STEVE FARTHING / ENGLISH VERSION

World Masters Waveski Champion 2011



Name: Steve Farthing
Age: 45
Address: Australia

Occupation: I’m over working, now just surfing as much as I can;
Paddled Since: Waveski 1980, Kayak 2009
Other sports: anything that involves waves and a paddle

Website: Started up http://paddlepower.blogspot.com/, haven’t done much lately but there’s heaps of stuff on it. I’m a regular on facebook.

Main Sporting achievements: 2009 Masters World Kayak HP champ and 2011 Masters World Waveski champ. Heaps of other waveski results over the years but these are my 2 favourite trophies.

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WWST2011:
The 2011 Ocean Spirit World Waveski Titles in Santa Cruz Portugal was a well run event from the challenging surf conditions to the judging and organization, this event had professional written all over it. It was great to see the emergence of the young French talent, which has put the previously dominant countries of Australia and South Africa on notice by pushing up the performance level. You can check out the daily “Ocean Spirit on my mind” reports to get a good perspective of what went down.

GEAR:
Personally I think the waveski is close to the top of the design cycle. There are numerous brands available in the market. I chose wavemaster because the single to double concave is fast. But hey Virgile Humbert, the new world champ rides a KS and Pablo Arrouyss the world junior champ rides an Ombak, its pretty hard to go wrong these days.

Where’s the sport heading?
In one word, France! The time and effort invested in their junior development is now starting to pay off. Australia, South Africa, UK etc. need to do the same or they’ll just be left behind. In terms of competition structure, a fairer seeding system needs to be implemented. I’d like to see everyone ranked in in terms of their ability not whether they turned up to the last world titles of not. There were quite a few stacked heats in Portugal, which affected the whole dynamics of the event; hopefully it will be sorted out by Brazil. Another thing I would like to see is the Kayak and Waveski Worlds on alternate years and then we just might get some of the hot young kayakers giving waveski’s a go and vice versa.

BRAZIL 2013:
I’ll be there; I’d encourage everyone who’s got the competitive flair to go. World Titles are the best competition the sport has to offer and a great place to catch up with people with like-minded interests.

World Surf Kayaking Championships USA 2011:
I’ll be reporting for kayaksurf.net on the World Surf kayak Titles in North Carolina from Sept 28. If you’re on facebook, don’t forget to link yourself to Kayaksurf Portugal Facebook page, the one stop shop for all your waveski and surf kayak info. Its going to be a big show again, many of the worlds top riders have entered and I know the level and equipment has progressed a fair bit in two years, an air fest I think.

Last Words:
Be careful if you get into Waveski’s or Surf Kayaks, you might just become as addicted as I am.

Thanks Steve! And all the best for USA ;)

ALL PHOTOS / HERE:
http://www.kayaksurf.net/SteveFarthingWWST11.html