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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Stiffness and Stability

Sunday, 06 September 2009 15:51 | Written by 
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Measuring the hull stiffness of the carbon Red7 Measuring the hull stiffness of the carbon Red7

 

We had the unique opportunity to compare two identical skis - identical that is except for the layup.  One is a stiff carbon ski; the other has a cork composite layup.  How does the stiffness of the skis compare - and what difference does it make to the stability of the ski?

 

Red7 Surf70 Pro

I've been paddling the "Green7" - a Red7 Surf70 Pro built in a cork composite layup - for a couple of weeks now.  I've found it a very user friendly, fast boat (weight 12.7kg).

My buddy Dale Lippstreu just took delivery of a carbon Pro.  It was a relatively heavy example - 12.6kg - but, being made of carbon, is relatively stiff.

So we had two identically shaped boats of nearly identical weight.  The only difference was the stiffness - so we were in a unique position to see how stiffness affects the feel of the boat.

Measuring Stiffness

Measuring the Green7

Hout Bay Chop

We took the boats out from Hout Bay.  There was a light northwesterly blowing which would have little effect on us - but a sizeable swell was coming in and we knew that it would be rebounding off the cliffs at the base of the Sentinel - the peak that guards the entrance to the bay.

I paddled the cork Green7 first; Dale was on the stiff carbon ski. 

As we went around the base of the Sentinel, Dale fell further and further back - and said that he found the carbon ski noticeably tippier than his own Red7 (one of the original single piece molded boats).

Roughly 2.5km from the harbor, we turned around and caught some runs back into the bay.  Once again, Dale found the ski tippy.

Measuring Stiffness

Green7 in position

Adjusting the footplate

Back at the ramp we swapped skis.  Dale paddles with a shorter leg length than me so we had to adjust the footplates and rudder pedals.  The new boats have a 3-point secured footplate and although this makes the footplate one of the firmest, most secure that I've tried, I battled to adjust it.  Eventually I managed though, and off I went in the carbon ski while Dale paddled the Green7.

Once again I left him behind on the way out.  He confirmed that the Green boat felt significantly more stable - but claimed that the depression caused by South Africa's performance against Australia in the Rugby Tri-Nations had left him depleted of energy.

No doubt about it though - I also found the carbon boat perceptibly tippier and took several brace strokes in the chop under the Sentinel.

So much for that; the point is that we both agreed that the stiff carbon boat was definitely more twitchy than its cork composite cousin.

But how stiff is stiff?

Measuring Stiffness

Measuring the "yellow peril" - an original one-piece moulded glass Red7

The Lippstreu Stiffness Factor

We measured the stiffness of the skis using a simple test. 

We placed the ski upside on a metal trestle positioned where the bucket is deepest.  We then hung a 10l plastic container filled with water (i.e. a 10kg weight) on the tail of the ski, 2.8m from the trestle and measured the deflection.

Apart from the cork Green7 and the carbon Red7, we also measured Dale's old Red7 - this one was repaired after major damage and has about 1.5m of carbon inserted around the cockpit area.  This has made it stiffer - but it's also heavier than the test boats.

Here are the results:

 

LayupWeightDeflectionTippiness
Glass/Carbon 16.1kg 17mm Least
Cork composite 12.6kg 31mm  
Carbon 12.7kg 15mm Most

 

Conclusions

  • Since the carbon and cork composite skis were practically identical except for stiffness, we can confirm the commonly held truth that stability is affected by the stiffness of the ski - at least with the Red7. 
  • (For me - I prefer the light but easier to paddle cork composite layup.  I find the cork Green7 easy relatively stable; I find the carbon Red7 significantly more twitchy!  I'd put the two skis' stability on either side of the carbon Fenn Mako Elite.) 
  • Dale's poor performance on the day was directly related to the performance of the Springboks in Brisbane i.e. a bit off the pace.

Note!

Note that neither of these skis represents the standard Red7:

  • The production cork composite boats are slightly heavier (around 13.2kg) and stiffer; after extensive testing, they've added a layer of Kevlar to the mid-section of the boat to protect the areas most often stressed by tie-down straps.
  • The production carbon boats are slightly lighter than our test boat.

The point of our test was to compare two identical-except-for-layup skis to correlate stability with stiffness.

More tests

We'll be repeating this test on other skis - and adding it to our future reviews of skis (I just took delivery of a "performance" V12.  Paddled it today in a mild downwind and thoroughly enjoyed it but... Dale was faster than me on his V10 Elite...  and that doesn't often happen!  Look out for the V12 and Green7 reviews in a couple of week's time.)