Sports World Nelson Mandela Bay and Dare2Paddle bring you a winter down wind surf ski series for the Eastern Cape starting 20th May 2006 with an away weekend to Cape St Francis for race 1. Over R10,000 worth of prizes for the introductory race of the new series, with a full breakdown of prizes and rules available on the website www.dare2.net.

GoZero Kayak Racing has added a surf ski class for 2006 on the Hudson River in New York State.

Some time ago, Billy Harker said: "We're going all out to set the standard for the World Cup series. This is going to be THE RACE by which all other World Cup races will be measured…"

Well, it looks as though reality is matching hype: the organising committee announced today that they have already secured R100,000 (approx $16,000) prize money with R40,000 (approx $6,500) going to the winner of the event. They hope to increase the prize pool still more as additional sponsors come on board. 

Here's the official word from Gavin Searle,  spokesman for the race committee...

April 2006, Puerto Rico: [Warm water, a 20 knot following wind, six foot waves, a twenty four mile race across open ocean… could this be surf ski paradise? Are we talking Hawaii?  Well, actually no – but the organizers hope that this race, the Culebra Kayak Challenge could grow to become a “Caribbean Molokai” and be included in future race calendars as a World Cup event.

The 1st annual Culebra Kayak Challenge was held April 9, 2006 and this race report was sent in by DeAnne Hemmens who was there with husband and fellow competitor Patrick. 

The spectacular photos are couresy of race organiser Greg Hernandez - look out for a video clip in the near future.]

Greg Barton at the Golden Gate

Day one singles, day two doubles.

Ocean Paddlesports, Wavechaser, Huki and Epic have all contribued equal cash to bring the prize purse to $10,000.....all of which will be given back to the paddlers.

Top 10 men, top 5 women and top 5 doubles.

[Snippets from surfski.co.nz March newsletter.]

King of the Harbour Update

Marty Helleur has managed to secure Air Tahiti Nui as a major sponsor of the 2006 King of the Harbour. North Shore City Council is also on board with various levels of sponsorship. It is exciting to have them on board, and will assist immensely us in putting on the first ever combined Surfski and V1 Outrigger World Cup. Top paddlers from South Africa, Australia and Tahiti have already registered their intention to come and race, with many continuing onto Tahiti the following weekend for the second World cup of 2006.  

[Editor: here's the second report from Jasper Mocke who is competing this week at the World Surf Lifesaving Championships in Geelong and Lorne, Australia. For full results surf on over to www.rescue2006.com]

Hey Alain.

We've had 5 days of competition so far. 3 of them were at the pool and two at the beach. Our girls did very well in the pool managing to get about 50 points which is double what we got two years ago. The boys were out of their depth and made no finals.

[Editor: here's the first report from Jasper Mocke who is competing this week at the World Surf Lifesaving Championships in Geelong and Lorne, Australia. The international team competition has been completed and Australia won ahead of New Zealand and South Africa. The inter-club competition, in many ways the more prestigious of the events is about to begin. Here are Jasper's first impressions...]

Hey Alain, just some feedback on my trip so far.

I arrived here last Sunday so I've been here for a week and I'm just starting to settle in now. The flight was very long and full so stretching out over a few seats wasn't possible. I went for a shower and swim in the Dubai airport which was pretty cool except that the water was freezing!