Another Broken Ski

Having not been out on a surf ski, or paddle boat of any description for a while I was quite excited to get out there on Saturday. There was some decent surf rolling in at around 2-3 foot and little wind but the waves were still a bit messy. Not ideal for board surfing but it looked good for some relaxed surf-skiing in the waves.

I carried my boat over, jumped on and reacquainted myself with the ‘tippyness’ then powered out through the waves. As always, it was a little bigger than it looked out there but I was soon out the back without mishap. I picked off my first wave and had a nice surf back towards the beach before paddling out to do it again. The second wave was equally as good and as I pulled off the back the crest of the wave broke onto the nose of the boat. I stayed on at first but then over-balanced once the wave caught the back of the boat and pulled me backwards.

Not a problem as I could quickly remount before the next wave came, but upon doing so I noticed a big crack along the nose of the boat. I’m not sure if it was there before I started paddling today or if it had developed whilst paddling out or even on that last wave, but with a crack more than a foot long in the side of the boat it was time to call it a day. I paddled back out so that I could turn around and then caught a final wave back into the beach.

Now I have to decide what to do. Getting it repaired is never easy, especially around here so I might be in the market for another new one. It does however seem a shame to just resign it to the back of the boat rack to rot away with the other broken boats. Someone somewhere must be able to repair it.

I have been in contact with someone who might be willing to part-exchange it for another boat, but the boat he has isn’t really suitable. I guess I’ll have to see if he’s interested in just buying it, maybe along with the other ski that has been sitting on my boat rack for a while in need of repair. If he’s willing to do that I have options on new or ex-demo si relatively locally so might son be making a trip to Fishguard to try some out. It’s an expensive business though with boat prices rangin from about £2000 to £4500, I’m not sure I really get enough use out of them to justify it.

Tags: Surf Ski