dolphin coast

Durban – With their sights firmly set on the upcoming World Marathon Champs K2 title, the crew of Hank McGregor and Andy Birkett delivered a masterclass to claim the two-day 43km Gara Dolphin Coast Challenge title on Sunday.

The 2013 Stella Kayaks, Citadel Private Wealthcare Dolphin Coast Challenge was the 14th running of the iconic South African event.  Oscar Chalupsky and Matt Bouman paddled together in the new team format, and took the race in a nailbiting finish, outpaddling Hank McGregor and Grant van der Walt who came second.  The surf on both days provided plenty of excitement...

The 2-day, 74km Stellar Kayaks Dolphin Coast Challenge is one of the iconic surfski races in South Africa and 2012 was its 13th running. 

Hank McGregor won the 2010 BoE Dolphin Coast Challenge in cracking style last weekend.

"Aged", "old ballie", "experienced"," oud", "madala", "Been-around-a-while!"

These are all words that describe the majority of the top ten finishers of the 10th Dolphin Coast Challenge.  The average age is over 40 years young.  Tony Scott (63), the oldest paddler to participate, teamed up with Colin Simpkins and finished a credible 9th overall.

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This year is the 10th Dolphin Coast Challenge paddled between Zinkwazi and Durban, a distance of 74km over 2 days.

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Dolphin Coast Challenge - Unchartered Waters, November 2001

[Editor: Wayne Borchardt wrote this article after the 2001 Dolphin Coast challenge.  I think it describes perfectly the viewpoint of less-than-elite Cape paddlers tackling the Durban coastline. I couldn't get photos of the 2001 event itself so I've used shots from the 2006 Scottburgh to Brighton.]

One could question our preparation for the Dolphin Coast Challenge.  A mere 2-week graduation course from a Hammerhead to a Fenn was not exactly the tonic needed to steady our nerves.   The only aspect that we were confident of was our ability to fall out of the Fenn seemingly at will.  A flavour of what was in store for us came in the form of a seemingly innocuous question during the pre-race banter: "so how much big wave experience have you guys had?"