Here are some more pictures from the surfski spring camp last weekend. I did not take as much photos as I did last year. I’m more into paddling surfski than photography nowdays… 
Thanks to Peter Ekström! Thanks to Dawid Mocke! Thanks to all others that made the Surfski Spring Camp 2012 to such a great event! We had a great surfski weekend with Dawid Mocke as the main instructor. Peter Ekström from Globalsurfski.com arranged a very nice, cool and fun surfski camp for the fourth consecutive time. It was, as always, well organized and all activities worked out well. Dawid Mocke contributed a lot with his knowledge and personality. Besides the planned activities most surfski suppliers in Sweden were presented with their skis. The possibilty to try a lot of different skies and gear in one weekend is great. Unfortunetly I was very eager in practising my own paddling and didn’t get the chance to try some new skies.
Dawid Mocke impressed a lot.
Full focus on surfski paddling.
Peter Ekström, to the right, organized a great surfski camp.
The approach to implement a full surfski season in three days was smart.The friday kicked off with pre-season training. Dawid Mocke organized a group paddling where anyone who wanted could join. It was a kind of pursuit that triggered you to put some extra effort into the paddling. Meanwhile taught Leif Davidsson from Aterra the beginner’s course for those who did not have any experience. Conny Edholm, ICF world champion in the K-2 10 000 m event in 1985, held paddling technique courses.
Dawid håller instruktioner inför fredagens paddling.
Conny Edholm
There was a lot of opportunities to check out new stuff and gear.
even more stuff…
Dawid Mocke made his presentations about Oceans ABC on Friday night. Dawid started holding classes in 2003 with his wife and he told us that they have developed the concept over time. It became clear that Dawid was a very experienced lecturer. He has a great approach and explained about surfskiing in a very relaxed, fun and educational way.
Possiblities to try different surfskis.
The Fenn Swordfish got a lot of attention. Bjarne from Lillehammer is trying a Swordfish.
I was very impressed by the Epic V8 in the surf. In surf some paddlers were able to paddle faster ( >20km/h) than others in a lot faster surfskies. Never sacrifice stability to speed… Here is Lars Kristian in his Epic V8.
During Friday night the wind increased, it started to blow more from the north, approx 9-12 m/s (17-23 knots). We had a splendid opportunity to paddle a surfski in waves, both during the morning and afternoon sessions. We were able to practice the theory from Dawids Oceans ABC into practice. Put your nose in the hole and when in doubt – legs out (credit to Hank) worked great! In the afternoon session two different groups set off to do downwind paddling. A shorter distance, a 7 km downwind that turned out to be about 10-11 km and a longer distance, approx 23 km. The evening ended with after surfski and Dawid told anecdotes from his racing career with great sense of humor.
Jonas Fager is preparing to go downwind
Dawid is trying to get someone to paddle into his framing…
Tommy Karls
Leif from Aterra, a surfski enthusiast, in his Vault from Carbonology Sports.
Pedro Pontes in a Fenn Swordfish
Paul Rosenqvist finishing hard after 23 km downwind.
Patric Petersson in a Zedtech Griffin
Epics, V8 and V10 Double.
Martin Nordstrand bought a Fenn Elite SL a couple of weeks ago.
Bloody Westcoast badass surfskier Trent Victor
Coolaste surfski during the camp? Spektrum!
Lena Karls in a Epic V12
The compact season approach ended on the sunday with a surfski race. The race was on a circular course. Less wind and hardly no swell. There were opportunities to participate in two distances 5 km or 10 km. I chose to start in the 5 km race (which turned out to be 7.5 km). Those who paddled 10 km had to paddle about 15 km. It was nice way to finish the camp and I’m happy with my results, just under 47 minutes. The camp has triggered me even more. I’m now looking for something faster but I’m still remembering Dawid saying: Never Sacrifice Stability to Speed!
Many swedes used drysuit. Dawid did not. Cool heels?
Jonas Hollander from the magazine Paddling tried the new Rapido 2.0.
Roland from Åland sprinted and finishing just in front of me. The start isn’t the most important part of the race…
Oddbjörn owned me! I really wanted to win against him!
Some test paddling during sunday in more sunnier weater.
Martin Nordstrand is almost as tall as his Elite SL is long.
The winners!
I really enjoyed the surfski spring camp but it is a long trip from Goteborg. approx 600 km… It is worth the trip and I really hope Peter will arrange something similar next year.
I have started to test the new Suunto Ambit with integrated GPS and heart rate monitoring. My primary use will be when I am paddling my surfski or my kayak. Besides that I will use the Suunto Ambit when I’m running, mountainbiking and hiking.
I have been using a Polar RS100 prior to the Suunto Ambit. It is a basic heart rate watch. The Polar RS100 have I combined with the Runkeeper application on my iPhone to evaluate my training. It is a little bit time consuming to compare the results. On my wish list was a waterproof watch with both integrated GPS and heart rate monitor that isn’t to big and ugly. Lets find out if the Suunto Ambit can do the work. A full review of the Suunto Ambit will follow later on.
I have used the watch for a couple of days. Last sunday I was planning for a shorter surfski trip, about 10km, to evalutae my traning with the Suunto Ambit. When I was about to launch my surfski I got company from Johan Linder who wanted a longer trip. We headed south to Valö with winds from the west. With winds from our right side we also got some balance training. The trip back to the kayak club became really hard because of the wind that swung almost to a headwind from north. Altogheter we paddled for 26,5 km and with an average speed of 9 km/h: Top speed was 18 km/h in the wake from a ferry.
