Rock breaks

It is sometimes useful to use waves breaking around rocks to gain a couple of seconds on races. One has to be careful not to go to close, as a recent incident on a Clifton Dice involving a top paddler breaking his boat on Barker's Rock and having it sink, demonstrates. Occasionally on a Barker's Rock paddle, on carefully selected days, with no swell one can slip between the 2 rocks at Barkers. Does anyone have any tips or experiences on this topic?

Tip #1: be VERY careful around rocks! Barker is extremely dangerous, especially on big days - as the Glen McGregor memorial race indicates (Glen is suspected to have died as a result of going too close to Barker Rock on a Friday dice). I've also watched a group of skis (last January) get taken out by a "surprise" wave at Barker.

A couple of months ago we shot the gap at Barker - on a very calm day. But as I went through what swell there was created a strong surge and a whirlpool on one side of the gap.

Vulcan (off Hout Bay) is another place where even mild swell creates massive sucking/surging conditions. There's a reef on the inshore side of Vulcan that breaks in big conditions and can be "surprising" on other days. Usually races go around the rock clockwise and yep, you can catch runs by cutting close (ie within 20m) of Vulcan. But if conditions are marginal, don't do it!

I nearly died at the bottom of Chapman's Peak on a very calm day at spring low tide. There's a rock which appears off the ledge at the bottom of the peak and I thought I'd shoot it. As I got close a big gentle swell suddenly came in and the nice water turned to white foam. I found myself going sideways straight at the rock - but literally about 6 inches from the rock, the surge went the other way - but now I was going straight towards the ledge and heading towards another hitherto unseen rock. The wave lifted me over the rock and I then paddled for my life to out of the white water. I absolutely shat myself.

A friend nearly killed me on a double going too close to the reef to the northeast of the lighthouse at Roman Rock during the three beaches race in 2005. Again a "calm" day but a sudden break scooped me off the back of the ski and scraped me down the side of the rock - I have a scar across my stomach as a reminder.

So yep - you can catch reflected waves off rocks but unless you really know the area very well, rocks can make for treacherous conditions!