Mocke, Mocke and Mocke in Cape Town…

Jasper Mocke sprints to the finish of the 2012 Peter Creese Lighthouse race in Fish Hoek Credits: John Hishin

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 

FULL RESULTS - PETER CREESE LIGHTHOUSE RACE