dawid mocke

The year: 2004. The place: Fish Hoek Beach in a howling southeaster. Dawid Mocke says to me, “Go paddle upwind for a while.” So, I did. Quite a way upwind. Eventually I turned around and surfed the runs back to Fish Hoek. Dawid met me at the beach. “What happened to you?” he yelled. “The lesson’s finished now!” And that was my introduction to Surfski School…

With eight km to go, Sean Rice decided to accelerate.  “There were three of us at that point and I felt I could do a burn to get rid of one of them,” he said.  To his surprise, both Cory Hill and Gordan Harbrecht dropped back.  But the race wasn’t over yet…

…and most of the world’s best surfski paddlers, both men and women, are in Ireland to take part.  Here’s what you need to know about the world’s richest surfski race.

Cape Town's Table Mountain, viewed from the sea, is one the world's most spectacular landmarks...  and will be the backdrop to what is certain to become an iconic event in South Africa's surfski calendar.  The race, scheduled for South Africa's Freedom Day public holiday, is aimed at highlighting the serious environmental challenges facing the oceans.

"That was… the best fun I've had in years," said Dawid Mocke as he watched the rest of the paddlers riding the surf into the beach. "It doesn't matter who you are, you're all in with an equal chance."

21 Feb, 2018 - Yeeeeha!  I turned towards the whoop to see Jono Niemann came shooting past, spray flying…  The back of my ski lifted and I took a couple of hard strokes to accelerate onto my own wave…

When we met in Fish Hoek to load the surfskis onto the Miller’s Run Taxi, it was to find a veritable sandstorm; the weather station at the club said the wind strength was averaging 30kt, gusting 40kt.  Twenty minutes earlier, it had peaked at around 48kt…

Wind strength reported at Fish Hoek Beach Sports Club We were on the water at about 16h45.

As we drove up to Miller’s Point, the sea looked wild – but in a good way; the swell wasn’t outrageously big and you could see the sets moving in lines.   In the bus, mentions of “Looking good” and “Personal Best” started to be heard.

At Miller’s Point, conditions were perfect.  As usual, the wind wasn’t as strong here – but it was still strong enough that we’d be catching good runs right from the start.

The beauty of paddling in a very strong wind is that you can push over waves that normally stop you – so you can maintain speed and create longer sequences at higher speeds than normal.

Mocke Miller’s Run of the Season

I was delighted when the competition was announced: register as many runs as possible between the beginning of November and the end of February.  Prizes for the fastest runs in each gender and age category; for the most runs; for the best video… 

The Miller’s Run (can anyone not know this?!) is a short, 11.6km-11.8km – depending on where you finish – downwind run from Miller’s Point to Fish Hoek, here in Cape Town.  Whenever the southeaster blows (and that’s probably 2 out of every 3 days in summer) the Miller’s Run beckons.

When we got together for this particular run it was in the knowledge that this was probably the last run of the competition – the forecast was for much lighter winds the next day.  So the team was amped right from the start.

And the video really speaks for itself. 

Fast Conditions

The conditions – small swell and strong wind – were ideal.  When the swell is big, it tends to become confused and it’s difficult to link runs efficiently. 

In the end nearly half the group beat their Personal Best times.  I beat mine by over half a minute. 

What a rush!

Durban, South Africa - An uncharacteristic Tuesday night start due to the FNB Dusi Canoe Marathon saw paddlers don pink from top to toe at the Lettie Surfski Challenge, all in support of the fight against cancer for race six of the 2018 FNB Surfski Series.

7 June 2017, and Cape Town is hit by the strongest storm in decades.  By early afternoon the next day, the winds had dropped, but the massive swell had swung from the southwest to south - which meant that it was wrapping into False Bay.  Multiple Surfski World Series Champion Dawid Mocke and a crew of like-minded paddlers took the opportunity to ride the big waves near Kalk Bay Harbour.

Older brother, younger brother; younger brother, older brother – if you weren’t a sibling you weren’t on the podium!  The South African brothers dominated in Canada this weekend – too bad Teneale Hatton, winner of the women’s race, didn't  have a sister there…

As we watched the Tractrac app, we could see Sean Rice edging ahead on an inshore line, exactly as he did in 2013 when he won the ICF World Champs…  Would it work for him again?  The conditions this year were very different to those in 2013.