Author Topic: WAVESKI VS. SURF KAYAK  (Read 23229 times)

JohnnyMaya

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Re: WAVESKI VS. SURF KAYAK
« Reply #15 on: November 14, 2012, 07:56:11 AM »
I've only tried to ride a wave ski once and I failed miserably. Just sitting on the thing with my feet on the straps looked near impossible.

Anyway, waveskis and surf kayaks are just other ways of wave riding.

I live in Portugal, and besides being a SUP/Surf instructor, I am also a international surf judge by the portuguese surfing federation, ISA and now and then ASP. Since both these sports are done on waves, I sometimes get invited to judge some events, being the most relevant one the Waveski and Surf Kayak world cup here in Portugal, two or three years ago.

So, from a judge perspective what can I tell you:

CLASSES
We're talking about three different classes:

Waveski
They are actually called boards and they're built just like a surfboard or SUP EPS and glass fiber (give or take)

HP (High Performance)
Size - about 8 ft
Fins - yes

IC (International Class)
Size - minimum of 9 ft
Fins - yes but they must be ridden finless for competition purposes

Lets start with the IC. This kayak is obviously a bit slower than the others. It's longer hull make it a bit harder to ride on steeper waves and all the moves seem to happen in slow motion. In my opinion it's the most beautiful class to watch as in any critical turn the tail wil pop above the wave (due to the lenght of the boat and the non existence of fins) making huge rooster tails.

The HP. It surfs a bit faster and is a lot more agile than the IC. These boats can perform some truly unbelieveble moves as the helix, rolls, inverted airs, air reverses and rodeos. On the other hand as a mere watcher it seams to me that when the waves aren't pumping, it is the class that bogs the most.

Both these classes have three huge downsides to it.
- If you crash, the boat may get flooded and you're going to be swimming. Sometimes the boat will sink and it's a F%&#$%g nightmare to get the out of the water.
- Paddling out on a big shorebreak it's REALLY dangerous as you have to sit in the kayak on dry sand and then hump until you get in the water. I've seen some huge backflips into faceplants on the sand even before the riders manage to get in the water.
- They don't look any confortable, and often you see the riders stepping out of the boats with bleeding legs.

Then the waveski. It's the fastest and more high performance and surf like of the three.
By sitting on the ski, the surfer has more freedom to move and perform manouvres. Also, due to its size and shape, these boards will acelerate a lot more than the other two and when the surf gets big, it looks to me that the limits if these boards will be reached later than the kayaks.

I hope it was useful, and if any of the guys that have been riding these boats/boards thinks this is all wrong just let me know, because as i said before, this is just from a watcher's POV.

Johnny

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Re: WAVESKI VS. SURF KAYAK
« Reply #16 on: November 14, 2012, 08:22:27 AM »
The one advantage of a wave ski over SUP is that waist high waves on a SUP instantly turns into head high on a wave ski  ;)

 


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