Matt Bouman

Fish Hoek – Paddling superstar Hank McGregor overcame a world class field to successfully defend his South African S1 Surfski Championships title in the Cape Town Downwind on Sunday whilst locally based Dawid Mocke cemented his position at the top of the Oceanpaddler World Surfski Series standings.

The jetlag is still pretty bad; at 6am my body tells me it’s really midnight and I should be deeply unconscious.  I reach across for my friend the iPhone (bought a local sim at the airport, HK$88 for 7 day unlimited data plan, awesome!) to check the latest weather forecast for race day…

“Whoa, Mocke’s on a tiger line,” yelled race director Anton Erasmus as he watched Dawid Mocke come in through the Le Morne pass. “If he doesn’t catch this one, he’s going to get taken out…”

As I watched the white-haired paddler surf away, paddles down for the nth time I grimaced.  I consider myself to be a pretty competent downwind paddler – but he was putting half the effort in that I was and I just couldn’t catch him.

This video just popped up on Youtube - it's a team Epic Kayaks clip put together to celebrate their achievements (first double; first, second and fifth singles)...  Some nice footage, showing what the conditions were like on the day.

Fresh from his win at the Hekili Great Barrier Reef Ocean Challenge on Sunday, I caught up with Dean on his recent fantastic effort in Hawaii:

“Oscar Chalupsky ... Without doubt the single most impressive human performance in a sporting arena, that I have witnessed,” said Matt Bouman.  “I salute you for it.” 

Yep, it’s that time of year again when all eyes turn to the long range forecast for the Kaiwi Channel.  Will it be the raging open ocean downwind mayhem that made this race famous, or a hot, oily-calm killer?  It’s a massive challenge either way.

East London - Durban surfski ace Matt Bouman outsmarted a quality field to win the Automall Pete Marlin Memorial surfski race in East London in superb big downwind racing conditions, using a direct inside line to set up a handsome two and a half minute victory margin.

“I could not believe it; finally I was competing against the best in the world.”  Danny Sanchez Villoria – on paddling in the front group at the US Surfski Champs two weekends ago (he finished a highly creditable 5th).  And now here’s Rambo’s presentation of the race… Enjoy!