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  Two of Cape Town's top paddlers, husband and wife team, Dawid and Nikki Mocke are ready to defend their titles in the Discovery Men's Health Summer Surfski Series that gets underway at Granger Bay on Sunday morning.
For the past four years the Mockes have dominated the event by winning the men's and woman's sections respectively, and they are hoping to make it five in a row as they take to the water this weekend.
The first race of the series starts at the Oceana Powerboat Club with paddlers heading out along the Atlantic seaboard on a 14-kilometre course that takes them around Barker's Rock off of Clifton Beach and then back to Granger Bay.  The race starts out at sea (Photo: surfski.co.za)
Dawid, who recently returned from San Francisco where he successfully defended his US Surfski Championship title, is expecting some stiff competition, especially from Durban paddler, Barry Lewin who won the first race in the series last year. "It will be an interesting race," says Dawid, "I have finished ahead of Barry in our last two races, and I am looking forward to Sunday morning."  The front bunch shortly after the start of the 2005 race (Simon van Gysen, Dawid Mocke, Rich K?) (Photo: surfski.co.za) Nikki, on the other hand, can expect a strong challenge from Michelle Eray and Donia Kamstra, two of her paddling partners. Mocke and Kamstra finished third in the recent Breede River canoe marathon while in July she won the World Cup Surfski event in Durban with Kamstra and Eray finishing in second and third positions. Mocke and Eray are also members of the South African woman's K4 sprint team. The ten-race Summer Sufrski Series favours the versatile Nikki who has Provincial colours in five different water sports. "Traditionally the first race is held at Granger Bay as it offers a protected launch site, but later in series as we move to other beaches, conditions change and things start getting tough," she explains.  Rough water after the turn at Barker Rock (Photo: surfski.co.za) Race organisers are hoping for a large turnout at the first race as Cape Town sets out to break the world record for the most participants in a surfski race event. "The current record of 525 paddlers is held by Durban and we are hoping for around 600," says Billy Harker manager of the Discovery Men's Health Surfski Series.
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