Surfski Survey:

In 2006 NESurfski asked its readership to answer score the performance of the skis they had used. Categories included stability, speed and how easy the ski was to remount. The results are included below:

Thanks to all the responses to the survey. Below are the results for each category. The surfskis included are those regularly seen in the North East of the USA. The ocean conditions here differ dramatically to those found on the US West Coast and even more from conditions off the Australian, South African and New Zealand coasts. The differences in conditions may have affected the results - most responders were local paddlers.

While many local surfski racers have a strong background in K1 or sea-kayak racing, the results may also have been affected by the relatively novel experience of surfskiing here. For example, the Fenn Millennium may have done better if the survey had got more responses from paddlers with many more years of ski racing.

That said, the purpose of the survey was to provide data for local paddlers who are interested in starting to paddle skis. Therefore, the fact that most responses came from relatively new ski paddlers may mean the data is more pertinent to newbies.

No surprises that the faster the ski, the less stable it is (see last graph for comparison). Consequently, the skis that score well for speed score less well for stability. This results in the overall score (mean of all scores) being similar for all skis.