Driving down into Camps Bay on Sunday morning I could see that the second race in the Cape Town Discovery Men’s Health Surfski Series was going to be hard work. A brilliant sunny day, a flat sea and no wind to give the paddlers any kind of help.

Perhaps it was the beautiful weather, perhaps it was this season’s incredible vibe, but the attendance broke records for the second week running – 210 paddlers lined up, an all time record for the second race in the Western Cape. 

The Scene - Camps Bay (Photo: Hazel McQueen)

The skis started in the batches defined by the previous weekend's grading race; the short course race starting 8 minutes before the long course; the elite and A-grade paddlers then setting off followed by the B, C, D and E grades.

Rocks & Kelp challenged some competitors (Photo: Hazel McQueen)

No false starts this time although some paddlers were seen to miss their batches, Andre van H (B-grade) being kind enough to start with the C-grade batch, helping to pull some of them out on the first leg...  Rumour has it that Mark T was in an altered state too, starting with the doubles instead of the singles...

Spectacular Day! (Photo: Hazel McQueen)

As expected the race was a grind - north to Barker Rock, into Clifton fourth beach around a buoy, back to Camps Bay, around a flag in the shallows then south for three kilometres and back along the shore.  A curve ball was added to the mix in that paddlers could make their own way back from Clifton - most chose to go on the inside of the rocks through a kelp bed and several were dumped by some breaking waves. 

Veterans Theo van Dyke and Bruce Neil in strong form (Photo: Hazel McQueen)

Nikki Mocke took the ladies race in 1:06:05 breaking the record for the highest percentage ever by a woman (92.7%).

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