A whole series of firsts occurred at 10:00 on Saturday 19^th January 2008 in Trinidad, West Indies. First ever Surfski race in the country, first International Surfski race, first race organised by the 5 week old Trinidad Surfski Club, first time in big open water seas for many of the racers. Also first time sponsors Anthony P Scott with Dewlands Juice and Hawaiian Tropic sun lotion hoping they get their money's worth!

Stuart Knaggs (2nd), Derek Bezuidenhout (1st) and Ryan Mendes (3rd)

Nerves were high amongst many of the racers for all of these reasons. The field a mixed bag of paddlers ranging from 25 year veteran South African paddler Derrick Bezuidenhout, to half a dozen in just their first or second season of paddling, and still more concerned about staying on the ski rather than race position!

I thought it would be interesting to paint two pictures of the race, from the front and, let's just say, towards the back of the pack. Firstly the story from Stuart Knaggs, ‘veteran' (sorry Stuart) South African paddler from St Maarten.

View from the front - Stuart Knaggs

"Trinidad's first official ski race was held last Saturday, 19 January on the north coast, from Blanchissuese to Maracas, measured at just over 19km.  Apart from the racing, I had been looking forward to visiting Trinidad for a long time.  Although it is only about 900km south of our home in St Martin, the journey can take most of the day, hopping from island to island on small twin prop planes. 

I had met a few of the Trini paddlers at other events around the Caribbean, but now it was my turn to visit their beautiful island for some great racing.  I met a few more of the local paddlers and Derick Bezuidenhout, an expat South African living in Florida, who had dropped in for the race.

The start was pretty late by normal paddling standards, scheduled for 10am.  This gave everyone a chance to get over the night before, have a bit of breakfast and wander down to the beach.  It also gave the wind a chance to kick in.  All in all, a pretty good strategy.

The format was a deep water start, giving some of the less experienced paddlers a bit of time to get out to the start line without being worked over too much.  The surf was deceptive, appearing pretty harmless but closing nastily on a bank running nearly all the way across the bay.  The forecast called for 15 knots of wind and 2m swell and we were not let down.

Most of the paddlers got out ok but the "more experienced" guys on the beach waited for the tailenders to get out before joining the group at the start boat.  The start was pretty novel, with the paddlers moving upwind in a very orderly bunch behind the start boat, which pulled away once the start was sounded and then stopped about 200m upwind and became a mark that we rounded before racing off downwind.

Local paddler Ryan Mendes went hard off the line - I decided that I'd better stay with him and rounded the start boat on his outside.  The wind and the swells were off our right shoulders as we headed down to the first headland.  There were little runs to be had off to the left and I worked my way ahead of Ryan, taking a route closer to the shore with Derick.  We chatted for a few minutes - Derick couldn't believe how noisy our boats were and then he slowly pulled away from me, making better use of the runs.  OR maybe I slowed down because I noticed Ryan pull slowly past a little way offshore and pull ahead slightly by the first headland. 

I decided I had to put a bit of work in as we rounded the headland into full downwind conditions.  I managed to link a few runs together and pulled ahead of Ryan again, but never far enough for comfort.  Derick had pulled away out of sight by the time we reached the second headland, 5km from the finish and I knew I had little chance of catching him.  I tried a line close to the left hand side of Maracas Bay, hoping that there would be some swell to ride down the rocks but noticed my speed drop right off on my GPS.  This made me loose even more time to Derick, but luckily Ryan stuck to the same course as me and lost just as much as I did in the counter current.

We finished in the middle of Maracas Bay through some easy surf - to be greeted with a finisher's medal and a kiss from the Hawaiian Tropic girls.  Not a bad end to the race.  The other paddlers came in over the next hour, giving us plenty of time to dent the sponsor's products - Dewlands fruit juice and Stag beer while we "limed on da beach".  After the last paddlers were in, we did the awards thing and settled into a lunch of the famous Maracas "bake ‘n shark" - that's right, deep fried shark in a fried bread dumpling with salad and hot stuff for flavour. 

So, the result?  Surfski racing has arrived in Trinidad.  It's a great location, warm with excellent sea conditions, lovely beaches, friendly people - what is there not to like.  A big thank you to Johan and Charlotte who put us up for the weekend and of course to the brand new Trinidad Surfski Club for hosting the event."

View from the back - Nigel Wall 

" My first real race experience had ended in disaster in St Maarten in late 2007 when I had to be fished out of the sea after struggling with an unfamiliar Surfski and tough conditions in the Soualiga Challenge, so nerves were high. Seeing the beach break at Blanchisuesse also set the heart pounding, but thanks to some assistance from Stuart and a good shove from the beach I got out to the start unscathed.

The upwind start was helpful for stability and I made a good start mid pack. This was followed by rounding the start boat 200m upwind and beginning the first leg with the swell coming from back right. I got into a sensible rhythm with probably 8 boats ahead of me and the rest to either side and a couple behind. My goals were simple; firstly, to finish, secondly to beat one or two. My focus was staying on and paddling more than bracing, not always easy with the seas getting to 2m plus and some nasty reflective chop about 5km in. 

I kept focussed on the first point at Culebra where I knew that after that it was straight downwind and after almost an hour of white knuckle paddling I hit the 30 degree turn and at last the wind and most of the swell was right behind. These were the biggest conditions I had paddled in, but I felt good and the Huki behaved in the tricky conditions, that secondary stability keeping me ‘right side up' several times. I had sight of 2 paddlers in front and that became my total focus for the next hour, picking up the runs, but zeroing in on my targets. I glanced at the Garmin from time to time and at one point on a huge wave it showed over 20kph and I wasn't paddling. This was the real ‘big smile' part of the race! Soon got past Dave and had another paddler, Keron I think, in sight.

Starting to get tired after that early bashing and  with the finish bay in sight I made some silly mistakes and got dumped a few times which gave Dave an opportunity to retake me. Soon there was the glorious Maracas Bay in front of me and the finish was in sight. Pride took over and I dug deep to sneak back past Dave and surf the last 30m onto the Beach, dump the ski and run to the finish line! 

The Garmin afterwards showed that the actual speed on that wave was 24.2kph, wow, more of those please!

Goals achieved, medal worn proudly, and juice, beer and bake ‘n shark consumed!" 

Results are shown below, all are welcome to come over to this piece of paddling heaven for the race next year, or sooner, and we'll give you a warm Caribbean welcome!

Time to plan for a bigger and even better race next year! 

Nigel Wall

President

Trinidad Surfski Club

Derek Bezuidenhout - winner Derek Bezuidenhout - winner

Derek Bezuidenhout - winner Derek Bezuidenhout - winner

Pancho Gets Air! Pancho Gets Air!

Podium finishes quaff Dewlands Juice! Podium finishes quaff Dewlands Juice!

Third place Ryan Mendes Third place Ryan Mendes

Before the start Before the start

Tropical paradise? Tropical paradise?

Team photoTeam photo

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written by Wayne Randall, January 29, 2008

Reminds me of Dubai many years ago - starting up DSKC - Great to see the sport appearing in the most unexpected places roll on 2008 !!!

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