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Photo from Surfline via Larry Vickery

Photo by Liz Reichenstein Speechless really. […]

Dawid Mocke of course…the winner and awesome ambassador for the sport! […]

AT this point all the locals said head into the current..Dawid said that too..so out into the current I go..but what I didn't hear was you have to commit to it to get the pay off closer to Angel Island..Whatever..check this photo and check that current.. I committed to it...so I went bumping around out there by myself..still no real runs to ride..didn't ever practice how to ride them when they go in every direction, thankful for the Swordfish....I was having fun, but now I am so tired I'm not racing anymore, just finishing..darn it. A big tourist ferry boat decided I was fun to look at and they motored fast in front of me and all the people waved and took pictures and looked at that dumb girl bouncing around on their waves..ha ha. I waved back gave them the shaka sign or something like that with my hand. Next came Angel Island buoy..thank goodness.. runs are coming good now and YES, there's the Americas Cup yacht race all 50 of them heading right at me. AWESOME..really not so much. I am thankful for my orange shirts and so thankful for Daryl Remmler in his bright green or is that yellow? shirt..I decide to stay right behind him here and so if the yachts smash him ,then I will have time to move. The yachts sail away as we thread the needle right between them all and I decide still to stay behind Daryl..he was so safe..thats my story and I 'm sticking to it.....so the finish line comes and I don't finish strong like last year, no surfing past 2 people at the Orange bouy...just bounce bounce in and that's it. Not my best day, but loved the swordfish, loved the company and I just love this race. Oh and here is how Eva babysits...gotta love that.

Winners Dawid Mocke and Michele Eray of South Africa hold the trophy high at the 2011 Surfski Champs. […]

With much excitement I lined up to race Sunday in “my” new ski the Fenn Swordfish. I say my ski because as much as I love the XT and train in flat Newport in the Elite…..I,along with many other paddlers, have been begging for something in between. So my hope [...]

Photo by Mike Martinez www.wavechaser.com DeAnne Hemmens of Ocean Paddlesports paddled to a first place finish on the Fenn Swordfish Sunday during the pre-race to USA Champs. Also, DJ from Bellingham gave it go and ended up 5th overall. […]

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Did a solo downwind from Huntington Beach (Hayden at Junior lifeguards) to Newport coast guard beach. Awesome...wind was about 11 knots and the swell small and the water 68...so warm. Max speed 19km/hour and average for the 1 hour was 13km with first 5 km heading side on the wind [...]

Paddle Jacket from 9 x Molokai champion Dean Gardiner This is a good alternative to the Mocke PFD..which we will have back in stock..hopefully in September…but in the meantime we saw and tried the Ocean Paddler in Hawaii. […]

book your ski now..we have Fenn Elites, XTs, Doubles (not very many) , Red 7 and Atoms FENN ELITES..singles and doubles ARE RENTED OUT...We may rent brand new ELITE SLs??? To Be Decided... .

We have them in stock! Order here. […]

Congratulations to everyone who raced and finished this grueling event. I thought it was a very tough day out there. My perspective is written on the blog. Used skis still available in Hawaii for a few more days. Trailer home with used skis on Mainland by May 31. Something about [...]

Thanks to Eva for getting the water off the escort and on our skis...ok no wind..gonna change out there. No white caps, gonna change out there. Sunscreen on, life jacket in the footwell, leash on, footbrace adjustment, Hawaiian prayer, a little chatty chatty and off we go. A sea of green and orange shirts..green had escort boats, and the orange were exempt. Itailian double takes off likes its a 1000m sprint..we're on wake, Robin and Carter on wake and ok, not too hard. We seperate a bit..settle in, then escort boat crap wakes come from all over....hey I was prepared for this..ok not so much, life jacket floats up and out of the footwell onto my lap, footwells and my seat is flooded as we back up over the wakes. Carter and Robin the same... we are right next to them as it settles down. Italians number 1 have finished their 1000 meter sprints and have mellowed for their long day out there...bye bye. Italy number 2 goes by later with their ski on the escort boat..later they said in best broken English.."this a different sport out there, we flat water paddlers, we will learn and come back." We take a North line for a bit..right behind Dean Gardiner...he's surfing small stuff, we are grinding for big stufff.....Carter/Robin double is south and seperating a bit. We are not worried because the runs are gonna pick up and we will out surf them...thought that for the next 3 1/2 hours. It got bumpy and lumpy and flat and calm and small and hot and hot and hot. My gps froze at 1 hour 20. 12.4 km speed and how far to go? Shoot, Pat had to yell out stats so I didn't go crazy with no info..how far, 30 km oh great...how fast 14km,11 km, on rhumb line yes, what? YES stop asking me. Felt terrific from 2 hours to 3. Then sorta as expected the mind starts playing tricks on the over spent body. We never really had good runs, they were so hard to catch and not long when you did. The little chop was not good working for on the double. My hands suffered like I remember. Patrick did really well considering he had an old gal type behind him. I tried not to complain, I never cried, well until later, and we made it solid in the chip chop along the wall. Pat even caught a big wave, actually 3 of them on the way in. He asked me if I was ok to catch the wave and I just said whatever, I'm not looking ,do what you want. On the biggest one, we were angling left so hard that I actually considered jumping out....would have ripped my leg right off or the foot strap or broken the leash,so glad I had enough sense just to hang on. So we finished just under 4 hours...not happy with that as the first time we did double we were well under in like 3:48 or something...but looking back it was huge and working that year and so I have to be happy with how we faired with the tame ocean this time. A huge mention to Robin and Carter...they did fantastic, maybe they suffered like we did..Robin probably more than fit, fit fit Carter. It was awesome to have a crew to race...made it more challenging for sure. Oh and...never ever take the red eye home....biggest mistake of the weekend. And finally a massive thank you to Courtney Seto, who raced as well and then spent the entire afternoon helping me and Patrick (well I layed on the grass) loading the trailer. Friends like you are what make this worth doing....

Patricks been hammering hard in the wind after his Urban Search and Rescue class...I kinda tweeked my back so rested up over the weekend, but sometimes this is a good thing and had a great workout this am with Sean and PB. Time not to get injured or sick..and lots [...]