Is it just me, or is surf ski competition hotting up all over the planet?  Aussie heavyweights battling it out in Sydney & on the Gold Coast.  Herman Chalupsky and Greg Barton going head to head in New York in what used to be a quiet local race.  And then Sunday - in the opening race of the Cape Discovery Men's Health series - some of the world's top paddlers again providing unprecedented levels of competition.

Dawid Mocke congratulates winner Hank McGregor (Pic: Jon Vellacott/Gameplan Media)

Brian's Kayaks Mellerware Grading Race

The first event of the series every year is a grading race - from Oceana Power Boat Club near the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront Development in Cape Town to Barker Rock (a slab of granite sticking out of water off Camps Bay) and back - a distance of 14km.   The start is always a challenge - paddlers of widely varying ability all lining up together - and the trick (for mid-pack hackers like me) is to get behind some of the hotties so that a) you don't get in their way and b) you know that pretty rapidly there's going to be clear space in front of you...  (And if you try hard enough you might be able to hang on to their slip for a while.)

The start is a challenge for the organizers too - and Billy took the water in his ski this year in order personally to control the paddlers.  It worked like a charm.

And they're away! Discovery Men's Health Series Race 1 Cape Town 2007 (Pic Jon Vellacott/Gameplan Media)

For a larger version of this photo, click here. 

Front Bunch

The front bunch comprising visitors from Durban, Hank McGregor, Bevan Manson and Barry Lewin and local Cape starts Dawid Mocke, Jasper Mocke, Peter Cole and Graeme Solomon paddled together on the way out to Barker Rock.

The rest of the fleet worked itself into long snakes of skis, each one with its nose inches away from the ski in front.

Mid Pack

I was riding a side wake when my own personal nemesis, Dale Lippstreu, pulled alongside.  After riding my wake for a minute or two he put his head down and accelerated away.  I paddled frantically to catch up, felt the acceleration as I caught his wake and settled down alongside him again.  He backed off for a minute or two, then put in another interval, and another, and another.  On the fifth he got away from me and slotted into the line two skis ahead of me and we stayed like that all the way up to Barker Rock.

As we approached the rock, we could see the front bunch already on their way back, Hank McGregor and Dawid Mocke having broken away from the pack.

Hank and Dawid drop the bunch

"There's always a good wave for the first five minutes after you've turned," said Dawid afterwards, "and the trick is to accelerate around the rock and make the most of those waves.  Hank and I paddled really hard and dropped the rest of the guys."

But Hank's pace was too much for Dawid and he'd created a twenty second gap by the time the two men reached the Mouille Point lighthouse.

Hank then caught some runs that took him clear of the tiring Dawid and he won the race by 54 seconds, smashing the course record by one and a half minutes.

Dawid's wife Nikki, taking a break from sprint training (she's qualified for the Beijing Olympics in K4), won the women's race in 1:07:19, just under 8 minutes behind her husband.  K4 teammate Michele Eray came second, two and half minutes further back.

Women's winner Nikki Mocke (Pic: Jon Vellacott/Gameplane Media)

Further Back

Meanwhile, Lippstreu had gained a good 50m by catching a superb run around Barker Rock, leaving rivals Feuilherade and Mousley wallowing behind him. 

I had been looking forward to the anticipated help from the forecast "moderate southwester" - and felt bleak when I realized that the wind was actually blowing from the north east, directly into our faces!

There were runs on the way back but they were honest and you had to work like crazy to get on them.  It was worth it though and I was overtaking other skis and slowly reeling Lippstreu & Feuilherade in.  Alas, the race wasn't long enough and they both beat me - Lippstreu coming an excellent second in the Masters category.

I ended up beating my previous time by over 5 minutes and coming 50^th out of 159 in 1:10:56, but thanks to the new grading rules (and Hank's blistering time) all three of us ended up firmly in the C-grade...

Focus on Dubai

Hank McGregor said he'd enjoyed his day out - he's paddled this course before and was just as aware as Dawid of its quirks: the runs just after Barker Rock and again at Mouille Point. 

