Craft Selection and Tai Tonga 41 Marathon

A busy weekend just been....work and sneaking out for the odd quiet session on the water. I met another surf ski paddler out on the water at the weekend. He'd just bought a surf ski at a bargain price........where have a I heard that one before...."give me a dime...." as the saying goes.

In Wellington our weather can best be described as "adventurous" so when we get a surf ski, waka ama or SUP the equipment it has to be within our ability.
My favourite saying is "Working above your pay scale" this applies really well to our choices of craft, and our weather which is the main demon that we're not looking at carefully.

People often say I want a boat that will challenge me........if our weather doesn't offer this already!!

So getting back to our guy he bought a boat that is way above his pay scale and quite frankly the majority of people I come across do exactly the same.

When it gets really rough on the water, you have a tippy boat...........a person with a slightly more stable boat just comes up and passes you..........the same people in stable boats can do exactly the same on flat water as well.
Have a good think about it........if you disagree with my comments go and ask Nathan Faavae who is

a Professional athlete......message him on Facebook.

One last thing buy a craft that has a comfortable seat.........if you buy a surf ski for instance that you don't have to place a pad on the seat............and you can paddle it for 1.5 to 2 hours without getting a sore butt.............that's the measure of comfortable.

Don't muck around with any other skis that are uncomfortable..... go and try any Think Kayak surf ski first........then you'll know what the standard of what comfort is.

Sharlene is going ahead in leaps and bounds after choosing the very stable Think Big Eze at 14kg.......she's doing her apprenticeship on a stable ski...........and as you can see she is more than capable on my 10 kg race boat.

We headed up to Shelly Bay in some tricky little angled side swell....and she made it look easy.

This weekend is the annual Tai Tonga 41 Marathon it's based out of the Evans Bay Yacht and Motorboat Club there are 7 events from 9 am through to 1pm over two distances.
Marathon course is 12km - 15km
Short course is 8 km.
The event is open to all Waka Ama, Surf skis, open water kayaks and Stand Up Paddle Boards.
For all the info http://www.hoetonga.co.nz/

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