Surfski.info just arrived in Dubai to cover the $53,000 Shamaal race; the weather is perfect; the paddlers are flying in from all over the globe...

New Course

The course has been changed - it's now partly upwind, starting from the Palm Jumeirah, one of the massive manmade artificial islands off the coast.  The first 8km will be into wind to a turning buoy and will be followed by a 12km downwind leg back to the finish at Mina Seyahi - Barasti Beach.

The three Fenn Hotspots will be placed on the upwind leg.  The first paddler past each Fenn Hotspot earns US$1000 giving a total of $3000 up for grabs - Dawid Mocke took the only Fenn Hotspot prize in Hong Kong as well as the first prize.  Will he try to do the same here? 

Dubai Shamaal 2007 Course

Shows where the paddlers will be moving out to the start

View of the race finish from Race HQ!

The race will start at 3pm (1pm South Africa time) local time on Friday 30^th.  (Dubai runs on GMT + four hours...)

Weather Predictions

The local Dubai paddlers are raving about the conditions - and the current forecast is for a 17kt WNW wind at 1pm on Friday, swinging around to W by 5pm...  and it's forecast to die completely away on Saturday morning - let's hope the predictions are accurate.

Live Commentary

Alain and I will be doing our usual "live commentary" service on http://www.surfski.info/ from about 2h30pm on Friday - we'll be chatting to 3 chase boats and we'll be posting near-real-time photos taken with camera phones...

Then we hope to bring you video clips very soon after the event.  There are two TV crews here up from South Africa, and the local Dubai TV stations are giving the race extensive coverage as well...

The Surfski.info Media Office (Dubai International Marine Club)

The mighty surfski.info media team!

Incredible Field

"We've got the United Nations of surf ski paddling here," said Race Director Wayne Randall.  "We are so pleased with the depth of paddling talent."

Australia

Some of the top Australian paddlers are here including the evergreen Dean Gardiner - 4^th in Hong Kong; an in-form (unbeaten at home this year) Tim Jacobs; Ken Wallace and Michael Baker (7^th in Hong Kong).

South Africa

Lured by the biggest prize purse in paddling history, a squad of ace South African paddlers have flown in over the last couple of days. In contention are: Dawid Mocke (1st in Hong Kong); Oscar Chalupsky (3rd in Hong Kong); Hank McGregor (2nd in the ARB Surf Ski World Cup in Durban in July); Bevan Manson (who beat Dawid Mocke in the 46km Scottburgh to Brighton Classic in July); Barry Lewin (Liffey Descent winner this year)... Clint Pretorius (2006 Molokai winner), Daryl Bartho and Herman Chalupsky (2007 NY Mayors Cup winner) have all been training hard for the Shamaal.

This is the Who's Who of South African surf ski paddling!

Tahiti

Lewis Laughlin, who is currently leading the Surfski.info World Rankings (yes, we'll post the points within the next two days) having won the US Surfski Champs and having come 2^nd in Hong Kong is here with compatriot Tepa Leopold.

Dubai

Local ace, Bulgarian Boyan Zlatarev carries the Dubai hopes in the race, while there's a large contingent from the host Dubai Surfski & Kayak Club.

The Ladies

Front runner in the ladies race must be Katie Pocock from New Zealand.  She'll be looking to have a better race after a disappointing run-in with the shark nets in Durban that saw her scoring a DNF in that race.

From South Africa, last minute entrant Abbey Miedema will probably lead the challenge.  She's somewhat of a dark horse though, being primarily a river paddler.  She only made the decision to fly to Dubai four days ago after Michelle Eray was obliged to pull out.  (Michelle is part of a K4 crew that has qualified for the Olympics next year - and she was not allowed to compete here.)

A squad of other top South African surf ski paddlers is here in the form of Natalie Veckranges, Danica Vorster and Michele Eder.

Program

Tonight, after the race registration at the Le Meridien hotel, there's a presentation by Joe Glickman, writer & adventurer extraordinary featuring Oscar Chalupsky, Dean Gardiner and Greg Barton.  Joe knows and disrespects all three of these amazing old paddlers and will be pulling no punches in the soul searching questions that he will ask them...  It should be a lot of fun (I've seen some of the photos that will be used in evidence) and we're hoping to get some video up of the highlights.

One Big Party

Tomorrow sees a fun 1000m sprint doubles race where the top seeded paddlers will be split into teams to compete against each other and in the evening they'll be working hard again, this time in Dragon Boat races...

We'll be bringing you full coverage of these events too.

Friday

We've been installed in a suite overlooking the finish at the Dubai International Marine Club which houses the UAE Marine Sports Federation.

Apart from Surf Ski paddling, there's a million dollar power boat race being run here this weekend too....

Class 1 powerboats...

The Full Lineup

Here's the latest list of entrants:

See also: http://www.dubaishamaal.com/

Comments (2)

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What about that lucky Rooster?
written by Martin, November 29, 2007

Maybe it's my salt encrusted eye sockets....or too much tshwala, but I can't help but notice that the lucky bugger who won the Epic Elite ski trip is not on the list of entrants.

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Rooster
written by Alain Jaques, November 29, 2007

The rooster is in Dubai and stayin at some swanky hotel. I met him last night at registration and he was smiling like a cheshire cat. His ski is also there, it is ridiculously light.

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