Forecast (on Buoyweather.com): "Gale Warning.
Very windy conditions with rough seas
Small craft
advisory: Large long period swell
Winds: SE
27 to 35kts
Seas: SW
14ft at 13sec"
Translation:
"Yee haa!"
Anticipation
During the
week I was scanning Buoyweather at least four times a day. At this time of year in Cape Town, the SE winds become scarce as
autumn sets in and we make the most of any opportunity to get on a downwind
run.
As the
forecast hardened, it became clear that we were in for a good one on Friday and
one of the guys came up with the stunning idea of doing two Millers runs back
to back. What an awesome plan...
Feeling all
puffed up with heroics I called Dawid Mocke - "we're going to do two Millers
runs back to back," I announced. "That's
nice," he replied, "I'm training for Molokai
so I'm going to do... six! But I'll join
you for the first two!"
It turned
out that we actually joined him - he'd
had to cancel surf ski school and brought along the school trailer, vastly
simplifying our logistics (normally we have to leave some vehicles at either
end of the course). His dad had
volunteered to drive.
Mousley receives last minute tips from Dawid Mocke
Apart from
our regular group, we had two newbies - Heidi Koch and Louis Carstens, neither
of whom had done a Millers run. On
seeing the conditions, both were understandably nervous: the bay was a mass of
white water and the wind was pumping a good 30 to 35kts.
Surfski.info
founder Alain Jaques decided to sit the first run out - so I handed him my
video camera.
Nikki Mocke
A gleeful
Nikki Mocke (Dawid's wife) also joined us.
Her focus this year has been K1 sprint paddling and she'd just come back
from a month long training camp. Normally the sprinters are strictly forbidden
to paddle on the sea - but Nikki's coach had gone away for Easter weekend. While coach is away...
Preparation - Nikki Mocke escapes from K1 camp...
First Run
On a "hectic"
scale of 1 to 10, the first run was about 7.5. The wind was strong - definitely upwards of
30kts but the waves weren't enormous. There
was the usual build up of bigger waves just before the lighthouse and just
before the entrance to Fish Hoek bay; there were some breaking cross-waves but
all in all it was a classic Millers.
Heading out to Bakoven Rock
Conscious
of the fact that we'd be out a second time and that the wind and waves were
forecast to increase, I deliberately didn't charge every wave, instead trying
to work the waves in such a way as to conserve energy. The fact that we weren't racing for a change
also helped... John was keeping an eye on
Louis; Damian was on the double with Heidi and Rob was paddling conservatively
having broken a rudder cable the day before.
Just after
the lighthouse I was feeling very relaxed and confident (i.e. I'd lost focus)
when a steep wave boosted the tail of my ski up. Before I knew it, I'd broached and the crest
of the wave was breaking right onto me.
Coming past Sunny Cove (Shark Alley)
The next
wake up call occurred as I was coming into the beach - I was looking at the
clubhouse to see if there was anyone filming when I realised I was almost in
the shore break. I pulled out of a wave just
as it broke on the tail of the ski - spinning me round so that I was facing out
to sea again... I paddled straight out,
pulled myself together and came in again, paying a little more respect to the sea.
The wind
was strong enough to make it extremely difficult to carry my ski up the beach. I almost lost control of it as the wind
whipped it around but a kind passer by grabbed the tail and steadied it as we
walked up to the clubhouse.
Second Run
A bottle of
Fast Fuel, an energy bar and a hot cross bun, and we were on our way again in
the back of Dawid's pick up. Before we
had time to get cold, we were on the skis and setting off for our second run.
Contrary to
expectations, the wind seemed to have dropped a little - and the waves had
straightened out somewhat. I actually
enjoyed the second run more than the first - there wasn't so much violent cross
chop and I could focus on chasing down the runs from wave to wave. Millers run hectic rating: 6.5
Damian & Heidi shoot down a big run
We have
evidence on video (unfortunately rather blurred!) of Rudder Boy (Damian) taking
a dive just outside Fish Hoek whilst making a monumental effort to stay ahead
of the Cable Guy (Rob B) who'd sneaked through on an inside line. Rumour has it that John goofed a couple of
times on the second run too.
Post Mortems, Beer and Spare Ribs
After a welcome
hot shower, the group repaired to the Southern Right restaurant near Glen Cairn
beach to discuss the runs, look at the footage, eat and drink lots of beer.
Al & Janet check the footage...
As we were
climbing into the first round, we saw Dawid's pickup drive by with a single
lonely ski sitting on the trailer... Dawid off to do his third run.
We were
still there when we saw the trailer again - this time there were three skis: Dawid
had obviously recruited some company!
What a great day
While we
didn't put anything like the effort expended by Dawid on his marathon six runs,
we'd done a good 25km of hard paddling - there's nothing like a good downwind:
it's like sprint training, only several orders of magnitude more fun.
Louis was
chuffed as a newt with his first Millers and Heidi couldn't stop talking about
her trip on the back of Damian's double. Apparently she couldn't stop talking during the paddle either - she thought Damian
was heading into the wrong bay until they got close enough that she could see
that her bay was Glen Cairn, not Fish
Hoek. Hence -her new nickname "Nav-girl".
The video
I slapped
together this video from the shots that Alain took from the shore. One lesson learnt - when filming with the
camera zoomed in, you have to have a tripod. Next time we're going to take film from a
speed boat accompanying the paddlers too.
A Note on Safety
In the image below note how the paddles stand out - they're spray painted with neon
pink...
Note how the pink paddles stand out
Ankle leash
And I can highly recommend using an ankle leash if you're paddling in the open ocean -
this one is from Huki (www.huki.com) as is my
high visibility paddling shirt... The
ankle leash is there to stop my ski being blown away from me out at sea - but
is quick to undo before I hit the surf zone near the beach.
Camera shakes written by Alain Jaques,
April 07, 2007
Filming in a 30 knot Southeaster is tricky, it wasn't the camera that was shaking, it was the steel pedestrian bridge that I was bracing the camera against that was moving!
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WOW! That was awesome... written by Franklin Dickinson,
April 08, 2007
Please, please, I know it was hard BUT please do some more...lots more. There are a lot of people out there, like me, who would love to see more of this! I wish you guys could get paid to video races too. You see surfing films but I would love, and pay, to see a surf ski film. I believe others would also. Food for thought. Thank you Franklin
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... written by Scott,
April 09, 2007
Great footage and story! I'd love to try a Miller's Run one day. I'm sure those who paddle the MR would love to do the runs we have on Oahu, the conditions look similar to those we frequently get.
Just my opinion, but I think the water we have is prettier!
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... written by Scott,
April 10, 2007
And most importantly, made me jones for another good run. We haven't had great conditions for a while!
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