Race 2 of the Discovery Men's Health Series in Durban, April 30 2006... 

The waves at Dairy Beach were massive - 6ft according to eye witnesses...  Nevertheless, 280 paddlers made it to the backline to do the race, which by all accounts was fantastic fun for the paddlers and spectators alike.

Billy Harker, race organiser, sent us these photos of a couple of intrepid paddlers going out through the break.

All I can say is: thank goodness the World Cup race is going to start behind the backline!  We just don't get waves like this in Cape Town.  (Visitors from the rest of South Africa and the world - take note - you won't be racing through waves like this!)

The first photo shows a lady paddler, Michelle Eray, flying over the top; the guy on the left is Sven Buss punching through...

Sven Buss (left) and Michelle Eray punch through the mighty Durban surf

The sequence below shows Warrick Dales (up front) and Jonathan Hollinshead punching through in their double...

Warrick Dales (in front) and Jonathan Hollinshead face up to it...

...here we go...

...and... they actually got through!

Comments (9)

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Wow
written by avanrensburg, May 18, 2006

Incredible

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written by big blade, May 18, 2006

Something is telling me something in these shots of Warrick and Jonathan. Perhaps if paddling a double in huge surf, the guy at the back must paddle out of sink to get through massive sets? Great shots?love to see more good action pics. :-)

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Sync?
written by Alain Jaques, May 18, 2006

Could it be he is paddling backwards, trying to get back to the beach. A wise move in my opinon. :grin

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Who\'s the photographer
written by Alain Jaques, May 18, 2006

Who took these shots? Excellent work and many thanks... Did any ski's get broken.

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THE REAL ENEMY
written by mark lewin, May 18, 2006

I can report that the big surf was not the biggest enemy on that day at North Beach. That beach is only about 200m wide with piers on either side about 50meters from the surf break. If you did not get out straight away your ski got washed into the backwash along the pier. Many ski's were not so lucky and got bashed against the piers. The sand bank that the wave was breaking onto was only about one meter deep but strangely enough not many ski's were damaged by the surf alone. You are seeing a close up shot of one or two ski's. It is quite a sight seeing a batch of close to 100 ski's hit surf like that all at once.

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Rob we need more
written by Dave H, May 19, 2006

Rob, you've gotta post more photos of this race. Seeing pictures of paddlers taking on waves like this is awesome. We would never be able to race in conditions like this in Aus due to insurances (except SLSA races). has anyone got any more images??

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More Pics
written by bharker, June 05, 2006

Hit www.surfski.co.za and Check out the photo gallery. Go to Durban Series Race 2

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Litigation and safetty cover in the UK
written by Nigel Hatton, June 22, 2007

Theze photos are great but if I allowed an event to go ahead and someone got hurt then the "Sue Culture" stops these things happening. I do my best to promote ski and sea kayak races but it's expensive, how do you guys cope with safety cover?

NIgel
www.ukseakayakracing.co.uk

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written by Paul Lewis, August 05, 2007

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