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 Surf ski event organizer extraordinaire, Billy Harker, is off next week to the Portuguese island of Madeira with girlfriend Tracey Smith to take part in the fifteenth annual Round Madeira Island Race.
What is the race and where the heck IS Madeira Island?
The race itself seems to be relatively unknown: last year there were 25 K2s and 8 K1s with entries mainly from Portugal, but also from Britain, Hungary, Denmark and the Czech Republic.
Where the heck is Madeira Island?
Actually the island itself seems relatively unknown... Google Earth doesn't have Madeira Island or Funchal (the capital) in its database at all. After some searches on Madeira Island websites I discovered that if you paddle about 1000km south west from Lisbon, you should come close. It's at latitude: 32° 38' North, longitude: 16° 54' West ...
 ...paddle about 1000km south west of Lisbon...
The race looks an absolute gas: the Madeira Island website says that the weather is "... more often than not, warm, sunny and mild." As I wrote this I checked today's weather forecast for Madeira: "24C, wind chill factor 24C, wind 23km/h NE"!
That's not to say that they don't have challenging sea conditions as evidenced in some of the photographs of last year's race on the event website.
 Choppy water...
A squad of South Africans is going including Manny Bisogno, Peter Jones and Barry Meiring who plan to paddle surf skis in the race. Billy and Tracy will be renting one of the local K2 Sea Kayaks.
The race takes paddlers from Funchal in a counter clockwise direction around the island, a route that lasts 140km and six days.
 ... from Funchal counter clockwise...
The distance paddled each day varies from 18 to 30km with the longer days split into two sessions, with lunch (and siesta?) in between. The entry fee includes meals and accommodation for the duration of the race - at schools near each day's route.
We'll post a report on the race after the team gets back but it definitely looks a paddling holiday of note.
For more information, visit the event website: http://www.madeiraemcanoa.com/en.htm
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