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 [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!
We stayed in a town about an hour from Melbourne and came to Lorne (where the event is being held) on Wednesday. This part of Australia is really a lot like SA. I feel really at home and it wasn't a problem adjusting to the lifestyle or anything like that. The only thing is that they are lank strict on the roads and stuff concerning seatbelts and speeding. The coverage of the winter Olympics has also only been of Australians so get quite a biased view of the whole thing! Lorne beach is a very chilled out beach very protected from swell and wind. The masters had their competition earlier in the week and scored the best waves. The swell has been dying slowly since and only picked up a little today. Yesterday the wind was pumping outside the bay and Matthew Collins and I were already planning our downwind for after the competition! I've done some training on the beach and feel quite at home with the conditions and so on. We start the competition tomorrow with pool events for the next three days until Friday when it's back to the beach. On the outside of the bay there is a pier which shelters the bay with millions of "no diving" signs. Being South African we adhered to the rules and decided to jump instead of dive off the pier! Needless to say it was so high (because there is a CRANE ON THE PIER that we jumped from!) we wouldn't have dived anyway! The whole South African thing was proved to me because as we were leaving the guys from Scottburgh lifesaving club (Natal south coast) rocked up and started jumping as well! Besides this we've been having loads of fun. I'm starting to get itchy fingers now and I'm keen to compete. Our team feels really good and the team spirit is very high. The Aussies don't know about us and I reckon we will be raising some eyebrows this week. To all that bought raffle tickets and helped me on the trip thanks a lot! Hi to everyone at the lifesaving club, at Hippokrates and Huis Francie resses and my physio class at varsity and the rest of my family and friends. I'll keep you updated.
Ciao
Jasper
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The seat is not the same as V10 it actually 1 inch wider.
Thus hopefully accomodating wide hips that go with upto 6'7" :grin