THE "SURF SKI TV" STORY:
Between 1998 and 2012, Billy Harker ran a national series of surfski paddling races in South Africa. At the time, few people knew what surfski paddling was all about and the vision was to feature the races on televisions to spark interest in the sport. Media coverage for the races initially followed the standard sporting event format:
Introduce the event to viewers, describe the venue, race course, conditions, notable paddlers, and discuss predicted outcomes.
Follow the race action as practically as possible given technical and logistical limitations
Interview category winners at the end of the race
As can be imagined, this monotonous approach quickly became boring and viewership eventually declined.
In 2007, Billy partnered with D4 Productions on the "Surf Ski TV" project. The vision for Surf Ski TV was to produce an entertaining television show which focused on the PEOPLE of surfski, paddling in cool places, having FUN.
During its five-year run Surf Ski TV was broadcast on popular media outlets including SuperSport and showcased hundreds of race series/events, prominent sponsors and notable personalities, and surfski community members having loads of fun on and off the water.
To this day people continue to talk about the show. It is an inspiration for this website.
Billy and Tracy Harker are also the founders of the South African performance sports apparel brand, Funky Pants! Get your pair of "ridiculously comfortable" funky pants today!