What an epic show by Anthony Grote www.anthonygrote.com via www.gameplanmedia.co.za

I find little things that work for me, everyone does. Waking up for race 2 of the series on Sunday, I was very aware of the little pieces of pre-race routine and how things just seems to be waxed. Still half asleep, knowing just the right amount of Future Life to put in the bowl and savouring the sweet taste of fresh coffee. 

I have done at least 6 races in the Durban winter series for the last 11 years and why I keep at it in year 12 is beyond me. Possibly the great paddling conditions in Durban this time of year, maybe the challenge top perform week in/week out, maybe the good things it bring out in me as a person or even the people who make it all happen so smoothly?

What I can say is that pre-race routine kick starts a hunger inside me to race that keeps me coming back and I really hope I never lose this.

Back to the race and what I am meant to be writing about. The conditions were very flat again for the second week of the series and with Hank McGregor and Grant Van Der Walt back in the action the racing was going to be FAST!

Didn’t have a great start but neither did a good couple of the top paddlers in the field. I hooked onto Grant’s wave going out towards the first can 1.2km out to sea. We ended up catching the back of the bunch just before we hit the can for the important down swell section (don’t want to call it down wind as there was no wind).

Hank got away early and stayed away. Luckily towards the end of the first lap a bunch formed and didn’t let him get too far down the track keeping some of percentages for the series intact. The racing was tight and it all came down to a short section of the course which has some swell to break the bunch up.

I got it wrong on the second lap on this critical section by simply trying too hard, chasing to many bumps that just were not there ending up to shallow of the turn buoy. This let Grant Van Der Walt and Len Jenkins get away. Patient held Brandon Van Der Walt on the 3^rd lap till the last down swell section where finally got the line right to come home 4^th on my own.

Grant and Len closed Hank on the closing stages, wish I was in the mix on the last lap as the body got stronger later in the 16km effort. Great signs. Maybe should have smashed my GU Roctane a little earlier but it certainly kept me going in the heat.

Really looking forward to King of the Bay next weekend. It just has so many different elements with flat, head wind and downwind. As you can see by the distracted opening to this blog I am loving my paddling right now and excited by the challenges of the coming week!