Despite long-distance surfski having its roots in life saving ski paddling, there seems to have been a divergence between the two branches of the sport in the past few years. It is therefore very refreshing to see that there is still a lot of crossover between the top paddlers in the long and short distance races.

Murray Stewart (Aus) & Jasper Mocke (SA) came 1st & 4th

For the past week Warnemunde in Germany has been host to the bi-annual world life saving championships. Of the top four paddlers in the final of the men’s single ski, three (including the new world champion) are well-recognised long distance paddlers, two of whom recently competed in the World Cup in Durban. Despite a serious lack of surf, the competition at the top end was fierce in the open men's surf ski.

At the end of the day, the race was won by Australian Murray Stewart, with Hank McGregor in third and Jasper Mocke in fourth. Murray, a consistent performer on the Australian long distance circuit in recent years, comes off the back of two months’ sprint training with the Australian kayaking team in Europe.

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Hank has recently secured victories in the Durban World Cup and Berg River Marathon. Jasper’s fourth place backs up the fourth that he achieved as a member of the South African team in the men’s ski in the international competition of the world surf lifesaving champs earlier in the week.

Hank McGregor winning the 2008 Epic/Fenn Durban World Cup (Pic: www.anthonygrote.com)

The fact that the long distance guys are at the pointy end of the sprint pack should be nothing new, after all most of the big names in long distance paddling have a background in the sprint racing (eg: Dean Gardiner has gold medals from Australian life saving nationals, Dave Kissane and Jeremy Cotter raced ironman professionally, Oscar / Dawid / the Barthos / Clint Pretorius / etc. all raced for their respective surf clubs).

Hopefully these recent results can remind us that there is a definite link between the two types of racing, and that they needn’t be mutually exclusive. Well done to Murray, Hank and Jasper on their great results.

We look forward to seeing what they can do in Dubai in November!

Click here for the full results.

Comments (3)

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Well done Aussies
written by Greg, August 08, 2008

13 of the top 16 Aussies, thats HUGE

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130000 Clubbies-Aus vs 5000 Lifesavers-RSA, thats Huge!
written by richard von wildemann, August 08, 2008

Hank & Jasper well done and I'll claim Mr Stewart

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written by Craig Fisher, August 14, 2008

I always thought the South Africans paddled funny skis made from foam with no constraints on design. They also paddled these weird skis vast distances which I could never work out either. I came second in masters 130 relay sprint racing in warumunde and still have not figured out how to paddle vast distances at a stupid pace. I have been converted in the last year to paddling vast distances at a slow pace and now realise the fun in those stupid skis after 28 years.

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