SA Double Surfski Champs: Mocke Brothers, Eray/Mocke win

Dawid and Jasper Mocke win the 2012 SA Double Surfski Champs Credits: John Hishin/Owen Middleton

Fish Hoek - Local paddling sensation and recently crowned 2012 Oceanpaddler World Series champion Dawid Mocke and younger brother Jasper overcame their disappointment of Saturday's single ski race when the pair charged across the line first in the double ski leg of the SA Surfski Championships on Monday 17 December.

Local Knowledge

Having finished the previous day's encounter in sixth and fifth place respectively the Mocke brothers had a notably stronger day second time around and used their superior knowledge of local conditions to gain whatever advantage they were able to throughout the shootout from Miller's Point to Fish Hoek Beach.

After a strong start the Team Fenn pair rounded the turning can first and pinned their ears back as their deeper line soon found them ahead of the rest of the pack by some margin.

Dawid and Jasper Mocke went out hard from the start, leading the group most of the way upwind to the turning buoy

The 3 1/4km section was hard grind into the 25kt breeze!

Strong competition

With the likes of Hank McGregor, who successfully defended his SA S1 Surfski Champs title on Sunday, and Team Best 4 Kayak Centre partner Grant van der Walt, fellow Fish Hoek locals Sean Rice and Simon van Gysen and numerous other world class S2 (doubles) crew chasing hard the Mockes were well aware they would have a difficult afternoon ahead of them if they were to claim the national title.

The duo dug deep though and after a cat and mouse battle with McGregor and van der Walt they crossed the line shortly before their KZN based rivals.

"That was undoubtedly the best downwind race I've ever been a part of," exclaimed a joyous Jasper Mocke afterwards. "The dicing between Hank and Grant and us was incredible and went on almost the whole way. It was a fantastic race!"

"We'd planned on going out quite hard and wanted to be the first around the can, which we managed to do, and then we went a bit deeper and Hank and Grant stayed closer to shore."

"From this we managed to open up a bit of a gap but Hank and Grant closed that by the time we came back past Miller's Point and then it really was game on."

Dawid and Jasper Mocke reach the turning buoy

 The lead group dice downwind - the waves felt a lot bigger than they seem in this pic! 

Neck and neck

"It was neck and neck the whole way with us swapping who was in the lead all the time, we both kept going inside then outside trying to get away from the other but nothing was working until about 4km from the finish when we went a bit wider and managed to catch a run for about 500m which gave us a 50m lead and that was enough to give us the win."

"It was as close as that though. Just one run was the difference and in the end the top three boats finished within three waves so it just shows how close things were," he added.

Despite having been outclassed in their home town the previous day the Mocke's showed just why they are considered two of the best ocean paddlers in the world as they picked themselves up and put in a performance which had the large local crowd on their feet and cheering with excitement.

"We were both disappointed after yesterday's singles race so it was really great to be able to come back and get the win today and it was even sweeter that it was on home turf," said Mocke.

"Dawid drove exceptionally well. It’s really tough out there in these sorts of conditions and it’s all about trying find the balance between intensity and staying focused and Dav (Dawid) got it spot on today."

"Usually there are two, maybe three, other crew who you earmark as your closest rivals but today there were at least five or six other crew who could have won the title. It was such a strong field and a great race," he added.

Close Second

Having claimed both the S1 (single ski) and S2 (double ski) national titles in 2011 and after yesterday's 2012 S1 win, McGregor had hoped, with his partner van der Walt, to once again make it a clean sweep this time around but it wasn't to be as the pair had to settle for second, narrowly finishing ahead of the Simon van Gysen and Sean Rice.

"That was some really awesome stuff out there today. We were neck and neck with Dav and Jasper almost the whole way and to be honest I thought, with just a couple kilometers to go, Grant and I had done enough to win," said McGregor.

"As we started heading for home though the Mocke's moved further left and I thought they'd gone too far but suddenly they caught a run which put them some way ahead of us and every time we closed the gap they'd then reopen it and in the end they were just too strong."

"You couldn't have had a closer race though and to have lost in that fashion I couldn't ask for more and am still very happy," he added. "They are two great paddlers, it’s their home turf and they had a really solid race so hats off to them."

Hank McGregor and Grant van der Walt reach the finish to take second place

van Gysen and Rice were followed closely by the KZN based Bartho brothers, Brett and Daryl, with Team Jeep's Barry Lewin and Brandon van der Walt rounding out the top five.

Women’s Race

The women's race was more a race of survival for many of the ladies pairs as the rest of the field could only watch as Nikki Mocke and Michele Eray power away from them en route to a commanding victory, Mocke's second of the weekend after claiming the S1 title in Sunday's singles leg.

Michele Eray and Nikki Mocke smashed the women's race, winning by over 3 1/2 minutes

"I'm obviously really stoked to have won both. I think knowing the coastline and the conditions makes a huge difference but it’s still really nice to have won, especially on my home turf," said Mocke.

"It was tough out there not quite knowing where the rest of the other girls were and at one stage I was really worried but we just had to paddle our hearts out and hope for the best and fortunately things worked out for us," she added.

Juniors

Another pair to have picked themselves up from yesterday's slight disappointment were Dominic Notten and Craig Flanagan as they were the first junior boys pair across the line ahead of Sunday's victorious Kenny Rice and partner Nic Notten.

Apart from anything else, Cape Town is one of the most stunning places in the world to paddle

Fun, fun, fun

[Editor: What this report doesn’t say was just how much fun this race was, even for the hackers at the back of the fleet.  My buddy Dale and I sat in his double for the first time in two years on Saturday so our expectations were not high in terms of racing – but we were hoping for a fun downwind, and we got that in spades.

Doubles paddling, particularly downwind, feels very different; you can’t chase every run (because the ski will sink into the crest and half-drown the guy in the back seat), but when you get it right, the feeling of speed is far greater than in a single ski.  There are few sensations more satisfying than linking a sequence of runs in a double.

How did we do?  Well, we started off extremely tentatively in the choppy upwind, but about a km from the turning buoy, we started to gel and overtook a couple of other doubles.  On the downwind leg we overtook all the skis we could see (which wasn’t many!) and ended up highly pleased with our lowly 63rd position out of 77.]

Cape Point Challenge

The focus of the inaugural Fish Hoek Surfski Festival now shifts to the third and final leg of the festival which sees paddlers enduring a challenge of completely different and somewhat epic proportions as they look to tackle the Fenn Cape Point Challenge on Saturday 22 December.

Whilst the Mocke's will again be expected to be right up there in the heat of the battle, many eyes will turn to fellow locals Sean Rice and Simon van Gysen whilst Hank McGregor will also be out to claim yet another title.

"It will be interesting to see how the conditions develop over the next few days but either way I think that sort of ultra-marathon type distanced race is more of my strength and I've been training for it so hopefully things can go well next weekend as well," said McGregor.

The Fenn Cape Point Challenge takes place from Scarborough to Fish Hoek on Saturday 22 December 2012. More info can be found at www.capepointchallenge.co.za

Full Results – 2013 SA Doubles Championships