After a great week back home in the land of the living and well fuelled with my mothers amazing chow I headed down the south coast for the annual Winkle Toti Winkle surfski race.
I am lead to believe the race is the 3rd oldest in the world and has been a happy hunting ground for me in the past. I have won this race 5 times in a row from when I was a junior. I unfortunately missed the race last year with my dad keeping the trophy in the family by winning it my absence. Go Bullet!
I really like the people down at Winkle, their passion for the sport and dedication to the club. They really put in a ton of effort into the race this year with a bodyboarding contest, kids events on the beach and the long run on the sand. Thanks to OJ for giving the race a shout out on your East Coast radio slot. You are a legend.
Getting down to winkle the sea looked amazing, clean light west breeze with very little swell. Perfect for the 12km out and back course. The surf can get pretty hairy on the south coast at times especially coming in at the half way stop at Toti. The boys were in for a great day out in these conditions.
The race got a surprisingly big field including good friends DeAnne and Patrick Hemmens from the USA out on holiday and to do the Cape Point. The single went off first with the doubles chasing us down. I had to punch a good couple waves on the way out through the surf and got to the can with Oliver Burn and Brent Chiazzari and settled into a nice rhythm on the wave to warm up a bit. The pace was really slow so I pulled my ears back at Warner beach and broke away by myself and arrived at the halfway stop a good 2 min in the lead and had time to gab a USN Vooma with some water to fuel me on the way home. By this stage the wind had turned to a light NE breeze helping me on the way home. The doubles never managed to catch me at all as I rode a great wave in at the finish to beat their finishing time by a couple seconds and win the singles in a time of 58:20 about 5 or so minutes ahead of Brent in 2nd.
Me finishing
The prize giving was really festive with most staying to take advantage of the lucky draw prizes. My Dad Mark of Custom Kayaks had a great display up with their new dummy display dood (Horis). My dad also rewarded one of his star sponsored athletes Tiffany Kruger who races the ICON Light. Tiff walked away with the ladies race and received a gift for her hard work this year. Well done Tiff. I have been doing some paddling with best mate Russel Symcox, he has really been improving and completed the race, his longest paddle ever, Getting there Rusty! Keep it up! I spent the afternoon Braai’ing at Rusty’s house down the coast in true south coast fashion. What a great weekend!
Welcoming Rusty home after his huge paddle!
I not take a break for a couple weeks to focus on some sponsorship and surfskischool work. Looking forward to a new challenge and to giving the body a much needed rest. Good luck to those doing Cape Point. |
