Super Stable Just Got Better: Nordic Kayaks’ Flow Leads the Surfski Pack Beyond the Epic V8

Epic Kayaks redefined the stable surfski market approximately 16 years ago with their iconic V8 model. Before 2010, When Epic V8 was introduced, the most stable surfskis were Epic V10 sport and Fenn XT. Compared to Epic V10 and Fenn Elite V10 Sport and Fenn XT were amazingly stable. Thanks to that additional stability many more paddlers were able to enjoy the surfski sport. That was about to change because an even more stable type of surfskis were about to emerge and make open water paddling even more accessible. 

Back In 2010, I personally didn’t see the need to make any more stable surfski. My personal goal was to be able to paddle the fastest and most speed optimised surfski model I could get my hands on. At around the same time I was working for Epic Kayaks managing their dealership network in Europe. I often had conversations with Oscar and his ideas about how to grow the surfski market. He called one such idea the 18X Cross-Trainer. That was a very stable surfski meant as a tool to convert sea kayakers to surfski paddlers. It was supposed to be based on the Epic 18X Sport sea kayak featuring a complete surfski cockpit setup. Oscar had been pushing for the release of that surfski for a wile but he had made very little headway trying to persuade the rest of Epic Kayaks shareholders and operations managers about the viability of such a project. 

The idea of super stable surfskis wasn’t foreign to Epic as they previously had an even more radicaly stable “surfski” model (not exactly a surfski) I actually wanted to buy on behalf of my boss at the time to keep on his yacht. The “surfski” was called GP Sport and it was a sit on top composite kayak without a rudder made on the bases of GPX kayak.  I learned later on that the “rudderless surfski” was directly competing  against 3-4 times cheaper sit on tops made in plastic construction and very few buyers would spend 3000 USD on a lightweight kayak they could buy for 500-600 USD although it was also much heavier that the composite option. Epic abandoned the GP Sport. 

So back to 2010, Oscar had finally persuaded Greg Barton and the rest of Epic Kayaks management that the 18 X cross trainer was a viable project they should pursue. At the design stage there were some disagreements starting from the “cross-trainer” features and ending with the name it would be marketed under. Curiously, at a bout the same time, another player in the kayak manufacturing world was making a move toward the super stable surfski although they ended up releasing that model to the market in early 2012. Unknown to anyone at Epic, Andre Santos at Nelo was busy converting their Viper 55 fitness kayak to a stable surfski, which eventually became the Nelo 55 surfski. Andre and Nelo had came to a similar conclusion (the need to develop a very stable surfski) working from a very different angle. Andre shared with me in a phone call that they had a very successful sit/in fitness type of kayak, the Viper 55 and his goal was to make the Viper safer and more user friendly for paddlers who liked to venture at open water and waves. “We were selling many Viper 55 kayaks, especially in Scandinavia, and we leaned into that proven and very popular model, we made the needed changes in the volume and tweaked the rocker a bit to make it work better in choppy conditions.” The idea was to provide fitness paddlers with a racy stable sit on top option, which would be ideal for quick remount and paddling in open water more safely. 

Back at Epic the final details of the design were completed and a decision was made not to include side handles into the design. The idea was that such a feature would be a good upgrade for the eventual second generation Cross-Trainer, now officially named the V8. That was a mistake as the 54 cm wide surfski was very hard to manage single handedly at the beach going to and from the water. Nelo went directly for the side handles at approximately the same time Epic decided to add them on as well. 

The ultra stable surfski niche was born and soon every manufacturer released their equivalent. Fenn came up with the Bluefin, Think released Zen and Carbonology developed the Cruze. At one point there was a bit of a controversy in the surfski world when Vajda decided to release their stable surfski variant called the Oscar. The boat resembled some of the same features as the v8 although a pronounced keel line was introduced to the design. The controversy was mainly about using Oscar’s name. 

I personally was a skeptic about V8 and you could read in more detail here about how I changed my mind on the subject. The hard facts were that V8 quickly became the most popular surfski Epic had ever released outnumbering the sales of all the other surfski models Epic was selling combined. 

Over the years since 2010 the V8 factually held the #1 one spot in terms of balance between speed and stability, comfort and agility. I have done at least 30-40.000 km downwind in the V8 and had a blast! The surfski was unchallenged overall. Some models challenged the performance but didn’t meet the stability factor of the v8 and others were just as stable but didn’t perform all that great in downwind conditions. V8 was surely the king and there was no viable challenger…until 2026. 

Back in 2025 when Nordic Kayaks decided to become a partner brand at the Surfski Center I asked them for their most stable surfski model. That was the Club 540. At first I had some reservations to the design mainly because of the dull colours - Grey surfski with green decls. Those choses didn’t exactly match there character of the surfski. Gordan told me:

"I like the Club 540, it is a neat stable surfski perfect for Tarifa. But you know what, I like far better our 8-9 kg carbon prepress material. That is the true DNA of Nordic Kayaks."

"Well, then why not make a Club 540 in Carbon construction? You have the moulds already. What is stopping you?"

"It is not that simple. You know our carbon boats are baked at high temperature and 4 bar pressure chamber, Autoclave. The moulds we use for the Club series can’t handle the curing process. We need high temperature and high pressure resistant moulds." 

"By the way, have you thought about using a different name for the surfski? I don’t feel that Club 540 really matches the character of the boat. Even the heavier fibreglass construction is such a brilliant surfski to carve downwind, it really flows with the runs!"

"Funny that you used the word Flow. I have been speaking to Jurgen (Previous owner and operator at Surfski Sport in Germany) and he used the exact same word to describe it. Look, I don’t like to make promises unless I am sure it is going to happen. For now I will only tell you that we are working on something and you will be the first to know when it is ready." 

Several months later in late 2025 Gordan in formed me there were a couple of Flow surfskis in their container to Germany and that one was designated to Tarifa…great!

I finally got the Flow in Tarifa in December. Oh yes! It was better than I expected. 

Before I comment on the surfski let me make one, far from modest, claim first. In the past 15 years working in Tarifa I have paddled in stable surfskis approximately 60.000 km. That is V8, V8 Double, V5, V7, Bluefin, Nelo 520, NK Club 540, Carbonology Cruz…and NK Flow. In the past several years my average mileage per year is approximately 5.000 - 5.500 km range almost exclusively downwind. My claim is that I am probably the person with most downwind mileage in stable surfskis downwind in the world and my first thought when I tried the Flow was “Oh, Epic is in trouble.”

If you ask me to use three words to describe this surfski I would use: 

Comfort Manoeuvrability Lightweight 

If I had to use only one word: 

FLOW!

I still believe that V8 is a great choice for a stable surfski but Nordic Kayaks have clearly set a new higher standard at the super stable surfski market and it will be interesting to see how the other brands will respond to the challenge. 

A full detailed review of the Flow is coming shortly and in the mean time enjoy some footage from the last few months.