of rapids, the ski was bucking and leaping and spray was flying everywhere.  Awesome fun!

 

Buffels Bay to Fish Hoek via Cape Point

 

But the truth really sank home this weekend when my paddling buddy Damian and I paddled a solid 32km haul from Buffels Bay to Fish Hoek by way of Cape Point.

 

 

Image
Cape Point - courtesy of Googlearth

 

The Southeaster was blowing a fair 15-20kts in False Bay (in mid-Winter no less, talk about unseasonable weather) and conditions looked good for a downwind run.  I wanted a good long paddle, so we chose the route accordingly.

 

The first section, from Buffels to the Point saw us going straight into the wind over some fairly large 3-4ft waves that had a nasty cross component.  Had I been paddling my old ski, I'd have had my heart in my mouth and I'd have been bracing frequently to stay on.  As it was, I was completely relaxed, focussed simply on warming up.

 

Conditions near the Point were challenging.  As we turned downwind we found that there were small waves moving in the same direction as the wind with much larger waves running at almost ninety degrees to our course.  So we could catch the small runs and then turn onto the bigger ones. 

 

We wanted to stay out to sea in order to stay away from the notoriously choppy water between Buffels Bay and Smitswinkel Bay but inevitably, as though attracted by some invisible force, we ended up exactly where we didn't want to be - right in the messy bumpy seas off the cliffs south of Smitswinkel Bay.  It was here where it came home to me just what a difference stability makes.

 

Damian was making painfully slow progress, literally snatching strokes between braces.  I was enjoying a completely different experience of the same water.  I was so stable and comfortable that I was literally paddling rings around him.  I'd paddle alongside him for a while, then catch some waves, get a hundred or so metres ahead, then turn and paddle a circle into the wind, finishing alongside him again.

 

By the time we got to Millers Point, Damo was exhausted, having spent all his energy battling the choppy conditions.  Thanks to the 6's stability, however, I was still relatively fresh.

 

Conditions were great for a Millers run - and I took off, agreeing to meet Damo at the lighthouse.  When I got there, I hit the lap button on my GPS to record the time, then turned and paddled upwind for 2 ½ minutes to find Damian.  Going past the lighthouse for the second time, I hit the lap button again to record my time from there to Fish Hoek.

 

When I got to Fish Hoek, I checked my total elapsed time from Millers Point.  The result: 51:40

 

Which meant that even having paddled for nearly two hours already, I achieved a new Personal Best time for the Millers Run.

 

I ascribe this to three things:

 

  1. The 6 is so stable and comfortable that I was able to cruise for two hours (even through extremely rough conditions) and still feel fresh.
  2. The 6 is an excellent downwind performer
  3. I'm not unfit.  But it should be noted that I haven't been training nearly as hard as I did for the Cape Point Challenge and my race result then was extremely disappointing.

 

Summary - the negatives

 

The only reservation I have about the carbon ski is its susceptibility to puncture damage.  I'm totally confident about its structural strength, but I know I can't just bang it about like a glass ski.  I've installed Thule kayak cradles on my roof-racks and invested in a padded ski cover.  I feel I should buy a glass ski for training and unwrap the carbon ski only for races! 

 

The cost of the ski (more than double the glass lay-up) is also an issue.  Is it worth it?  All I can say is that I love this particular ski - I don't know whether the improvements to my paddling would be the same on a glass ski.  We hope to investigate the differences between regular skis and their ultra-light equivalents in the coming months (a friend just bought a V10L Ultra that weighs less than 10kg).

 

Summary - the positives

 

The old adage, "it's the paddler, not the ski, that counts", is simply no longer true.  For a B-grade paddler like me, who likes to paddle in rough conditions, stability counts an enormous amount.

 

There is no doubt that for me the 6 is a very fast ski.  This may simply be because the stability (and comfort) allows me to focus more energy into moving forward than before, but whatever the reason, I feel that I now have a ski on which I can aspire to become an A-grade paddler.  I can no longer use the ski as an excuse!

 

But, perhaps much more important than its speed or racing performance, the Mako 6 is just incredibly fun to paddle.