It has been a while since I wrote on my blog, so I thought I would right about my time racing, training and travelling over the past 5 months in South Africa, whilst enjoying my last day with family in Swellendam!

We based ourselves in Knynsa, my home town, and arrived here early November 2012. I had 3 weeks left to train for the Cape Town World Cup, SA Double Champs and the Cape Point Challenge in Fish Hoek. This is my view from our balcony, so a perfect place to stay and train!

On the 8th of December after 3 weeks of training over we headed to Fish Hoek. I really love Fish Hoek, the people and the place are amazing! Leading up to the World Cup I was doing a fair few Miller’s Runs – one of which was an all girls Miller’s and it was great to see so many girls getting out there and giving it a go.

First race was the World Cup and the competition was tough. Unfortunately as luck would have it the wind did not blow, I mean it blows everyday in Cape Town ;). The race was a 20km race going out from Miller’s towards Cape Point and then turning and heading “downwind” to Fish Hoek. Nikki Mocke won with Michele Eray second and Michelle Burn third, I placed 8th and only just over 2min behind 4th. So it was a great race between all of us! The next day was the SA Doubles Champs on the same course, but today the wind decided to show us its back! I paired up with Angie Mouden from France, thanks to Knysna Racing for making us an awesome Double Surf Ski to race in. We had a great race and lots of fun, reaching a top speed of 31km/h!!

For the next week we trained and chilled out in Fish Hoek preparing for the Cape Point Challenge, a gruelling 50km race. Race day dawned and the wind again was light but slightly from behind to start the day, once we got to the point it was going to be a head wind slog all the way home. Well done to all who managed to finish that one. Thank you Roberto from Allwave for giving me a great boat to use.

After the races we travelled back to Knysna for Christmas and some more decent base training for the upcoming season. This season Surfski Ocean Racing is taking Surfski Racing to the next level with the first Surfski World Championships in Portugal in July.

In February we once again headed to our favourite place – Fish Hoek. I got a great week’s training and it is always great to catch up with friends there. Angie Mouden came back with us to visit us and we had a fantastic time, it was great as we turned into proper tourists for a week 🙂

Now I can’t believe my time in Knysna has come to an end, for this trip anyway ;)! Training out here has been great and makes life so easy with the weather we have had! Albert from Knysna Racing is awesome and built a lovely G40 Surfski for me to use while I’ve been training out here. I have also tried and tested out the Swing Paddle Range from him and they are great paddles, I am now using the Swing LD paddle and I’m loving it!

I am sitting in Swellendam and this is our view today as we enjoy our last day with family before we fly out to the UK this evening.

We have had a great time over the past 5months – thanks to everyone who made it, all the dinners, braai’s and evenings out, you guys rock! I can’t wait to get back, but keep checking out my blog to see how things are going. It’s going to be a busy season with my first race in May in Spain!

Until next time! 🙂

The Nelo Summer Challenge is a race I’ve been wanting to do for a couple of years. It’s only a 10km downwind dash, my preference being 20km, but I’ve heard so much about this race that I was so happy when the dates this year fell onto a weekend I could get off from work. Also being after the Olympics it was going to be very competitive!

Michele Eray, good friend and great paddler, stayed with me for the two weeks leading up to the race. So I could not have had a better training partner leading up to this race. Also she showed me some good new recipes in the kitchen!! Thanks Mich 🙂

We arrived in Porto on the Thursday at lunch time to be met at the airport by one of Nelo’s drivers (Victor) and he took us to our hotel. He said to me that there was a downwind at about 4pm and he will be back at 3pm to pick us up. Awesome, just enough time to unpack and grab some lunch, then it’s down to the beach. The wind was pumping, I was excited to get out on the water, but there were a few paddlers who were slightly nervous about going out there. The waves were crashing over the harbour wall, which to me was perfect :). We had an awesome downwind, I had jumped into a Nelo for the first time ever and was not as stable as I would like to be out there – but I had so much fun. The shore dump was pretty nasty, that’s when I got a bit nervous – but I made it without any drama!!

Dinners were at our Hotel and all the athlete’s were eating together, this really made for a good atmosphere with stories flying around the table! Especially after the hectic downwind.

On Friday morning I went to set my boat up and the wind was blowing in the wrong direction……Andre (race organizer) reassured me that this happens everyday and that by 2pm’ish it will swing and there will be a perfect downwind, and he was right!! So now we are all hoping for the same to happen on race day.

RACE DAY: Race time will be at 16:00 or 17:00, briefing at 14:30 to confirm. So I went down nice and early to check my ski and just chill under the Nelo tents on their bean bags. It soon started to buzz around the arena and everyone was discussing the wind, or the lack there of, but just as Andre had said the day before at about lunch time is swung around and picked up from the perfect direction – game on. Briefing was soon upon us and race was to start at 17:00 so we could wait for as much wind as possible.

The start was chaos, everyone was on edge. It was fast and furious, and I gave it my all to the turn buoy – hoping that I could rest on some runs downwind to catch my breath! I did catch my breath as we turned downwind but not for long – I had decided that I must not have anything left at the end of this race. I concentrated on catching and linking as many runs as possible and paddled so hard I could hardly breathe at times. This was one hard fast race. I was dicing with a Portuguese girl for the last few km’s and as we turned the final turn buoy we had to paddle with a side wind/chop for the last 1km, the hardest 1km I think I’ve ever done – she was better than me in the side chop and she hit the beach about 15seconds ahead of me, I ran as hard as I could up the beach and realized that I had given this race my all. I finished in 5th place and I am so happy with that result.

