The best moments of 2025
In May, Cory Hill and Pat Dolan duel it out for the Molokai win and record, paddling neck and neck until the final waves at China Wall.
Less than half an hour later, Danielle Richards’ smashes the women’s Molokai record with a time of 3:33:54, nearly 14 minutes faster than the previous record.
In October, Kira Bester glides through the famous Durban shorebreak to win her second world title, finally getting the better of Danielle (“Dani” / “DMac”).
Rosie Edwards’ GB teammates erupt in surprise and excitement when they see her pink boat and hat crest in the Durban shorebreak to take 3rd place behind Kira and Dani, a personal and national best.
Cory Hill strolls calmly up the beach toward the finish line in Durban, looking over his shoulder, asking the announcer – I won, right? All with the grin of a man who’s just become a 4-time world champion.
Those are just a few of the best moments of 2025 in surfski racing.
It’s been a great year in paddlesports, and to celebrate, Paddlecast co-hosts Betsy and Billy have awarded “Paddler of the Year” and “Paddle of the Year” accolades to the paddlers who impressed them most this year and who received the most nominations from Paddle Daily fans. The full episode of Paddlecast is available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Here are your 2025 winners and nominees for Surfski Paddler of the Year…
Surfski Paddler of the Year: Kira Bester
“I’ve somehow been the happiest, and the saddest I’ve ever been.”
That’s how Kira Bester summed up 2025.
She won almost every race she started, earned her second world title weeks before her 24th birthday, and proved that she could beat the women who’ve dominated the world’s most competitive surfski podiums since 2019: Danielle Richards and Jemma Smith.
Those were some of the happiest moments: the moments that solidified Kira as the 2025 Surfski Paddler of the Year. But those came after the saddest moment: losing her coach, Peter Cole.
After Pete suffered a heart attack on the water during a training session in July, his elite ORKA squad was left with a hole in their lives. In his honour, the squad came together to produce a season of phenomenal results. In the lead-up to the World Championships in Durban in October, Kira said on Paddlecast that training hard was a way to feel closer to him.
Kira’s training paid off in Durban, where she won her second world title, finishing 23 seconds ahead of Danielle.
As she crossed the finish line she pointed to her ORKA hat – a nod to Pete Cole and the role he played in helping her reach that goal. Although she’d already won her first world title in 2024, it was her first time winning ahead of Dani, one of her idols. That win marked a big step up for Kira and reinforced her place at the top. Just a few weeks later, she proved that she can beat Jemma too, even at her best race: The Doctor.
Kira won almost every surfski race she started in 2025:
- South Africa National Championships
- Freedom Paddle (SS2 with Melanie van Niekerk)
- Eurochallenge
- World Championships
- Mox the Dragon Run
- The ICF World Cup in Reunion
- WA Race Week (overall, including the West Coast Downwinder & The Doctor)
- Cape Point Challenge
But Jemma and Danielle are still very much in the mix, and got the best of Kira at the Pete Marlin (Danielle) and a couple of races during WA Race Week (Jemma). It may not be in 2026 that Kira/Danielle/Jemma all race against each other since Danielle announced her pregnancy in December, but whenever that trio does next match up, it’s sure to be a thrilling spectacle.
Surfski Paddler of the Year Nominees
In a year with many incredible performances, nominations came in from paddling fans around the world for their hometown favourites and international stars. Rosie Edwards, Cory Hill, Pierre Vilella, Nick Notten, Brynde Kreft, Jon White, and Nix Birkett all were deservingly among this year’s nominees.
Here’s a look at a few of those surfski paddlers who stood out in 2025 because of their Performance, Progress, and Potential:
Rosie Edwards
Earning Britain’s best surfski world result ever, Rosie outperformed even her own expectations when she won the U23 race at World Championships and finished 3rd fastest woman overall. She’s getting faster every year, and could well be sneaking into that first group in 2026 to challenge the likes of Kira/Dani/Jemma.
Cory Hill
The only thing keeping Cory away from 2025 Paddler of the Year is his own high standard.
2025 was Cory’s 4th World Championship title, an extension of his own record number of wins: no other paddler has more than 2 senior world titles. From 2015-2025, Cory won 4 out of 7 World Championships (he didn’t compete in 2021). Since the event started in 2013, he has made the podium all but once (2022).
Cory wasn’t quite unbeaten this year, but his worst result was 2nd. Perhaps his most exciting race of the year was one of the few where he did come 2nd – Cory just barely missed out on the Molokai win and record to Pat Dolan from Hawaii. The 3+ hour race, long considered the unofficial world champs for surfski before the ICF event began, had outstanding conditions and Pat’s local knowledge seemed to give him just enough of an edge to beat Cory and claim the new record of 3:09:44.
In the much bigger picture, 2025’s results have buoyed Cory’s case to be considered as one of the greatest surfski paddlers of all time, and probably the greatest of his generation.
Pierre Vilella
Pierre Vilella is a paddler on the rise, and 2025 is the year paddling fans around the world learned his name. The 26 year old Frenchman has been climbing the rankings at surfski world championships for a few years, and reached his best result yet in Durban: 2nd in the world behind Cory Hill. His presence on the podium was so unexpected that the commentary team had him mixed up with 2024 world champion and fellow Nordic Kayaks teammate Gordan Harbrecht for the first few kilometres of the race.
Surfski wasn’t the only place Pierre made his mark in 2025. It was his first season racing marathon kayak internationally, and he finished 12th in an extremely competitive field for the short course race at Marathon World Championships in Gyor, Hungary. Speaking to Paddlecast after his silver medal in Durban, Pierre said he thought the marathon training and competition was part of what helped him level up in the ski heading into Durban.
Although Pierre isn’t discussed in the Paddlecast Paddlers of the Year episode (his fan base came in with a flood of nominations, but it was after the episode had been recorded), the Durban recap episode of Paddlecast covers Pierre’s stand-out season, including Pierre in his own words.
Watch the full Surfski segment on Paddlecast for more on all the nominees and the final decision to award Surfski Paddler of the Year 2025 to Kira Bester:
Subscribe to PaddleDaily.com and follow Paddle Daily on Facebook or Instagram to make sure you don’t miss the official announcements for the remaining Paddler of the Year categories: Marathon Paddler of the Year, Sprint Paddler of the Year, and Paddle of the Year.
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