Did anybody else do a down-wind today?

wildrich — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Today was awesome..

No other way to put it really, it simply was a crazy paddle with a good friend, whom just happened to arrive back from a successful overseas lifesaving tour less than 24 hours ago!

Author to friend: "My bru 3.30 my place don't be late!" Jasper: "I'm there china!"

(Bru/China = mate, homie, bra, bro 0r friend!)

3.25pm Phone Rings Jasper: "I'm gonna be 10 minutes late." Turns out to b [...]

Waiting to watch the Molokai

wildrich — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Howsit folks

So here we are? Three days out from the start of the most famous surf ski race on the planet the Molokai!

I was very privileged to be able to compete in the 2007 edition and what an experience it was, apparently one of the toughest ever due to the extended finish section! Which added an extra 10 or so kilometres? (By the way, I admit, I sat in the seat of my ski for 7 hours and 4 seconds!)

Lewis Laughlin came home to victory deservedly so after 10 straight ye [...]

A Tale of Two F%*# - ups

Louis — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I have a mailing list of around 100 regular paddlers in and around Cape Town that I use to organise group paddles - something essential in these parts, as I consider it dangerous to paddle alone.

I recently posted the following, and was subsequently requested by Alain Jaques to post it on this blog for a wider audience. I do so humbly and hope I can get some form of reaction to it.

In South Africa we recently had 2 successive long weekends - which of course meant paddling, paddlin [...]

Fun Paddle with the Mocke

robin.mousley — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Magic paddle last night from Fish Hoek...

I'd rushed down to the beach, expecting to have a hard slog on the "circuit" from Fish Hoek via Simonstown harbour to Ark Rock to Roman Rock and back to Fish Hoek.

This is a good training paddle, but not my idea of "fun" - more like hard work!

The guys were already getting on the water when I arrived and by the time I'd changed, ripped the boat off the car & run down to the water they'd already sta [...]

St Francis to JBay

wildrich — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0100

St Francis to JBay, as told by Jasper Mocke...........

I hooked up with PE hell man Richard von Wildemann on Sunday to do my second St Francis to JBay downwind. This famous piece of coastline is home to some of the world's leading surf spots like Super Tubes, Seals and Bruce's to name a few and then some not so famous one's not to be named...sorry! Being a conservative Cape Tonian I was in for one hell of a day!

Pre-mission.........

Sitt [...]

What the best do after a long 'grind'!

wildrich — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The Challenge

wildrich — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The Challenge
Port Elizabeth to East London, Hell for four days, 244km of scenic paddling, headwind, downwind, sharks, whales, pods of dolphins, sea birds, giant waves, warm days, ‘bloody' hot days, legends and myths, but most of all camaraderie between men and woman who attempt it who complete it.
It started out as a silly bar room bet between two friends maybe after too many beers were consumed, we'll never know! Anyhow both of these men had the name [...]

History

wildrich — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Surf- Ski-ing in South Africa. Author Unknown.
(First published in Souvenier Programme of SA Surf Life Saving Championships hosted by Pirates SLC at Country Club Beach, Durban. 21 April 1957.)

The Empire Games, Sydney Australia in 1938 can be said to mark the beginning of ski-ing in the surf of South Africa. A rough sketch brought back by the well-known swimming coach, Mr. Alec Bulley, was mod [...]

Millers Run

robin.mousley — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

It's funny how the best downwind runs are often not the ones where you're battling gigantic waves in gale force winds...
(Although my two "gale-force" paddles this season were both near the top in terms of fun...)
Endorfin-starvation
I've had family from overseas staying with us for the last three weeks and some more have just arrived. (My cousin has an artificial knee which seems to have developed a "late-stage infection" - a good [...]

My first time.

wildrich — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The first time I ever did a down wind was back in October 2003 with a then novice Andrew Skowno. We were still friends back then, but as a result of my crazy antics and ‘silly' downwind run's its me who calls the other most when the wind blows!

I can remember the day as if it (yes) were yesterday. It will ever remain an awesome downwind for me the wind was pumping 30 knots plus with a big groundswell ‘running' up the coast. The water was [...]

