Susan and I did a pre-race run on the Broadkill in Lewes, DE this Friday afternoon. Next Saturday there will be a race with over 100 kayaks on this river so I wanted to check the run out before the race. This was primarily for my benefit since Susan has run this course something like 4 times already. She knows every turn by heart. This was also an opportunity for me to see Susan paddling her new surfski, the Mark 1. I've seen it in pictures and I've seen it on her van but I've never seen her paddle it. I also took it out for a spin.

So first impressions ... Susan is not yet "one with her surfski." And I think she is the first one to point that out. She didn't huli once on the 10 mile run but she clearly wasn't at ease. The lower half of her body is tense and straight. I really think she needs to spend some time getting to know the area of secondary stability on the ski. Amazingly she said Kathy, Cliff and Chris said the same thing! Hmmmm.

I took it out for a quick spin as well. My initial impression was it's much wider than the S1-A and slower. I could feel more drag when I was accelerating but once I got it up to speed it felt fine. I'm a little biased though. I love the S1-A!



But ... I kept the GPS on the whole time we were on the river and even though she paddled very intensely and tensely we still made good time. We took a few breaks to chat and for a gatoraid break and we still averaged a speed of about 5.4. I think she would do fine racing the surfski but I think she's going to race the Simon River Laser instead. It's just as fast as the surfski and a little more stable. They're expecting over 100 kayaks to enter the Broadkill. With all that frantic race boat wake she could huli in the surfski and that would throw the whole race off for her.

-Susanita