Rob Mousley

“I had two or three extended, paddles-down, ‘whooosah!’ moments”, said race director Garth Spencer, “and I pulled a few cheeky chakas for the camera crew on the media boat…

“…but those failed to show up in the photos, so there’s no proof, haha!”

“NSRI Plettenberg Bay duty crew were activated following reports of a man bumped off his surfski near Robberg Beach, Plettenberg Bay…” Bump? Some bump!

The wave reared up, curling over and dumping over the ski, stopping me dead in my tracks; the other two surged past and I thought, “will that bloody buoy EVER get any closer?!”

Cape Town's Table Mountain, viewed from the sea, is one the world's most spectacular landmarks...  and will be the backdrop to what is certain to become an iconic event in South Africa's surfski calendar.  The race, scheduled for South Africa's Freedom Day public holiday, is aimed at highlighting the serious environmental challenges facing the oceans.

Sean Rice (2013 ICF Ocean Racing World Champion, 2017 Molokai Challenge Champion plus a host of other titles) of PaddleLife and Huksu Coaching recently re-published these tips for improving your surfski paddling. As I read through them I found I had a whole lot of questions, so I called Sean at his office in London and he kindly chatted through them with me.

Just how do you go about improving one of the all-time classic surfskis? Epic Kayaks just launched the third generation V10 – and I spoke to Greg Barton, Epic's CEO and chief designer, to find out how and what he changed in the design.

When the wind blows, Sharon goes!

The waves in this video are ridiculous; the conditions (aside from the luxurious warm water) are very different to what we get here in Cape Town and I'm utterly envious.  

Of course the 29kt breeze helps too!  

Why the new boat? "The demand initially came from Europe," said Travis Smith of Fenn Kayaks. "They wanted something suited more to flatter conditions and short, wind chop."

Durban -The mixed doubles crew of Luke Nisbet and Jenna Ward stole the limelight at the HiQ Surfski Challenge on Friday night, as the penultimate leg of the popular FNB Surfski Series had to be modified to suit the heavy cyclone surf conditions in Durban Bay.

"There is no good reason to use feather angle on your paddle," said Oscar Chalupsky (in his usual assertive manner.)  The surfski.info forum has seen something of a debate raging on this topic in the last couple of weeks; I knew that Oscar had been encouraging beginners to use zero feather, so I called him to ask for his views.