Surfski World Map

Alain Jaques — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100

From the start Surfski.Info was about making Surfski information accessible and creating an online community of Surfski enthusiasts. Today we launch functionality that will make this more possible.
Imagine a world map with marker pins identifying Surfski related enterprises across the globe. Imagine if you could zoom down to your city and get a view of surfski enterprises in your neighbourhood together with a description of the business and the contact details. Well that is what we hop [...]

Too extreme?

robin.mousley — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100

How hard do you push before it's too far?
We did a really hairy Buffels Run today.
The wind was blowing hard, in excess of 30kts at Roman Rock, but wind that strength is not normally an issue - in fact a Millers Run is hardly worth it if the wind isn't blowing that hard.
What was different today was the swell - it was coming in from the SE so, although it wasn't forecast to be very big (8.5-11ft at 6sec) it was coming straight into the bay - normally [...]

Extreme Millers Run

robin.mousley — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Saturday 19th January 2008
I called Dawid Mocke: "It's gusting 45kt right now at Roman Rock," I said. "Great!" he said, "have fun! (Why are you are calling me?)"
"Well, I want to know if it's sensible to go out in wind that strong," I said.
"Of course, it'll be a jol! Who are you going with?"
"Jean Austin, from East London."
"Oh he'll be fine. Go for it! [...]

Downwind Practise

robin.mousley — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100

What a weekend - three Millers Runs in three days... two on the Red7 Surf70 Pro and one on the V10Sport Ultra...
The Theory
Friday's effort was the smallest - 10-15kts with small waves, but perfect for practicing "crest riding", the technique shown me before Christmas during a fascinating session with Oscar Chalupsky. He'd first coached me on the waves, mostly telling me to stop paddling early and start paddling early, then he'd demon [...]

Buffels Run

robin.mousley — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Had a great paddle last night with Dawid Mocke & a couple of other stalwarts: from Buffels Bay to Fish Hoek in a 30-38kt southeaster (according to the weather station at Roman Rock). Of course when I say "with Dawid Mocke", we didn't exactly paddle with him - more accurate to say that we saw him on the ramp at Buffels and then again at the Fish Hoek SLS Club where he'd arrived, showered, changed and was on his way home by the time we arrived on the beach!

Surfski.Info on your cell phone

Alain Jaques — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Surfski.Info has grown to be a site with a tremendous amount of information and technology behind it. I am unashamedly a technology freak so when I see something cool I like to incorporate it into this site.
Did you know for instance that you can browse a scaled down version of surfski.info from your cell phone or other mobile device? Well you can, and it works pretty well. That is because we [...]

Surfski.info in 2008

robin.mousley — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

2007 was a fun year for us.
We pioneered live coverage with the Molokai challenge in May and by the end of the year were doing it as a matter of course for all the big races.We were invited by the organisers of the Dubai Shamaal race to go to Dubai to cover the race - we worked hard and blew the site ten minutes after the race ended - our ISP pulled the plug on us because so many people were watching (and continously reloading the page) that our site was using 95% of the power of a [...]

Rob's Surfski Blog

robin.mousley — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Welcome to Surfski.info's blogs...
Hmm... I have no idea where this will go or how other people will see it.
Cape Point Challenge
The CPC is in two day's time on 22 December 2007. Am I ready? Difficult to tell. I'm nervous to be honest. I'd done a fair amount of training a couple of months back, but what with trips to Dubai, pressure at work and time taken out to run surfski.info, I'm not sure I've done adequate milea [...]

Blog Entries for Rob Mousley

Did anybody else do a down-wind today?

Waiting to watch the Molokai

A Tale of Two F%*# - ups

Fun Paddle with the Mocke

St Francis to JBay

What the best do after a long 'grind'!

The Challenge

History

Millers Run

My first time.

Surfski World Map

Too extreme?

Extreme Millers Run

Downwind Practise

Buffels Run

Surfski.Info on your cell phone

Surfski.info in 2008

Rob's Surfski Blog