He's hung up his K1 for the next 6 weeks until the Dubai Shamaal race.  He's not paddling Hong Kong or Perth.  "I don't believe you can peak three weekends in a row," he said, "and the big money's in Dubai."

Bevan Manson also spoke the excitement that the Dubai race is provoking among the paddling fraternity.  "On Monday we start with Oscar's Dubai Training Camp," he said.  He paddled the 8kg V10E in Cape Town, coming in 31 seconds behind Dawid.

Surf Ski School Makes an Impact

Dawid was happy with his performance: "It was nice we both beat the old record," he said.

"I was also pleased to see so many Surf Ski School graduates - there must have been 20 or 30 of them - on the water," he added, "and especially pleased with Wanda Mphikwa one of our development paddlers who came 14^th in the short course."

Oceana Power Boat Club Hospitality

The only slight damper (so to speak) on the proceedings was that the weather changed rapidly after the end of the race and the prize giving was held under cold rain.  The hospitality of the Oceana Power Boat Club more than made up for it though with hot meals and plenty of crisp cold beer...

An awesome start to the tenth edition of what is arguably the world's best series...  

(The start time for the next race, this Sunday, has been moved to 10:00 to allow competitors more time to recover from the final of the Rugby World Cup...  Go bokke!)

Video

Thanks to Surfski TV for the following video clip!  (The Surfski TV episodes are available to buy - contact Billy Harker on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) 

 

Results Summary

For more info (and the results) see: www.surfski.co.za 

Comments (6)

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Grading system
written by Mulletman, October 18, 2007

Hi Rob, thanks for another great article.
Could you please explain the "new grading rules"? It is not something we have here, but it sounds like an excellent system to promote and develop racing....

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Grading system
written by Rob Mousley, October 18, 2007

The grading system does two things - it splits a large field up into batches for easier control of starts eg from now on the Elite, A & B paddlers will start together; the C paddlers 5 minutes later, the D&E paddlers after that. Sometimes for safety reasons they do a reverse batched start eg for the Cape Point Challenge in order to get the bulk of the field more or less together at the most tricky part of the course.

Perhaps more importantly for the paddlers, the grading system gives you a measure of your performance relative to your peers and to the top paddlers.

There are also prizes for the winners of each grade at the races - so it offers a way to share out the loot instead of giving it all to the same faces every race!

The way the percentage is worked out is:

(1 - (your time - winning time)/(winning time)) x 100%

So - the winning time on Sunday was 58:31 or 3511 seconds.
My time was 1:10:56 = 4256 seconds.

So my percentage was (1-(4256-3511)/3511)x100 = 78.78%

Then the grades are worked out as follows (for single skis):

Elite 95%
A: 90%-95%
B: 80%-90%
C: 70%-80%
D: 60%-70%
E: 50%-60%
F: 40%-50%

So at 78.78% I'm now C-grade. If I get two B-grade times in subsequent races, I'll be promoted. If I get two consecutive lesser grade times, I'll be demoted by one grade (happened to me last year )

Why "new grading rules"? At the end of last season, Billy decided that the B-grade was too easy to acquire and upped the required percentage for all grades by 5%! Aaaargh!

For more on the series rules, check out www.surfski.co.za

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Hank in a mako 6 ?
written by Guillaume Morin, October 18, 2007

On the picture, Hank is paddling with a Fenn mako 6 and a ? paddle.
But this year he had a V10L and a Epic paddle.
Does he now paddling for Fenn kayaks ?

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Hank part of "Team Fenn"
written by Rob Mousley, October 18, 2007

Yes, Hank is now sponsored by Fenn Kayaks, along with Dawid Mocke and Lewis Laughlin.

This will add spice to the Dubai Shamaal where a number of the other top paddlers will be driving V10s...

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...
written by Dave R, October 18, 2007

Rob, do you guys have new safety rules? I noticed everyone in pfd's.

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PFDs
written by Rob Mousley, October 18, 2007

Yep, the PFD rule now applies to all races in South Africa held under the auspices of the National Surf Ski Committee/Canoeing South Africa.

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