East London - ISPA Surfski World Champ Dawid Mocke added the SA Single ski title to his already impressive trophy cabinet by winning the KIA SA S1 Champs in East London in a thrilling duel with Hank McGregor in superb downwind racing conditions. 

On 3 December, 2010, the world’s elite paddlers will meet once more to take part in the fifth edition of the richest, most competitive surfski race on the planet – the Dubai Shamaal.

Dawid Mocke made no mistake in bagging the third Discovery Sunglass Hut Series race in Fish Hoek on Sunday.  Nikki Mocke ran in an easy win in the women’s race.

Cape Town’s Tom Schilperoort finally dumped the monkey off his back and won his first victory against world champion Dawid Mocke.

My heart sank a few days ago when I saw the forecast...  and sure enough, for the first time in six years, the opening race in the Discovery Sunglass Hut series was held on a flat sea, with barely a whisper of wind to help the paddlers.  

Hank McGregor, Jeremy Cotter and Tom Schilperoort diced most of the warm-up race before being split up by the waves in the channel through the reef just before the finish...

When I asked Dawid Mocke before he left for the three-race US Surfski Tour how he felt about length of the races, he was sanguine.  “Before I started tapering off,” he said, “I was doing several 40km paddles each week.  So I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

[Editor: Rambo just posted his video of the US Surfski Champs – and boy, is it ever worth the wait!  Here it is – along with Dawid Mocke’s perspective of the race]

As we hit the final stretch to the finish, my shoulder muscles were in agony; my fingers felt as though they were about to fall off; my breath was coming in short gasps.... and I was just typing the commentary...

Gone were the 30 knot winds, frigid temperatures, and pelting rain that whipped the gun-gray river into froth during last year’s race. There were no frantic paddlers pinned by the current against a parked barge.