Rob Mousley

Good news for social paddlers in Cape Town is that Margaret Silk of Paddlers Kayak Shop in Simonstown is now welcoming surf ski paddlers to participate in their previously sea kayak-only race series.

"The demand has been too much and we've caved in!" - says Margaret. "Our kayak races are now open to surf skis so we thought we would let you know.

"Our races tend to be more social than competitive so Oscar and Dawid types should probably steer clear but new paddlers and the lower grades might like to join in."

Details are at http://www.paddlers.co.za/pages/racepage.html

"In addition we will soon be stocking surf skis as well as our range of sea kayaks."

This correspondent participated in a dice on the Umgeni River last night on a borrowed Red7 Surf 60 (thanks Gav!).

The Team Grand Prix event registration was taking place and I met up with some of the international paddlers - Mark Sandvold (US), Mark Buck (US), Dave Jensen (US), Dean Gardiner (Aus).  The NZ paddlers were there and I spotted some French team members as well.  All extremely friendly people (as are our Durban hosts) and much beer and braaied (barbequed) boerwors (SA speciality sausage) was consumed...

Some of the visitors (Mark Buck, Mark Sandvold, one of the NZ paddlers), went for an orientation paddle yesterday with Darryl Bartho...

Three single surfskis were out near Mouille Point, Cape Town yesterday, heading in the direction of Oceana Powerboat Club.  The third cut the corner across the reef and...  was eaten by the break.  His ski was broken in half and one of the other paddlers went into Oceana, borrowed a double and came back out to collect him.

According to Craig Lambinon, spokesman for the NSRI, an eyewitness on shore called the NSRI but by the time they arrived, the casualty had reached shore.  The NSRI launch collected the wreckage of the ski and delivered it to the owner.

Moral of the story: beware of the reef off Mouille Point lighthouse - the break can extend "surprisingly" far out to sea.  Other casualties of the reef include Dawid Mocke who was dumped during the opening race  last season. He didn't break his ski, but he did lose the race!

(And contrary to rumour, Andre van Rensburg wasn't anywhere near the scene...) 

A spam emailer caused not only our site, but the entire server along with some 500 other websites, to go offline for several hours yesterday.

One of the open-source components that make up the framework of the site, the Coppermine photo gallery, was attacked and converted into an email broadcast engine allowing the hackers to start spewing tens of thousands of spam emails. 

Our ISP had no choice but to shut the server down in order to stop the emails and repair the damage.   They then moved surfski.info to a more secure server.

Our apologies for that - and if you ever find a spam emailer, let them know how the world feels about them. 

In the event, it wasn't to be...  

SurfSki.Info is two months old and in this time we've had close on 30 000 visitors. To celebrate we have given the site a makeover. The cool sea-blue menu and tropical banner are there to inspire you to not only surf the internet, but to get out there and paddle! The clean white background with red hyperlinks reflect the classic white and red colours of many surf-skis.  Let us know what you think and tell us if you spot any bugs...

There's a feast of TV coverage over the next few weeks... 

Surfski World Cup -  Tahiti
27-FEB-2006 19:00 CSN/SS1
28-FEB-2006 00:00 CSN/SS1
28-FEB-2006 06:30 SS1
01-MAR-2006 01:30 SS1
01-MAR-2006 14:30 CSN/SS2
02-MAR-2006 12:30 SS2
03-MAR-2006 16:30 CSN/SS1
04-MAR-2006 12:00 SS2
06-MAR-2006 00:00 SS2

Baggaley relieved despite ban

Wednesday, 21 December  2005 

Olympic silver medallist, Nathan Baggaley.

(ABC.net.au) Australian kayaking champion and Byron Bay resident, Nathan Baggaley, says he has maintained his credibility despite receiving a 15 month ban for steroid use.

Last night the Court of Arbitration for Sport took into account Baggaley's explanation that he had mistakenly taken the steroids when he drank orange juice from a shared fridge.

Baggaley, who is an Olympic silver medallist, tested positive to the drugs in September.

Cape Times, 27 Dec 2005,
The NSRI in Simon's Town, South Africa received a call for help yesterday when Alan Witherden, 56, from Parkwood, Johannesburg, fell off his surf-ski near Glencairn. His friend, John Rhynes, from Constantia, paddled to shore to call for help.

After a brief search by NSRI and Cape Medical Response crews, Witherden was spotted clinging to his surf-ski a mile off Fish Hoek beach, having drifted in currents, with 20 to 25 knot south-easterly winds and 1.5-metre swells.

A Metro Rescue Red Cross AMS helicopter crew lowered NSRI rescue swimmer PJ Veldhuizen into the waves. He hooked Witherden to a static line and hoisted him to safety.

Cape Town, South Africa, Dec 2005

The Cape Point Challenge is looming...  Saturday at 05h00 local time the first batches will set off on the 56km journey from Soetwater to Fish Hoek.

The forecast is firming; looks like a moderate (i.e. 15-20kt) southerly wind.  There was a storm some time ago in the Southern Ocean which has sent a pulse of big swell (4m at 05h00, 5m by 08h00) our way.