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By Rob Mousley
 With his victory in the 2005 Men’s Health Cape Point Challenge, Dawid Mocke became South Africa’s National Surf Ski Champion. Some might argue that this makes him one of the best, if not the best in the world. Consider his wins this year:
Not only did he win the New Zealand King of the Harbour (April) and the 46km Scottburgh to Brighton race (July) – both for the second consecutive year – and the US Surf Ski Championships in San Francisco (September), he won all but one of the Discovery Men’s Health Series races in Cape Town that he entered and came second in the one that he lost when he fell off his ski. In December he dominated the gruelling 56km Men’s Health Cape Point Challenge, considered by many to be the toughest Surf Ski race in the world.
The resounding win in the Cape Point Challenge (more than five minutes clear of the next competitor) helped purge the disappointment of the first leg of the World Cup in Perth where his ski sank under him (damaged in transit) during the first race and he was disqualified for missing a buoy in the second.
So who is Dawid Mocke & what makes him such an outstanding paddler?
Dawid was born in Cape Town in 1977 and started surf lifesaving as a “nipper” when he was 11. Although paddling formed part of his lifesaver training, the 1.82m, 83kg athlete only started surf ski competitively some five years ago. His first long distance race was the Cape Town King of the Harbour race held in 2000 when he came tenth.
What’s Dawid like? For an elite athlete, he’s surprisingly approachable. Quiet and modest, he has time to talk to anyone. Given a class of aspirant ski paddlers though, he’s a bundle of energy, a walking, talking (yelling) inspiration machine.
He married Nikki 3 years ago having met her on Fish Hoek Beach “one of the benefits of paddling!” She’s one of the world’s top female surf ski paddlers and she and Dawid make a formidable duo in any competition. (Nikki won the women’s division of the 2005 Cape Point Challenge, coming 18th overall - by far the best result ever by a woman.) Once they get “too old” to compete in single skis, they’ll start paddling mixed doubles. “Then the other guys had better watch out!”
Winners of the Cape Point Challenge
They do train together, but how much does Dawid have to slacken off in order for Nikki to be able to keep up? “Well…” says Nikki, “I’d say about…” “50%” interjects Dawid. Nikki laughs. “No, seriously, if we’re doing a long paddle, I can sit on his slip and keep up; if we’re doing sprints, I can sit for a while but I’ll drop off. I guess if he went at 80%, I’d keep up.”
Dawid paddles a Red7 Surf 70 Ski and a Vajda K1 (made under license by Knysna Kayaks). When asked whether he prefers surf ski to K1, he says he enjoys the purity and simplicity of K1, but he loves the excitement and unpredictability of surf ski (“you can die on a surf ski!”).
Dawid is sponsored by Men’s Health; New Balance; Fast Fuel and Red7.
The first time I met him, I asked what he did when he wasn’t paddling. He answered, “Find ways to do more paddling!” Mocke’s talent is, he says, God given, but, simply put, he’s a training machine. Here’s the routine that he followed for the three months before the Cape Point Challenge:
- Tuesday-Friday: swimming and running in the morning; paddling (sprints) and gym in the afternoon.
- Saturday: long paddle (long means 30km plus)
- Sunday: race plus an hour (he says this simulates the fatigue of a long race.)
King of the Harbour
When asked whether he thought this year’s Cape Point Challenge was harder than the 2003 race, he answers diplomatically, “Well I felt more tired this year after the race!”
Favourite Moments
His favourite paddling moments? Although he enjoys a good downwind run, his absolute best moments are when it’s calm and still; on a lake early in the morning or on the sea when the water’s clear and calm and he’s paddling right next to the rocks. He often talks about taking a moment for reflection and it’s easy to see that this is someone who truly loves nature. This has its drawbacks though; he says that he drives his K2 partners bananas by stopping to appreciate the scenery – sometimes in mid-race…
His best moment on the ski? Out of a “whole stack” of highlights (“awesome things happen on a surf ski”), one moment stands out: “during the US Surf Ski championship in San Francisco, on a run heading back towards the Golden Gate Bridge with Alcatraz just beyond”, it struck him how lucky he was to be where he was doing what he was doing... another “moment of reflection”.