The Suunto Ambit is neat. I have connected it to the foot strap for better ability to follow my progress during paddling.
Johan Linder is paddling his Zedtech Griffin in a very colorful hat. i’m struggling to keep up with him. He is planning to do the 24 hour paddling race in Malmö next weekend. Last year he finished in third place. He paddled approx 165 km in 24 hours.
My speed during the trip to Valö. You can notice the difference when we paddled protected from the wind and hardly no waves. From 20 – 25 min and 28 – 45 min we have an increase in speed when paddle with protection. From 60 min to 75 min the wind turns a little bit and we have it slightly from behind. About 10 km / hour with lower pulse rate.
It will be easier to evalutate speed in different surfskis and kayaks with the same workload.
We paddled to Valö south of Göteborg.
Today was the second raceday of the 2012 Eurochallenge. Today’s race was a 18 km downwind race and it is included in the World Ocean Series. The conditions wasn’t great for downwind paddling. Winds from the side and sometimes nice big swell, but slow, not really helping the paddler much. In the end of the race the wind swung around and they got a headwind. The paddling was more technical than yesterday and also more tactical. With 6 km to go Sean Rice made a move and took the leading position. Mocke tried a different line closer to the shore and McGregor went on a line further out from Rice trying to close the gap. Cotter and Van Gysen who stayed on the same line as Rice overtook him with 3 km to go. It became a hard and close race between those three. Cotter was put of with 2 km to go. Rice and Van Gysen finished with a long super sprint nose to nose. Van Gysen ended up winning again with a very close margin.
Show Eurochallenge Downwind Race 2012 on a larger map
Today was the first race of two in the Eurochallenge 2012. The second race isthe downwind race tomorrow. The prizes are given to the winner with the best combined time of the two races. The points from the downwind race tomorrow will be included in the World Ocean Series. Today’s race was a classic 20 km course. With hardly no wind and no waves. It became a very close race were a group of four rushed to the top, Jeremy Cotter from Australia, last years winner Sean Rice, the kayak marathon ICF world champion Hank McGregor and Simon Van Gysen, all from South Africa. Sean Rice made a move about half way into the race. But when only 3-4 km left of the race the following three were able to catch up. Simon Van Gysen won the race after a thrilling finish in front of Hank McGregor and Sean Rice.
Dagens tävlingsbana
Nordic Kayaks has started to produce their new surfski. It is named Nitro and measure 640 cm x 43 cm according to news update from Nordic Kayaks. Nordic Kayaks are already producing the surfski models Fusion and Rapido 2.0. I tested the Fusion last weekend. It is very fast and stable on flat water. I will test the Rapido 2.0 next weekend during the Surfski Spring Camp in Sweden.
The Nitro surfski from Nordic Kayaks
The biggest surfski competition in Europe, the EuroChallenge, is coming up this weekend. It is held in Villa Joyosa outside Alicante in Spain. 139 participants have registered for the competition. Two of them are Swedes, Ola Ström from Malmö och former olympic racing silver medalist Tommy Karls from Nyköping. Tommy finished in 9th place last year and will hopefully advance this year. Top three from last year is planning to start this year aswell. Sean Rice, Dawid Mocke and Hank MacGregor, all from South Africa. The outsider for this year race is Jeremy Cotter from Australia. Cotter has been really good during the season and is the paddler that may challenge the South African trio. The race day is not decided. It has a 3 day window to get the best downwind conditions.
But I will put my money on a Fenn paddler…
Link to the official website: EuroChallenge.
Surfski touring with minimal equipment sounds like an great idea. Most surfskis do not have any large storage capacity. My friend Patric has made a hatch in his Zedtech Griffin to be able to bring some gear. We have discussed making a over night surfski trip were we do not bring any gear besides dry clothes and a credit card. Last weekend we checked the weather forecast. Winds from north east and north for two days. A perfect opportunity to try credit card surfski touring.
Packing the surfski at Stenungsund.
We are having a short break
First day we paddled from Stenungsund to Marstrand. 25 km.
We launched our surfskis in Stenungsund. My girlfriend Gabriella then drove the car back to Göteborg. First day it was very easy paddling with a nice smooth down wind, 12 knots. We just enjoyed the scenery and got us a nice paddling trip to Marstrand. In Marstrand we checked in at the hostel Båtellet. Not fancy but they were really service minded. We could wash up our clothes and paddling gear. They stored the gear in the boiler room to get them dry. Very nice. Marstrand is not fully opened for the season but we had dinner at the resturang Maritime. Really good food but the service couldn’t match the price for the food.
The view from the Hostel
Hake and beer was yummy but pricey!
After having dinner we took a walk around the island and the old fortress. Then we went to the supermarket to buy breakfast and lunch for the next day. We had a good night’s sleep before we started paddling the next day. The weather forecast was changed. Instead of wind from north we had winds from east. That meant head wind for the start and winds from the side later on. Not as easy as the first day. Eventually the winds turned to north west later on and we had some down wind the last 10 km.
Paddling from Marstrand to Goteborg. Total 34,6 km. We started with head wind from the east. The wind turned to Nortwest later on and we had a nice downwind the last 10 km.
Surfski touring with minimal gear and a credit card was a great concept. I will definitely try it again. We had nice surfski trip. Total distance of 60 km in two days.
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