The 2009 Doctor -- a 27-km downwind run from Rottnest Island to Scarborough Beach in Perth -- featured a Who's Who of aquatic beasts. Second-place finisher Jeremy Cotter was nine seconds ahead of Dawid Mocke, who held off Murray Stewart, who sprinted to the line with Reece Baker, who was less than a minute ahead of downwind maestro Dean Gardiner. 

Perth, Australia: Freshwater's Tim Jacobs today became the first man to win back-to-back Doctor ocean ski events in hot, flat, unforgiving conditions in Perth [Editor: actually the second: Oscar Chalupsky won in 2005 and 2006!].

Last weekend's Doctor race in Perth ended with one of the tightest finishes ever as Tim Jacobs and Bruce Taylor charged the finish; TJ did the business as the two men ran up the beach to claim his first victory in the race.

Tim Jacobs and Bruce Taylor hit the beach together in one of the closest finishes of any surfski race - phenomenal when you consider they'd just raced for 27km and an hour and forty minutes!  Here are some great images of the finish from Malcolm Peacock - and a video clip from Rambo!

Bruce Taylor lead for almost the entire race today – but Tim Jacobs pulled alongside and the two men took the same wave into the beach and it came down to the run up the beach...

South African Dawid Mocke has named IronMan superstars Zane Holmes and the Eckstein brothers, Shannon and Caine, as his biggest challengers when he lines up to defend his title in The Doctor Surf Ski World Cup, Australia’s richest ocean paddling race on January 22.

The world’s top ocean paddling athletes will meet in Perth in January when the nine-day Doctor Festival of Paddle Sports brings together athletes from all over the globe for a series of major races.

In addition to the Fenn Cup and Bing Lee/LG ocean series on the East Coast of Australia, the West Coast will also be showing off our coastline and awesome downwind conditions by holding a summer race series. Some races from both series are included in the new national series as well.

{mosimage} 

There are many factors that influence the success or failure of an event.  We have control over most of these but the weather is the one thing that will always be a thorn in the side of the organizers and has the potential to completely destroy what the particular event and its managers had set out to achieve.

Skis on the ferry (Pic: Mark Donaldson)

The resurgence of Australian surfski paddling continued today in Perth as Aussies took first and second place in near perfect racing conditions.  Three time Olympic medalist Clint Robinson won by an extraordinary distance with Jeremy Cotter (Aus) and Dawid Mocke (SA) dicing for second and third.

{mosimage}