His worst moment? “A whole raft of those too”. The worst was probably “being out at sea off Buffels Bay near Knysna at 10 o’clock at night in 15ft surf in the pitch darkness.” He was out with fellow elite paddler Matt Bouman at the time. “We really thought we were going to die” he says seriously – and then grins, “Matt was much more scared than I was!” I asked for details but he clammed up – a story for another day, perhaps.
Surf Ski School
Dawid is the founder of Surf Ski School in South Africa, and he claims that the company is responsible for introducing over a thousand people to the sport.
He started the school three years ago. There are now three branches; two in Cape Town and one in Durban. The growth in the attendance numbers indicates that the sport is in a healthy and growing state (“just ask the manufacturers – they’re going crazy”). From a small teaching practice, the company now sells skis, paddles and clothing from the Fish Hoek branch and products will soon be available from the other branches too.
US Surf Ski Championships
How does he balance training with work? Training is his work. The Surf Ski School sessions are usually in the evening or on Saturday morning – and so don’t interfere with his training schedule.
The Dreaded S-word
The Fish Hoek branch has had one encounter with a shark and the students have been called out of the water a number of times. The single encounter was “interesting” as a very large great white cruised through the bunch of students. I asked Dawid whether he thought sharks represented a threat. He’s very upbeat about the precautions that are taken in the area; Fish Hoek Beach is protected by watchmen on the mountain who are in constant communication with the beach by radio. The moment a shark enters the bay, it’s spotted and the siren is activated warning swimmers and paddlers to get out of the water.
In addition, Surf Ski School and the surf lifesaving club have recently invested in three Shark Shield units, electronic gadgets that project an electric field into the water. They’re either attached to buoys or to instructors’ skis to provide a refuge in times of need.
Between the shark watchers and the shark shield units, Dawid reckons Fish Hoek bay is safest place on the coast to swim and paddle.
Canoe South Africa
Dawid represents Surf Ski at provincial level at Canoe South Africa, the sport’s governing body. When asked about development paddling, he replied that there is a program, but the emphasis is on making a real contribution as opposed to a token effort.
Asked about the benefits that CSA affiliation has brought, he says the most obvious one is that it has brought about the development of the Surf Ski World Cup series. Next year the races will be held in New Zealand, Durban South Africa, San Francisco, Perth and Tahiti.
South African Paddling
South Africans took the top five places in the World Cup event in Perth. And that was without Dawid who didn’t feature in either of the two races. I asked him why South Africa is so strong in Surf Ski. He thinks that it’s partly the conditions that we have off our coast. “Only the Hawaiian conditions come close; there is nowhere else in the world that offers the combination of wind and waves that is normal to the South African paddler”. And the races. “When you think about it, there’s a race almost every week of the year somewhere in South Africa”. Dawid says huge credit must be given to people like Billy Harker who runs the Discovery Men’s Health series.
Aspirations
Surf Ski isn’t an Olympic sport; K1 is – and that’s a major factor in his plans for the next few years. He’s training for the next Olympics as part of a K4 team. The team is his focus, but he’ll be training for K1 sprint events too.
Why didn’t he race in Tahiti this year with the South African team? His blunt reply: “I wanted to win the Cape Point Challenge.”
And the famous Molokai Crossing (which he’s never raced)? “It’s the most expensive race in the world to participate in and I haven’t had the sponsorship yet to get there.” It also clashes with the Canoe World Cup in Duisburg, Germany which is an essential part of the Olympic campaign. He’ll do the race though, he says, “sometime in the next three or four years. There’s plenty of time.”
Clearly the world hasn’t seen the last of Dawid Mocke. Whether it’s in a K1, K4, surf ski, or just his role as ambassador for the sport, here’s an extraordinary person who seems to move in a bubble of energy and enthusiasm.
A man to watch.
Loosening up before the Challenge
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