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"We've got the best field of paddlers ever for the Perth
World Cup," said Race Director Ash Nesbit.
"All the guys from Dubai except Hank McGregor, plus a whole lot of
hungry Aussie locals."
 Perth Race Start 2006
Conditions
The conditions for tomorrow's 28km race from Rottness Island
to Sorrento Beach are expected to be ideal: an 18kt sou'wester is expected to
strengthen to around 23kts by the end of the race and the swell forecast is for
2.1-2.5m waves.
Oscar described the conditions as being "like a good Millers
Run" referring to the classic downwind route here in Cape Town. Barry Lewin on the other hand said the seas
are "Easy to read, but chop & rides running in all directions, similar
(for those who know it) to Durban in a big easterly wind". Sounds magic.
The race starts at about 1.30pm Perth time (06.30 South African
time) and www.surfski.info will be doing their
usual live coverage.
 Perth World Cup 2006 - Oscar Chalupsky and Daryl Bartho an hour into the race in flat conditions.
The Competition
The seniors on the tour, Australia's Dean Gardiner and South
African Oscar Chalupsky must be salivating at the thought of the big waves and
wind. They both love big downwind
conditions. Oscar won this race in 2005
and 2006. He will be pushing hard to
make it a hat-trick and to prove a point against Dawid Mocke.
On the other hand, there's a host of young (and not so
young) paddlers who'll be equally at home on the bumps. Dawid Mocke for one, who's won the last World
Series two races in Hong Kong and Dubai, has to be the man to beat.
The field includes the cream of Australian surf ski paddling:
-
Dean Gardiner who hasn't paddled this race for
years being too busy organizing it. This
year he's handed over to Ash Nesbit and will be going all out in his favorite conditions.
-
Tim Jacobs (3rd in Dubai). Not considered to be quite such a threat
going downwind, but hey, he beat both Oscar and Herman Chalupsky in Dubai.
-
Dave Kissane who's back on form, consistently around
3rd place in the Ocean Series this year
-
Dane Sloss, who competed head to head with Tim
Jacobs in the ski section of the Coolangatta Gold.
-
Brendon Sarson, winner of the 2007 King of the
Cape
-
Dean Beament.
("Dean is faster than Brendon," said Ash Nesbit, "and should be well up
in the top ten.")
-
Ex-South African Murray Stewart
From South Africa:
-
Oscar Chalupsky who heads the World Series
Rankings at the moment, having done one more race than Dawid Mocke.
-
Herman Chalupsky who edged brother Oscar out to
take 4th place at Dubai.
-
Daryl Bartho who's competed at Perth for the
last couple of years, coming second in 2006 behind Oscar (whom he'd beaten in
all the local South African races leading up to the Perth event!)
-
Clint Pretorius.
Clint is still recovering from a broken wrist and may not be back to
full strength.
-
Barry Lewin who's hungry to improve his
performance after a disappointing 9th place in Dubai.
-
Bevan Manson, who trains in South Africa with
Oscar Chalupsky, also had a disappointing race in Dubai where he came 15th. He's done a lot of training in big downwind conditions
recently.
-
Steve Woods, another Durbanite whose Dubai race
was badly affected at the start when he was knocked off (twice) by other
paddlers at the first buoy.
-
Brett Bartho and Ian Grey who are also no
slouches in the big stuff.
Tahiti
-
Lewis Laughlin is currently lying 2nd
in the World Series Rankings after having had a shocker of a race in
Dubai. He was just behind Steve Woods
and was blocked while Steve fell off, got on, fell off and got on again. Lewis clawed his way back up to 8th
place, but his relatively poor result lost him number one spot on the Rankings.
Women's Race
Fresh from an easy victory in Dubai, the on-form New
Zealander Katie Pocock will be taking on local favorite Natasha Leaversuch who
is unbeaten so far this season in the Aussie races.
Katie may well have recovered from her ordeal at the Dubai
Surfski and Kayak Club on Monday when was trapped for hours in the toilet,
having managed to break the key in the lock...
Fortunately her Fireman's training kicked in and she managed to break
out of a side window into the arms of Tim Jacobs... Sadly I was too busy holding the window up
for to get a photo of that maneuver.
Fenn Hotspots
There are two US$1000 Fenn Hotspots, the first being 500m
from the start of the race off Rottnest Island.
The second is 12km from the start nearly at the half way
point. The paddlers will be guided to
the hotspot by a 60ft crayfish boat that will be trailing a 6m sponsor's
banner. Half way to the hotspot, the boat
will motor ahead of the fleet and will anchor near the 5ft fluorescent can that
marks the spot. From there the race
takes a direct line to (and through) the 3 Mile Reef off Sorrento Beach.
 Perth World Cup 2007 Course Map
The paddlers will go around a buoy set at the break that
will give them a straight line into the beach.
Registration Evening
"It was a great night," said Ash, "the sponsors provided
free beer and lasagna. Oscar drank all
the beer and ate all the lasagna. You
could tell Tim Jacobs is taking the race seriously though - he didn't touch a
drop all night!"
For more info see:
http://www.myocean.com.au/
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