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"37.56... pardon!" That cryptic text message, arriving on my mobile phone at 14h45 this afternoon told me all I needed to know. Dawid Mocke had smashed the Garmin Millers Run Challenge record into a cocked hat.
 Dawid Mocke passes Roman Rock lighthouse on a recent Millers Run (Pic: Justin Vellacott, Actionography)
Coincidentally I'd being eyeing Roman Rock weather station website myself - and the 14h29 status was still on my computer screen. Over the last hour the wind speed average had been 19m/s, gusting to 22.6m/s. Hmm, let's see, that works out to roughly 37kts (68kph), gusting to 44kts (81kph).
 The wind data from Roman Rock at 2:30pm today
Hectic Conditions
Charles Brand called me a few moments later. "I called Dawid up and asked him if he wanted to do a downwind run," he said, "but when we got to Millers Point I decided that perhaps discretion was the better part of valour!"
"It looked great out at sea," he added. "But that first section out to Bakoven Rock just looked too daunting."
Daunting? There was a solid shore-break smashing onto the ramp - and the occasional break was closing out across the mouth of Rumbley Bay. Why "Rumbley" Bay? Because there's a beach of boulders that literally rumbles as the waves break on them when it's big - and today they were rumbling. Waves breaking on the rocks to the south of the bay were curling in and sending foamies across the gap between the ramp and mouth of the bay.
Add a strong wind to that and sure, that's daunting.
[Editor: Hats off to Charles for making the call not to paddle - it's sometimes difficult to admit one's own limitations.]
Once out to sea though, Dawid had a blast. "I haven't had fun like that for a long time," he said. "There were really, really nice runs." The sea swell was around 2-3m with a 1-1.5m wind chop running at an angle to it.
 The fastest Millers Run ever!
Didn't feel at my best
"Funnily enough I didn't feel at my best," he added. "There were times when I felt I should have gone a different way. The swells also died at the entrance to Fish Hoek bay and it was high tide, which made for a slightly longer paddle!"
When I asked him how it felt to be the record holder of what is probably the best known downwind run in the world, Dawid was relatively unfazed. "Records are there to be broken," he said, "and I'm sure the guys will be onto this one now. But it's nice to have beaten both the official and the unofficial record." (The previous generally acknowledged record was held by Oscar Chalupsky in a time of 38:40.)
Garmin Millers Run Challenge
Garmin are sponsoring two of their Forerunner products for the annual Garmin Millers Run Challenge. There's a 305 unit for the best time of the year - and a 205 up for a lucky draw. All you have to do to enter is register a time on http://www.surfski.info/. (You only have to have proof in the form of a GPS track IF you're claiming a record. Otherwise, you just need to list a witness who'll confirm that you did the run.)
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