2011 US Surfski Championships

Written by Kenny Howell

In the late1960’s San Francisco played host to the Summer of Love, a historic celebration of creative expression and social experimentation for thousands of hippies from around the world.

San Francisco has long been known for its tolerance and compassion for different peoples and viewpoints. And now we bring you the 9th annual US Surfski Championships, a festival for downwind surfski aficionados from distant continents, and home-grown paddling stars from across the USA. Surfski paddlers may not be hippies, but on August 13, dozens of talented and über-fit multi-national athletes will share their version of a Summer of Love on San Francisco Bay: a wild, blistering paddle race from Sausalito, out the Golden Gate, to the very edge of the North American shore beyond Point Bonita, and back into the wind-whipped Bay for a downwind rock & roll ride to Berkeley. Roll over Flower Power, here comes Paddle Power!

The best surfski racers originate from South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand - countries where surfskis are hugely popular, with a history of professional competion. In Europe, flatwater kayak racing is still king, but big surfski races have sprouted up in the UK, Sweden, France, Spain and Italy, where scenic coastlines and the allure of potential downwind races attract growing numbers. Dubai, the tiny but opulent Arab Emirate on the Persian Gulf, annually hosts a massive surfski competition known as The Shamal – a hot desert wind – and throws in some serious coin for prize money.

Since its inception in 2003, the US Championships has drawn respectable worldwide participation, with surfskiers from Hawaii, Tahiti, Japan, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, and of course Dubai. European entries have picked up steam this year, but the Aussies, Kiwis, and Saffas are the foreign mainstays. American kayak racers converge on their country’s biggest surfski competition; they blow in from every corner of the land, the Pacific Northwest, southern California, the Southeast, Midwest, and New England. Coastal-dwelling and paddling-savvy Canadians cross the border in healthy numbers to help round out the North American field.

Among this cosmopolitan melting pot, one man has made a special mark as a semi-perennial winner of the US Championships: Dawid Mocke of Cape Town, South Africa. Dawid won the 2010 race, and since 2005, has won the event 3 times, and twice finished 2nd. Only one other Champion has pulled off a repeat win: Greg Barton, 2-time US Olympic Gold Medalist, in the first and second years of the US Championships. If Mocke wins again this year, the event organizers should consider renaming it “The Mocke Challenge”.

Click here to read the full article