Well, the 2007 edition of the Soualiga Challenge has come and gone.  I have almost recovered from the weeks of organising and the race itself, which turned out to be pretty brutal - but more of that later.

Taking the ferry to St. Barths

We used the same format for the race as in 2005 and 2006, so the organising machine worked very efficiently.  Everyone knew their part and there were no major hitches.  Entries came in early and we were all very impressed and excited about the quality of the field, with entries from St Martin, Guadeloupe, France, Trinidad and South Africa.  We did miss our neighbours from Puerto Rico, who could unfortunately not make the event.  Paddlers from Florida and Antigua also showed interest but couldn't make it and have promised to be here next year!

Barry Lewin 

Barry Lewin from South Africa arrived a full week before the race and I spent a few afternoons showing him some of my favourite training spots.  Showing someone else around made me realise what a great paddling environment we have here.  Barry also held two well attended clinics to try to iron out some of our bad paddling techniques.  I found his explanations very clear and easy to understand but not that easy to put into practice.

Windguru 

In the days before the event, I was never far from the computer, checking to see what Windguru had to say about the weekend.  Tropical storm Ingrid, which dissipated north of us a week before the race, effectively turned the weather on its head.  Instead of the prevailing easterly to south-easterly winds expected at this time of the year, things were looking a little less inviting, with light variable winds predicted.

The visiting paddlers from Trinidad, France and Guadeloupe spent the Saturday preparing their boats and exploring the finish of the race.  Afterwards we had registration and a race briefing at the Iguana Bar (also to serve as the finish line) before getting an early night.

The Edge Catamaran

We loaded the skis onto the Edge, a high-speed ferry, on Sunday morning and set off for St Barths.  Once out of the lee of St Maarten, we saw the conditions we would have for the race.  Around 10 knots of wind and 1m swell from the northeast, almost exactly 90° to the course.  Things could be worse!  I was keen to get the race underway as quickly as possible once we arrived in St Barths, so the skis were unloaded and final preps were carried out on the small beach next to the commercial dock.  The start boat had set the start line, for a water start, a little way off the beach and we all made our way out there for a 9.20 start - only 5 minutes late - not bad for the Caribbean.

And they're off...

The start, in the lee of St Barths, was flat and fast.  Too fast for me.  Barry Lewin, Franck Fifils and Benoit Le Roux led, with Olivier Tanton, Ludovic Gouffron and Micka Jabot on their waves.  I missed the bus but chased after. With 15km/h showing on my GPS and not closing on the front bunch, common sense set in very quickly and I slowed down to a more realistic race pace for me and pulled JP Piscione and Frits Bus along the south of the island.  By the time we reached the western point of St Barths, the front bunch had split into two groups of three, with Barry, Benoit and Franck pulling away from Olivier, Ludovic and Micka slightly.

Ffrank Fifils, Benoit Leroux & Barry Lewin pulled away

Confused Sea 

Once we were out of the lee of the island, we hit a confused sea, with the swell coming at us side on.  All of the bunches split up as it was almost impossible to ride a wave in these conditions.  Barry took a direct line to the south of Isle Fourche, while Franck and Benoit headed slightly north to try to catch a few runs once they reached the next island.  The group ahead of me seemed to drift south slightly and also split up a bit.  I noticed that I seemed to be closing on them and that I had dropped JP and Frits.

By the time we rounded Isle Fourche, I had lost contact with all of the other skis, so I knew I would just have to go as hard as possible and use whatever there was in the way of swells.  The sea had a bit more order to it after Isle Fourche and we now had a regular side chop of about 1m.  The wind was up a little too from the side and an occasional wave was breaking.  There were rides to be had but you had to work very hard to get on and stay on.  I took a line slightly to the north of what my GPS indicated as there seemed to be a small cross swell that was giving me some help in that direction.  Approaching Oyster Pond on St Martin seemed to take forever.  I had a bit of a low point at 5km to go and the hillside seemed to just hang there forever, without getting any closer.

Barry Lewin at the finish

Last few km

Eventually, those last few km were over and I rounded the approach mark to Oyster Pond.  I was surprised to see Franck Fifils heading out the channel and assumed that he was warming down.  Anyway, I got my head down and caught a few nice runs over the reef in the final 750m to the finish.  I crossed the line fourth overall - Franck finished a few seconds behind me as he had missed the approach mark and had gone out again to complete the course rather than having a mandatory 15 minute penalty applied.  I was disappointed to see that Olivier was in already - I had my sights on him for the race but he managed to slip away.

Stuart Knaggs powers in

The rest of the fleet came in over the next hour, everyone was very pleased to get their feet on the dock.  The consensus was that the race had been brutally hard, no matter what level paddler you were.  Times were slower than previous years by a good margin, but everyone had a big grin, having completed a tough race.

The day was rounded off by a great buffet lunch at Captain Oliver's Restaurant, prize giving, with medals being presented by the Commissioner of Sport for the island and relaxing in the resort pool with as much of the sponsor's Carib beer that you could manage.

Bigger & Better in '08 

Dates for the 2008 event are already being discussed to slot in with the Guadeloupe event and the USA Championships.  Sponsors are very positive for a bigger and better event, and we hope to turn this very successful regional event into a major international ski race in the coming years.

Results

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% used in Results
written by wesley, September 27, 2007

Could you explain the %of times used in your results. Is this used to rate elite, a,b,c paddlers in the world. If so could you explain this again, I forgot how it works. Thanks, Wesley in Newport, Rhode island, USA

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great report
written by James Lancaster, September 27, 2007

thanks so much for the report, photos and general coverage of this event. As an aspiring participant its great to get info, feeling and an encouragement to know what great events are out there and images to motivate to compete. Well done to all competitors
cheers,James Byron Bay Australia

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Grading
written by Alain Jaques, September 27, 2007

For an explanation of the grading calculations see this article http://www.surfski.info/content/view/307/155/

By the way; the search functionality in Surfski.info is top notch, I got to this article by typing 'grading' in the search menu.

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Grading
written by xpat, September 28, 2007

I included the grading in the results because having Barry competing, meant that we could use this result as a benchmark to rate our paddlers against those in SA. However, looking at the results, I think that Barry may not have been going 100% and was probably saving himself for the US Champs.

Stuart

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