Mocke, Mocke and Mocke in Cape Town…

Fish Hoek – Local paddler Jasper Mocke sounded an early warning on Sunday 9 December when he narrowly outsprinted his older brother Dawid to claim the iconic Peter Creese Lighthouse race, the first of three events making up the inaugural Fish Hoek Surfski Festival. Nikki Mocke dominated the women’s race, winning by nearly 5 minutes.

Challenging Conditions

With a South Easterly wind blowing at over forty kilometers per hour paddlers not only had to overcome their fellow competitors but ensure they survived the elements as well.

(By long standing tradition the race is held no matter what the conditions are.  Today's was one of the more testing occasions!)

“Super stoked”

Having only recently returned from a prolonged stint overseas Mocke showed good speed and endurance to power to victory ahead of his regular Cape rivals.

“It was a really tough day out there today with such a strong wind blowing,” said Mocke. “I’m obviously super stoked with the win especially with it being the first race of the new Fish Hoek Surfski Festival.

The start (self still standing, waiting for the set to come through, looking like an idiot)

“I got back in South Africa two and a half weeks ago and then spent a couple of days in Jeffrey’s Bay but since I’ve been back in Cape Town I’ve been training quite hard and have been feeling good because even though it’s been intense I’ve also been really relaxed which has meant I’ve been able to focus purely on paddling without any distractions.

“Today’s win is obviously not the be all and end all with the next two weeks being the main focus and there will definitely be more guys coming through for the next two races but I definitely would have rather had a good one today than not have,” he added.

Slow but steady

Conditions meant a patient approach was required by all as a slow early pace on the first leg into the tough headwind was set with no one prepared to work too hard early on.

The paddlers had to grind into the 20-25kt wind and waves for 5km to the lighthouse.  The wind strengthened and the sea went berserk for the last 500m as if angry that we had the temerity to challenge it.

“Most guys sat together in a group for the first five kilometers on our way out to the lighthouse because everyone knew it was going to come down to the 5km sprint on the way back,” said Mocke. “Initially it was quite a big group with all the top guys and some of the really good juniors up there as well

“As we approached the lighthouse Dawid (Mocke), Tom (Schilperoort) and I moved up towards the front so we could make sure we got around the lighthouse cleanly.

It was advisable to take a wide berth around the lighthouse...  One highly experience paddler was tumbled by a breaker and had to be rescued by the ever-alert NSRI

If you knew what you were doing, you could take a line between the the lighthouse and the reef (closer to the camera in this shot).

“With all the big breakers breaking on the reef and the rocks we had to take quite a wide line on our way around but as we got around it was like a switch had been flicked and the guys were off.

“Dawid and I managed to get away on a couple of runs and were dicing each other for quite a while. Suddenly I noticed Simon (van Gysen) and Tom had moved up on our inside and were only thirty meters or so back so we really had to start watching them too and it was definitely still a four boat race with one kilometer to go.

“I was still leading though as we came into Fish Hoek bay and was feeling quite good but all of a sudden Dawid closed the gap of ten or fifteen meters that I’d had and it we were neck and neck. Fortunately I managed to pull over a wave and that was enough to give me the win.”

Dawid Mocke - now paddling the Fenn Glide - arrives back at the beach in second place

Women’s Race

In the women’s race Nikki Mocke, wife of Dawid, powered home to a comfortable win, finishing five minutes ahead of her nearest rival and too will take some good momentum into the rest of the festival.

Nikki Mocke dominated the women's race

Kim van Gysen and Bianca Beavitt claimed the remaining two spots on the podium whilst Dominic Notten and Kirsten Flanagan claimed the junior boys and girls races respectively.

Lighthouse Race - Rob Mousley's GPS Track

[Editor: What's pretty cool about this is that I took 48min to get to the lighthouse and 24min to get back...]

 

 

Next Up: Cape Town Downwind - Final World Series Race

With the focus for many of the world’s best open ocean paddlers now shifting to next weekend’s Cape Town Downwind, the final leg of the Oceanpaddler World Series and South African S1 (single seater surfski) Champs, Mocke knows all too well the shift in gear that will be required in the near future.

“The standard down here in the Cape is always really high but to have the best guys from around the country and the world coming is really exciting,” said Mocke.

