Peter’s Paddling Blog

Saturday I picked up a surf kayak in Copenhagen. Build in carbon, weight 8 kg, three fins, space for my long legs, I got it second hand for a good price and it’s red even – Hurray!

The kayak was manufactured by Radical Moves which no longer seems to be in existence. They apparently had a strange way of naming their kayaks. The model I got is a Hooker!

I haven’t actually been surfing with it yet but used it for the Monday rolling session in the sea kayak club. The kayak is average for back finishing rolls. I could only handroll it with some effort. Forward finishing rolls are fine. I consistently forward-forward rolled it with a throwing stick.

Surf Machine

Surfing in real surf kayaks is very much in its infancy in Denmark. I doubt there are 20 surf kayaks around in all. So I did some research to find out what surf kayaking really is about.

I was surprised discover that Surf kayaking is not a discipline organized by ICF the International Canoe Federation. Rather the international competitions are organized by The World Surf Kayak Association. Still at least one national canoing federation, the BCU has taken surf kayaking under its wings

The annual Tour de Gudenaa race is coming up in less than two weeks so I have limited time for playing around in the new kayak.