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Welcome to Surfski.info's live coverage of the Dubai Shamaal. There's so much high tension in the Paddlers' Village that you could power a city off it.... The tension isn't much less inside this office as we battle with communications and network connections!
21h00 Official Results
Final Ranking
| Position |
Name |
Nationality |
| 1 |
Dawid Mocke |
RSA |
| 2 |
Hank McGregor |
RSA |
| 3 |
Tim Jacobs |
AUS |
| 4 |
Herman Chalupsky |
RSA |
| 5 |
Oscar Chalupsky |
RSA |
| 6 |
Daryl Bartho |
RSA |
| 7 |
Clint Pretorius |
RSA |
| 8 |
Lewis Laughlin |
Tahiti |
| 9 |
Barry Lewin |
RSA |
| 10 |
Dean Gardiner |
AUS |
| 11 |
Michael Baker |
AUS |
| 12 |
Brett Bartho |
RSA |
| 13 |
Steve Woods |
RSA |
| 14 |
Kenny Wallace |
AUS |
| 15 |
Bevan Manson |
RSA |
| 16 |
Greg Barton |
USA |
| 17 |
Boyan Zlatarev |
UAE |
| 18 |
Ian Grey |
RSA |
| 19 |
Billy Harker |
RSA |
| 20 |
Mark Ressel |
UK |
Woman's Resuts
| Position |
Name |
Nationality |
| 1 |
Katie Pocock |
NZ |
| 2 |
Abbey Miedema |
RSA |
| 3 |
Natalie Veckranges |
RSA |
| 4 |
Michelle Eder |
RSA |
| 5 |
Danica Vorster |
RSA |
| 6 |
Melissa Charles |
UK |
| 7 |
Donna Winter |
RSA |
| 8 |
Christie O'Higgens |
UAE |
Full results will be available tomorrow.
20h35....!
Jeez, I can't say how bleak I was when the site went down... I'd just finished typing up the interview with dawid about 10 minutes after the finish. Hit the save button and whamo - "Your account has been suspended."
Yep, you guys blew the server. Apparently we were on a shared server with 2000 other websites and we were taking 90% of the system resources. The administrators said that it was either take us down or 2000 websites were going down. So, yep, I was bleak, but looking at it positively, it means that interest in the site (and therefore in the sport) has grown to the point where we need our own server at the ISP. Awesome!
OK we have the site up and running again after all the traffic crashed the server. We are busy getting the official results.
Daryl, Clint and Lewis are in followed by Barry Lewin.
Michael Baker is followed by Brett Bartho
16h56
Dawid, Hank, Tim Jacobs, Herman Chalupsky, Oscar 2m behind him.
Looks like Dawid about 40m ahead - it's Daw about 10m to go... it's Dawid Mocke!!!!!!!!!!!!!
16h53
Referees boat just come into view, 1st ski around the corner on his own, can't see who it is
16h52
Aaaaaaaaargh we have no eyes close to the paddlers at the moment, how frustrating...
16h50
Dawid & Hank about 100m ahead, neck & neck. Hank has gone closer to the wall, Daw further out...
16h47
Media boat is dropping camermen off on the beach then will head out again to give us the positions as the guys head towards the finish.
1645
Bit of a comms blackout - Ali told the media boat to "go away" to stop any wakes on the flat water. Al has gone down to the finish, we'll get commentary again when the paddlers come into view
16h40
About 10min from the finish now. Daw still leading by 20m, Hank has got closer to him. The Chalupsky brothers behind... They''re about to get into flatter water...
16h35
The finish WILL be at the beach.
Daw 50m in the lead, Hank next, mystery paddler, Oscar 4th, Herman 5th.
Just past the second hotspot... heading back to the first one.
16h32
Oscar is reeling in the front two - Dawid & Hank are still neck & neck - they're about 50m apart on different lines, so it's difficult to tell who's ahead....
16h30
The powerboats are still running - they were supposed to have finished at 16h30... Will they finish at the alternate?
16h27
Dawid and Hank are going neck and neck in front. Oscar is about 100m back off to one side, obviously taking a different line. The rest of the fleet is further back...
16h25
aaaaaaaaaargh comms blackout... still trying, very trying...
16h20
Dawid's ahead by about 20m from Hank... The guys are going flat out downwind. Oscar's in about 5 or 6th...
16h17
16h15
The guys are taking off downwind like rockets, through all the paddlers coming upwind - so the escort boat has had to peel off somewhat. We'll catch up with them in a minute...
16h12
Hank McGregor took the third hotspot,
then Tim Jacobs, Dawid, Oscar, Herman and Daryl
16h10
Dawid is still leading, Tim Jacobs is second at the moment. Oscar and Herman are there
16h07
They're about 1km from the turning point now. "The condtions are pretty hectic!"
They're almost 8km out to sea now...
16h05
Spoke to Lewis Laughlin before the race and asked him if he liked what he saw of the conditions...
He said he likes all the conditions - "Flown too far to complain about the conditions!"
He did say though that he prefers longer races, doesn't do interval training, trains long distance, prefers 25-35km.
He doesn't seem to be in the front bunch at the moment - unless he's in the mysterious number 62...
15h57
Dawid Mocke, then Kenny Wallace, Daryl Bartho, Tim Jacobs, Hank McGregor, Herman Chalupsky, 62, Oscar, Barry approaching the top mark. The waves are "huge" and the guys are having trouble talking to us...
15h50
Hopefully we'll have better comms when they start to come back, but we had a brief message to say:
the lead bunch hasn't changed much, about 60m between the 1st and 2nd groups. They're approaching the turn mark...
15h45
15h40
1.5m of wind chop making it difficult to talk to the guys.
Hank took the second Fenn Hotspot. The positions are now:
Kenny Wallace
Daryl Bartho
Tim Jacobs
Herman Chalupsky
Hank McGregor
Oscar Chalupsky
15h37
The chase boats are battling in the waves so we can't talk to them - we do know that Bevan Manson is near the front with Hank McGregor... Here are some pics in the meantime
15h33
The race has started, Hank was first out of the gate.
Hank has taken the first Fenn Hotspot...
Tim Jacobs next, Daryl Bartho, Bevan Manson, boat 1..., boat 32 - we've discovered that our list doesn't have all the numbers...
15h30
15h26
Conditions are looking fantastic - about 18kts and 3-4 swell. It's going to be a battle for the guys to get out but a fantastic run back...
15h25
At the start, waiting for the tail enders to come through, probably going to start in about ten minutes
15h20
We're in comms hell right here... the phone networks aren't letting the calls through. dodgy internet connections - we'd be better off at home...
15h15
The racers are still making their way out to the start - we're trying to communcate with the lead boats...
Parade past the observation deck
The skis have left the beach and are making their way out to the start which is about 3.4km from the beach.
You could see that the guys were really tense. Clint Lighty Pretorius was stuffing himself with bananas coated with honey; Steve Woods was chomping banana and honey sandwiches...
The Aussies were huddled in a group, not saying very much.
Oscar wasn't even on the beach.
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at the paddling centre now.
got popcorn,so entertain us....
Unleash the tiger...ha ha ha