Rob Mousley

Cape Town, South Africa: 17 Dec 2005 

Trained and Anxious

In February this year, Dawid Mocke asked me what my goals were for the year.  "Well," I said, "last year I wanted to get to B-grade in Billy's races.  I achieved that in the last race that I did.  I think this year I'd like to do the Cape Point Challenge."

by Rob Mousley - 10 October 2004

A while ago we were sent the “Great White Following Sea Kayak” photo by someone who asked where it was taken and whether it was indeed genuine. Surfski.info published it and a lively debate resulted with the consensus of opinion being that the photo was a fake.

It’s not a fake. After unsuccessfully trying to find the photo on the Internet, I resorted to sending emails to shark tourism companies and one of them finally pointed me at the photographer who took the shot...

By Rob Mousley - 20 November 2005

I've always held that, "there's no such thing as a bad paddle".  well I'm re-evaluating whether I'm going to say that again!

This morning Damian, "Big Mac", Rob and I planned to do the course of next week's race as practise.  Next week's race is the qualifier for the Cape Point Challenge - you have to finish within a certain amount of time after the winner in order to be allowed to enter the Challenge.  The course is 35km long - from Fish Hoek to the Clan Stuart wreck in Simon's Bay, to the other side of Smitswinkel Bay and back to Fish Hoek.

I knew that we were in for some sort of "challenge" today; the wind had been howling yesterday and was forecast to die during the morning today.  In other words we'd have the wind in our faces going out, but it would probably die around about the time we turned around - so we wouldn't be helped home.

Background: my paddling goal for 2005 was to take part in the Cape Point Challenge, a long distance (56km) surf ski race that takes place every other December here in Cape Town. Not having paddled many long distance races before - one only and that a mere 31km - I mounted a year-long campaign and started training in February. First goal in the campaign was to take part in the annual Men's Health Scottburgh to Brighton race off the Kwa-Zulu Natal coast.

The 46km distance of the race didn't worry me; by race day I'd have done nearly 1000km of training including a number of 30km+ paddles. No, what worried me was the notorious Durban surf.

We frequently receive emails from readers asking about beginner's surfskis, and until recently we haven't been able to reply with the benefit of personal experience...  but in the last couple of weeks I've had the opportunity to paddle some new skis aimed directly at the beginner's end of the market.

(All photos by Rob Mousley, www.surfski.info, unless otherwise indicated)

We had the unique opportunity to compare two identical skis - identical that is except for the layup.  One is a stiff carbon ski; the other has a cork composite layup.  How does the stiffness of the skis compare - and what difference does it make to the stability of the ski?

I was lucky enough to get my hands on the upgraded Epic Mid-Wing Paddles recently.  The new model has strengthened blades and a lever length-lock.

Bling Special…  This ski turns heads on the beach – and is one of the nicest boats I’ve ever paddled.  

Some great technical innovations set this ski apart - but directional instability makes it sometimes uncomfortable to paddle.