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Last Friday saw top paddlers from DSKC, Dubai's only 7-Star surfski club, take on a well-heeled squad of runners from the Dubai Creek Striders in a coastal dice that pitched the two clubs in a 10k parallel sprint down the coast.
 Start of the 2008 Paddle with Sole (Burj Al Clubhouse in background)
The beaches of Dubai start thinning out at this time of year as tourists and residents alike shy away from the shirt-drenching 45C temperatures and baking hot sand. Great news for DSKC paddlers as they get the beach to themselves, especially at 6am when it's a positively chilly 32C and club members can be seen doing squat thrusts to keep warm before hitting the usually mirror-like turquoise sea.
 Paddlers huddle together in the 32C chill at dawn
Friday 13th was bound to deliver some surprises for the Paddle with Sole race, in which DSKC'S finest would paddle down the coast parallel with the main beach road that cuts a clean line towards the Burj Al Arab hotel. On paper things looked good for the paddlers, the early morning air is cooler offshore and the runners would have to contend with pounding over hot pavements. However, in a rare show of force the sea that day threw up some impressive swells that would have provided good runs had they been paddling out to sea instead of sideways. A concept not lost on many racers "We should be paddling out to sea instead of going f***ing sideways", grumbled one early riser.
 Pre-start (that Burg Al Clubhouse in the background again)
After a short motivational speech by DSKC President Wayne Randall it was left to 15-year old paddling ace Stuart Gordon to explain the course to both paddlers and runners. The Dubai Creek Striders are a motley crew of trainer-wearing mavericks and there was a fair amount of heckling. The racers were selected into teams of four, and each team was required to cross the line together regardless of who was leading and who was straggling behind. It was a good method and gave the competition an added edge.
 'A rare show of force' from the sea as the paddlers start
The race start was the DSKC clubhouse and once on the water it was straight down the coast towards the iconic hotel, or as it turned out, to the appropriately named 360 bar and restaurant. The restaurant is at the end of a kilometre long water-break that arcs out into the sea next to the Burj. The big swell dumped a few paddlers and made for slow progress to the starting point, where again the swell made it difficult for the small teams to regroup. Once the flag had gone up, there was a chaotic charge through the waves and for some it quickly became apparent that just staying in the ski was going to be half the challenge.
 Tense moments as the runners & paddlers face off
Club Captain Gaven Mumberson had issued the teams with DSKC's very best banana-coloured race vests which made spotting the paddlers easier in deep swells. Very few were following a strict line however, especially as this close to the beach there are hidden man-made sandbanks silently waiting for Dubai's next offshore project. In fact, they build stuff so fast out here by the time you've turned around to head back some developer will have knocked up a 5-star spa complete with polo field and Formula 1 track: this is Dubai, it's what they do, even when you don't want them to do it.
 DSKC A-Team finish in formation (From left: Pete O'Higgins, Gleb Greben, Graeme Fenton, Chris Cheyne.)
 And the masses straggle in (trad. Arab Dhows in background upper left)
Things got a little higgledy-piggeldy around 360 and the last stretch was a real slog, paddling a Fenn XT, which has the same power-weight ratio as an ocean liner meant that it clung to the swells like a Porsche 911 on a Swiss mountain road, err well okay, maybe not, but still, it looks after the paddler if you're not paying attention or because, God forbid, you have a hangover.
 The pavement pounders sweat their way back to the finish
The paddlers' uphill struggle meant that ultimately the runners got the edge and the first bunch shot over the finish-line at the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club sixty seconds before the first team of paddlers led by Pete O'Higgins, Graeme Fenton, Gleb Greben and Chris Cheyne. The race was not time-based but more sportingly based on teamwork. The runners won a lucky break, next year the race will allegedly see the runners sprint up the Burj Dubai as the paddlers navigate the Lazy River at Wild Wadi waterpark, sign up now.
 Suitably ship-wrecked participants at the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club
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