Rosie Edwards first Brit to win gold at surfski worlds

“Mind blown!” In a surprise even to herself, Britain’s Rosie Edwards snagged a gold medal last weekend at the ICF Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships in Durban. Rosie’s win in the Under 23 category makes her the first paddler from Team GB to win a surfski world championship. Australia and South Africa are the biggest strongholds of surfski paddling, but European surfski racing has come leaps and bounds in recent years and Rosie is leading the way for the UK.

Arguably even more impressive than her U23 win, Rosie finished in 3rd place overall amongst 70+ of the fastest women in the world. Kira Bester of South Africa finished first, taking her second world title in a row after her stunning win last year while she was still under 23. In second place was Danielle Richards (nee McKenzie) of New Zealand. Danielle (known widely as “Dmac” or “Dani”) is the 2021 surfski world champion and her match-up against Kira was much-anticipated since they hadn’t raced each other in 2024. Not only does Danielle have a profusion of titles in surf livesaving and surfski, she picked up flatwater sprint kayaking just a couple of years ago to help world record holder Aimee Fisher (NZL) qualify an additional K2 spot for the Paris Olympics.

In the company of two such “greats” ahead of her, Rosie was followed by big names as well: 2022 World Champion Michelle Burn (RSA), who as a local was a favourite for navigating tricky conditions smoothly, and some of South Africa’s best young talent: Jade Wilson, Georgia Singe, and Saskia Hockly.
Rosie has had some great results including winning the overall women’s title at the 54km Cape Point Challenge in South Africa last year, and winning the Female Ski Final at the Surf Life Saving GB Shaw and Partners World Ocean Series Newquay a few months ago. But the U23 Gold and Senior Bronze medals were beyond even Rosie’s wildest dreams: “It was beyond my expectations completely. I’ve only ever gotten European medals before… I worked it out that if I have the most amazing Worlds race this year and if someone doesn’t have their best, then I could potentially get a 3rd in the Under 23. And that’s a push, and that’s my goal… And then we were paddling, and I looked around at where I was, and I was like ‘Wow’.”

Rosie is based in Cornwall and often races locally, including at the “Rock up and Race” Friday evening event held at Gyllyngvase Surf Lifesaving Club during the summer. Her strong background in lifesaving helped her navigate a famously difficult shore break at the finish on Westbrook Beach — plenty of experienced surfski paddlers did not come out of this shore break well, but Rosie made it look easy.
To hear more from Rosie, including a recap of her race in Durban and how she’s achieved such a brilliant result, listen to the next episode of Paddlecast, coming out soon on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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