Longer races

“Today’s style of racing was very different to the next two weeks. This week’s race was more of a head to head shoot out whereas with next week being longer race tactics may come into play more and then the Cape Point Challenge is a very different race and is all about conserving energy.”

“It’s going to be a really interesting few days of racing though and to have it all happening in Fish Hoek is great,” he added.

More info can be found at www.capepointchallenge.com 

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FULL RESULTS - PETER CREESE LIGHTHOUSE RACE

Pos	Time	Name	Category
1	00:51:00	Jasper Mocke	Senior 1st
2	00:51:11	Dawid Mocke	Senior 2nd
3	00:51:21	Simon Van Gysen	Senior 3rd
4	00:51:32	Tom Schilperoort	Senior 4th
5	00:51:52	Sean Rice	Senior 5th
6	00:52:14	Dominic Notten	Junior 1st
7	00:52:21	Kenny Rice	Junior 2nd
8	00:53:52	Ashley Carstens
9	00:53:54	Benjamin Biggs Alasdair Glass	Double 1st
10	00:53:59	Barry Lewin
11	00:54:08	Brandon Kilbride
12	00:54:36	Craig Flanagan	Junior 3rd
13	00:56:06	Ian Trautmann
14	00:57:22	Justin Maddock
15	00:57:31	Steve Farrell
16	00:57:35	Ashley Barnes Peter Cole	Mixed Double 1st Doubles 2nd
17	00:57:51	Daniel Kantor
18	00:57:55	Adam Bothma
19	00:58:23	Ivan Kruger
20	00:58:33	Graham Solomon
21	00:58:35	Phil Pla Dale Lewis	Doubles 3rd
22	00:59:20	Nick Van Zyl Mark Gevers
23	00:59:34	Nick Longley
24	00:59:58	Shanti Stuart
25	01:00:00	Jean Austin
26	01:00:03	Brendon Curren
27	01:00:06	Bruce Neill
28	01:00:13	Nicholas Notten
29	01:00:19	Tallon Denovan Marco Zunpt
30	01:00:25	Robert Hart Anders Hart
31	01:00:46	Matthieu Gru
32	01:00:51	Gary Carstens
33	01:01:06	Nikki Mocke	Women 1st
34	01:01:09	Lyle Maasdorp
35	01:01:13	Benjamin Brown
36	01:01:25	Paul Eyquem
37	01:01:52	Anthony Pearse Gill Anderson
38	01:02:46	Andrew Turner
39	01:03:06	Tyrone Smolders
40	01:03:54	Mike Schwan
41	01:03:59	Willem Erasmus
42	01:04:21	Sean McGuigan
43	01:04:44	Wayne Knutsen Gareth Pinkney
44	01:06:08	David De Waal David Murraysmith
45	01:06:15	Alex Topliss
46	01:06:57	Dominic Strano
47	01:07:42	Kim Van Gysen	Women 2nd
48	01:08:11	Bianca Beavitt	Women 3rd
49	01:08:58	Shaun Butler
50	01:09:10	Rob Wilmot
51	01:09:27	Mark Smith
52	01:10:31	Guy Chaston Dave Hitchkock
53	01:10:32	Angie Mouden
54	01:11:00	Eloise Horne
55	01:11:18	Samantha Murray Anna Notten	Doubles Women 1st
56	01:12:30	Daniel Schilperoort
57	01:13:29	Charl Dreyer
58	01:14:21	Phillip Olckers
59	01:15:16	Paul Lange
60	01:15:35	Rob Mousley
61	01:15:47	Andrew Crook Dave Fernandes
62	01:16:14	Uli Hart Lis Hart
63	01:16:44	Anton Cartwright
64	01:16:54	Chloe Bunnett
65	01:17:11	Johann De Wet
66	01:17:14	Kirsten Flanagan
67	01:17:51	Andrew Hardie
68	01:18:18	Garth Watters
69	01:19:24	Quinton Miller
70	01:19:42	Amy Hare Candice Murray
71	01:19:46	Nick Rockey
72	01:20:36	Costa Domopoulos
73	01:21:57	Stuart Bristo
74	01:28:29	Richard LeMesurier
75	01:29:06	Robyn Smith
76	01:30:58	Andre Jooste
77	01:31:11	David Fox
78	01:32:39	Kyle Corbett
79	01:33:47	Adriaan Hoeben
80	01:39:35	Lennart Ohlsson