South African Ben Silverston is currently living and working in Melbourne, Australia.  An avid paddler (winner of the "Keenest Paddler Award" in Billy Harker's Discovery Men's Health series a few years ago!) he wrote in to tell us about a new ski series that ran for the first time in 2006 in Melbourne.

Series Format 

The Hayden Vic Ski Series saw two races being held at Half Moon Bay in Melbourne.  Run by Billy Curry of Team Marketing, the races were held on two weekends in October and November.  "The majority of the guys in Oz paddle life saving spec skis," said Ben, "with a couple of Fenns and Icons around".

The grand prize for the series was a new surf ski, sponsored by Hayden skis.  The format of the series saw the first race being used to grade the paddlers.  The second race was then run as a pursuit race with the slowest paddlers setting off first.

First Race - October 2006 

The first race saw the competitors paddling two laps from Half Moon Bay up to Sandringham and back - 11km in total - in pretty flat conditions. In a tight contest Steve Seddon won with Trent Goulding second and Tim Altman Third. The first woman home was Lisa Munro in 19th Overall.

Second Race - November

The results of the first race were used to calculate a handicap start for the second race two weeks later. The field was much smaller with about 12 boats but in pretty good conditions on a hot day.   The 2 lap 6km race made it pretty tough to catch anyone and the fastest paddlers only came through at the end of the race.

Steve Seddon out-sprinted Russell Fox and the other paddlers in the final race to win a brand new ski. The two lap 6km race gave each competitor a chance to win line honours, which was comfortably won by Lisa Munro. There were some great prizes from the sponsors and a well organised event.

For more information on the race which will hopefully be run next year, click here for the event website.

Congratulations to the organisers of the event - may there be many more ski series starting up both in Australia and the rest of the world...

For more info on the sponsors of the event, Hayden Surfcraft, click here.  

Comments (2)

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Where did Ben finish
written by sports4u, December 06, 2006

This is great. Where did Ben finish or is he keeping quite about this?

A few years ago the Hout Bay Tuesday Surf Ski Series tried a pursuit.

It would be interesting to find out how they worked out the handicap system.

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Hmmm
written by apaddler, December 06, 2006

I finished middle of the field : ).

Not sure how they did the calculation, but the front guys only came past me in the last 4 mins or so. Also were not too many paddlers, which made the admin a bit easier.

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