Rob Mousley

2010 started off on a bleak note for surfski.info.  After five years, we finally upgraded the website software, full of hope that the site would be faster and would offer us more opportunity to get creative with the look and feel.  But...

Surfski is simply the best, most exciting, most awesome paddle sport on the planet...! And surfski.info exists to make sure everyone knows about it! read more...

History 

When Alain Jaques started paddling surfskis in November 2005, he went to the Internet to find out about equipment and how to get started.  He found almost no information - so he bought the surfski.info domain and started the site...  

At the time Rob Mousley had just posted a story about paddling on the Yahoo Surfski newsgroup and Al asked him if he could use the piece on the site.  Rob responded with a dozen articles... and Surfski.info was born.

In 2007, Surfski.info broke new ground - providing live commentary for the Molokai Challenge, using skype to call spotters on the escort boats to give up to the minute news of the race.  The following year, we combined the live commentary with GPS Tracking units in Durban, making it possible for spectators to follow the race in real-time.

Since then, live commentary has become a de-facto part of the bigger international races.  

Aims

Surfski.info aims to:

• Make surfski information centralised and accessible
• Build an online community of surfski enthusiasts
• Welcome and guide newcomers to the sport
• Provide useful and credible content
• Have fun
• Paddle a lot

The Raw Statistics

Surfski.info currently serves up to 200,000 pageviews per month.

That's up to 50,000 visits from around 19,000 unique individuals from over 140 countries around the world.

We collect our statistics from Google Analytics - so we know a lot about the demographics of our readers.

It's fascinating to see how this has changed.  For example two years ago about 35% of our readers were from the USA.  About 25% were from South Africa, 20% from Australia/NZ and maybe 4% from Europe.

In June 2010, the statistics have changed dramatically.  Now the top four are:

• Australia/NZ: 31%
• USA: 27%
• Europe: 19%
• South Africa: 15%

We also know a lot about the pyschographics of the readers.  For example:

• 95% are men
• 50% are 40 or older
• 75% either race or "live for racing"

So we know that a lot of them are competitive and well off!  A GREAT group of people to market to.

How it works

Pageviews: When a page is viewed with your ad on it, that’s called a “pageview”.  We charge per pageview.

Clickthroughs: When a reader clicks on your ad and goes through to your website, that’s a “clickthrough”.

Obviously you want as many people to click through to your website as possible.  Ways of doing this are to make your ad as attractive and interesting as possible – and also to run a competition or discount of some sort. 

Reports

You get a daily/weekly or monthly email report on the number of “adviews” and the number of “clickthroughs”.  So it’s easy to measure the effectiveness of your advert. 

Ad Settings

You can specify:

• Where in the world you want the adverts to be seen.  For example if you’re focussing on the US market you can tell us to show the ads only to readers from the US.
• How often individual readers see the adverts.  For example, Epic Kayaks asked us to set it up so that each individual only sees their ad twenty times after which they never see it again.
• How often the ad is viewed in a month.  For example if you buy 10,000 adviews, and you want to have your campaign run at least three months,  you can specify that the ad is seen a maximum of 3300 times in the month.

Rates

Please don’t hesitate to ask, if you have any questions, contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  for a quote.

We’re quite happy to give you a couple of thousand adviews to test the response.

I watched the ski roll downwind, and knew that I'd blown it - big time.  Not only was I faced with a 300m swim to the beach but the wind was blowing it offshore - with my paddle and my GPS.  And I'd just started advertising the ski for sale.  DAMNATION!

Hurricane Alley was living up to its name - the 30kt NNW wind was ricocheting off the cliffs and mini-tornados were swirling clouds of spray across the surface of sea...  and I knew that the cameras were out of memory!

Reverse Buffels surfing...

Over the weekend of 30/31 August Cape Town was hit by the biggest, nastiest storm in a decade...  Gale force north-westerly winds combined with 30-40ft waves...  Sensible people stayed in bed on Saturday morning but...

Reverse Millers Run - 30 Aug 2008

(Click on the pic or here to view the video)

I've been fortunate enough to play in some very strong winds recently - and on Saturday I had another chance to experience a downwind paddle in a gale. 

At speed - downwind paddling at its best!

OK, so it's not surf ski - but I was fascinated by this sequence of shots that show a US Coast Guard vessel "practising" going through some massive waves, apparently off the California coast.

US Coast Guard boat about to tackle a monster wave

False Bay was covered in breaking 2m waves and the wind, already 30kts, seemed to be strengthening.  But the worst problem was that it was already almost dark.

And as I paddled into Fish Hoek at the end of what should have been a classic downwind run, I was frantic with worry - I was almost certain that one of the group was off his ski, in the water, about ten kilometres back near Millers Point.