It’s Fathers Day here in Sydney, and a group of men have gathered at the crack of dawn on Australia’s famous Manly Beach. Laid out on the beach are a bunch of surfskis – two Stellar SR surfskis, a new Stellar S18S cross-over surfski, and a new SLSA spec ski, the X-cite from Slipstream Surf.
Gavin (the Rat), Nat (the Nat) Sean (the Fat) are the more experienced ski paddlers of the group. Ben paddles a sea kayak but has no experience on skis, and Josh has no paddling experience at all.
For the next few hours they play. The newbies try out the Stellar skis, whilst Rat/Nat/Fat tried out the X-cite. Neither Nat nor Fat show much skill on the spec ski but at least the Fat stays above the waterline… unlike Nat.
The lads head off to the Bower for an early morning surf where, laughing and yelling, they catch a few waves and play at dropping in on each other (well, mainly dropping in on the Rat). The newbies mainly practice falling off and climbing back on.
The five men make their way back to shore after a few hours in the surf for a final chat and a coffee, before returning to their respective families. All are smiling, and all is good in the world. Cheers, FP
that looks sooo awesome! I want a surfski soooo badly! but just wondering, is there like a maximum height for the wave to not flip you? because I see some surfskies have like some curved support on the front that looks to aid you not to flip from back to front.
Hey Baal. You’re really only limited by your skill, I’ve seen footage of guys on surfskis surfing monstrous waves. In terms of the different types, “spec skis” are the ones with the wave deflectors – they were developed by the Aussie Surf Life Saving movement and are designed specifically for geting out through surf and coming back in through surf – they are strong and specifically designed to a set of strict rules as governed by surf life saving bodies. The other form of surfski (which I have) is the “ocean surfski” – these are designed for ocean racing, and particularly for what is known as “downwind” racing, where they actually surf ocean waves and chop with the wind behind them. If you google Molokai you’ll see the type of racing I mean. These skis have no set specifications so are radically different from the spec skis – longer, narrower, lighter etc. In theory, less designed for shore-based surf and more likely to get damaged than spec skis. Both are awesome for surfing. Cheers!