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!

I was paddling the Red7 Surf70. I really like this boat, gives me a safe feeling because a) it drains the cockpit so darn quickly and b) it's so easy to remount. Apart from that I just enjoy it in the downwind conditions.

Side-on wind

The first section of this paddle is pretty much side-on to the wind because you're actually heading NNE. Fortunately the wind wasn't quite so strong in this area and you could catch waves running across the tops of the swells which were also running from the SE. Of course there were some interesting constructive and destructive effects caused by the two sets of waves running into each other!

The water was relatively warm - 17.5C according to the sign board at Fish Hoek but it felt warmer than that.

The boat handled the confused seas very well and I never felt close to swimming.

Smits

Once beyond Batsata Rock on the south side of Smitswinkel Bay we could head directly north and start catching some of the runs - I found it quite difficult to catch the big swells directly - I think they were running fast with about a 13sec interval - so the trick that seemed to work was to get onto the smaller wind swells and then turn onto the swells that were heading diagonally towards the shore, then to turn work the boat back to the north once you'd accelerated onto the wave.

Partridge Point, on the north side of the bay was a maelstrom of water so we avoided it, making sure to pass well to the seaward.

Smits to Millers Pt.

There are a couple of reefs just after Smits that can provide "surprising" breaks for the unwary, but in the big seas they were breaking pretty spectacularly and were easy to see. I made sure to angle out to pass between Bakoven Rock (which marks the beginning of the "Millers Run") and Millers Point itself. I debated with myself whether to go to the seaward side of Bakoven so that I could record a Millers Run but decided against it... Pity, because looking back at my GPS track I think I'd have had a personal best for the run! Measuring from opposite the rock it looks as though it took me just under 44 minutes to get to Fish Hoek... Too bad.  [11/2: Just checked on my time again, actually I didn't do anything like 44 minutes - it was more like 50 minutes, which is not surprising in the conditions but disappointing!  I usually take about 47-48 minutes.]

Fastest Speed

I caught a couple of massive waves on the way to Roman Rock - one in particular seemed to be a combination of about three waves all piled on top of each other and I went down them like a toboggan going down three ski jumps. The view from the top was spectacular; I felt as though I was looking down a vertical wall of water - had enough time to think "woah!" before I launched over the drop with a couple of hard stokes. Then it was spray everywhere, crash, crash, crash and I was at the bottom of the wave flying over the next crest and onto the next one, OD'ing on adrenalin!

According to my GPS, my top speed was 27kph, nothing to the 40kph speeds recorded by the top guys but nevertheless pretty exceptional for me.

Roman Rock home to Fish Hoek

After watching some of the top guys on Millers Runs head straight down the coast before turning towards Fish Hoek, I've always tried to emulate them and it seems to work. There's almost always no better alternative to paddling the shortest route & a line that passes about 200m inside Roman Rock seems optimal. You always get great runs before and just after the lighthouse and then again just before the point to the south of Fish Hoek bay. The trick is to head directly for the point and then to catch the runs along the rocks, going just seaward of the reef at Sunny Cove where you can often pick up the shoulder of the breakers. Last night though the runs were just as good further out and my arch-nemesis Rob Brodie (who just beat me at Cape Point) and I were neck & neck as we came into the bay. After 22km of dicing we came in to the beach on the same wave.

Broken Paddle

One of the guys broke a paddle just off Smits. He said he heard a crack as he took a stroke and about eight strokes later the entire blade broke off about 4cm from the end of the shaft. He swam his ski into Smitswinkel Bay and got a lift back to Fish Hoek. Not so cool.

Technique

I'm working on the Oscar technique of "paddling early" and "stopping early" - theory being, get on the wave as soon as possible with a few "explosive" strokes and then stop paddling as soon as you're riding the crest. It's a frustrating business. I felt that I got it right a couple of times - I got onto the wave and sat there moving at speed without plunging into the trough, and was able to search the "quadrant" for the next dip, couple of hard strokes and onto the next wave. It's really satisfying to get it right.

At other times I think I stopped paddling too soon and teetered on the edge of the wave before it passed under me, leaving me wallowing. Or worse I started too slowly down the wave at an angle - when this happens the rudder acts like a drag: it doesn't turn the boat because you don't have the speed and you can't get speed because of the drag... aaarrgh! I tried releasing pressure on the rudder but the boat then broached. There were at least three monster runs that I lost in this way.

In our paddling group there's always a bit of a dice between the guys - and I was very aware that my buddy Rob Brodie was just ahead - there's nothing worse when you broach or wallow to see another ski tail up scooting down the next wave in front! You have to keep in mind that there's another wave coming right behind you and you need to set yourself up to catch that one and extend it as far as you can.

What a sport!

Jeez, I love this sport.

I've been thinking about why. I think it's:

• - The challenge of trying always to improve. I sometimes feel as though I'm just beginning to understand paddling - and I've just had my stroke changed quite radically in a session with Oscar Chalupsky who also gave me a coaching session on downwind paddling.
• - The challenge of paddling in big conditions. I get huge satisfaction from being competent to go out in extreme conditions - last night being a case in point. I remember a few years back when my feet used to sweat with anxiety as we drove up to Millers Point. These days I'm more focussed on trying to paddle well in such conditions - I'm passed the point of struggling just to survive in the conditions. (Mind you I'm really conservative about safety - last night I had PFD, flares, two leashes, mobile phone, VHF radio...)
• - The sense of being part of a sport that's in the process of taking off worldwide.

Running surfski.info has perks of course - I get to try all kinds of skis including, recently, the Fenn Mako Elite, Red7 Surf70 Pro and V10 Sport Ultra. Look out for reviews coming soon!