Top 10 Women; Michele Eray took 1st, Teneale Hatton 2nd, Beatrice Gomes 3rd, Sara Rafeal 4th, Chloe Bunnett 5th, Bridgitte Hartley 6th, Mira Larsen 7th, Sofia Coelho 8th, Rachel Cawthorn 9th and Krisztina Fazekas 10th.

The mens race was tight with Jasper Mocke 1st, Dawid Mocke 2nd and Sean Rice 3rd.

After the race we had a party of all parties, Nelo know how to organize a race but they are also do damn good parties.

The next day we had a sprint knock out tournament, not my strong point, but so much fun 🙂

Start of the final in the Sprint knock out. Just over 2mins of pure burn!!

This race is a must, the organisation of it and the way we were looked after was incredible. I am not sure when Andre sleeps as he was the first on the beach every morning and the last man standing every night! Thanks to Andre, Marisa and their team for a great time in Portugal!!

Thanks Marisa for arranging our transport and driver back to the airport – see you next year 🙂

Great little treat with a coffee!!

Next up is the Ohana Mana Cup in Sardinia – Italy at the end of the month.

I had a great lead up to this race. Training has been going great and the weather in the UK played along and was perfect training weather right up until we left for Portugal.

Landing in Portugal on Thursday at 9:25am after an over night journey was not the best, but Rui (Race Director) picked us up at the airport and took us to our Hotel. The Hotel is literally 5min walk to the race venue! I was told that the mini bus and trailer would be leaving at 5pm for a paddle on the course. So with some time to kill and the sun shining the best would be is to have a look around the beach and Marina. The Hotel staff convinced us that there was a storm coming and so we headed back to our room. Minutes later the storm came through Portimao – wind, lightning, thunder and rain!! At 4pm it was still pretty stormy, so just before 5pm we went to the trailer and the storm had moved on (slightly) and we headed for Alvaro for a downwind. When we got there the wind vanished – typical – but there was some good swell left and it was still fun to get out on the course and it certainly woke me up!!

Friday was registration day and boat loading time, so feeling fresh after a solid 12 hour sleep and the biggest buffet breakfast in town we headed for the race venue. More people had arrived and the vibe was picking up. Everyone testing and setting up their boats. This is a great venue, the boat rack/storage is on the beach meters from the water. Which makes it really easy to get things sorted, as well as Rui and Sara there to provide us with anything we needed. So after a nice light paddle it was time to put the stickers on and load the boats ready for the race tomorrow.

Saturday and race day, the race was only at 4pm so we had until the bus left at 2pm to relax (or get nervous)! The race venue started to buzz just before 2pm, everyone standing around chatting waiting for the bus. The bus dropped us off and we had about 1.5km walk to the beach, not ideal but glad I took plenty of water, great warm up :-).

The race was a Le Mans start and it was quite a steep run to the water’s edge. So downhill followed by downwind!! I got off to a decent start and the paddle out to the buoy was quite sheltered by the harbour wall so I only felt the wind and chop once we were closing in on the buoy. When we turned we had a great tail wind, it was not directly towards the finish line and neither was the swell, but that made it more fun. It was quite technical and then about halfway I knew there would be some rebounds off the cliffs, so I was keen to get some waves back out to sea. I decided that the best way to tackle this course would be just to get as many runs as possible and to make sure I don’t track to close in shore. Everyone takes their own line so you just have to race as hard as you can as you never know where you are lying in the field. I am always left wondering whether to go out wide or stay in close, so this time I just followed the runs but made sure I was not too close in. It was a great race and I had great fun out on the runs. Once we got into the harbour it was about 600m or so of flat paddling to the finish – I crossed the line in first place and then to top it off I found out that I was only 13seconds off finishing in the top20 against the men. Mira Falch was 2nd followed by Ana Bebiano in 3rd.

I still have a lot to learn as I know there were many runs missed, but that is what this sport is all about – learning!!

Jasper Mocke had a great race and defended his title taking 1st place overall with Sean Rice in 2nd and Joep van Bakel in 3rd. Young 17 year old Jordan Roberts from the UK had a great race he was first Junior home and finished 12th overall. Definitely one to watch out for!!

Back in Poole now with gale force winds with heavy rain.

Well it wasn’t the greatest month leading into my first International race of the year, so I was not expecting any fireworks! After landing in Spain on Saturday morning at 2:00am, we checked into the Hotel and got some much needed sleep. I went down to the race venue later on Saturday morning to get my boat and set it up. Thanks Rui for sorting a boat out for me and to Boyan for helping me get it all set up…….it’s so easy and quick when you know how 🙂

Some wind did pick up on Saturday and it was slightly overcast, the same was forecast for Sunday – Race Day – but unfortunately as usual the wind dropped and the clouds cleared! So it was quite hot and not much wind at all.

It was going to be a slog as I had not done as much training as I had hoped for leading into the race. The start was fast and chaotic, which is always a great crowd pleaser. This year there were two hotspots for the guys to chase so the course was slightly changed and we did a triangle bringing us back to the start before we headed out to Benidorm Island. This again was great for the spectators, with a perfect view from the beach of all the top guys racing for the Hotspot.

In the mens race Sean Rice had a cracking race, taking both Hotspots and taking the title. He has crept up from the first Eurochallenge and now it all came together for him. So well done Sean!! He was closely followed by Dawid Mocke and then Hank McGregor in 3rd.

In my race at about 10km there were a few bumps that came from nowhere, think it was just boat wake as they didn’t last long. Making use of every run it brought almost in line with Tarryn Brown, who was on a closer line to the shore than myself. Once those runs dried up I could not close that final gap between us. After 15km-17km I started to feel the pain, my juice had leaked out (error that won’t be repeated!), I knew I would have to work hard to make sure the gap didn’t get any bigger. But Tarryn Brown had a great race and I could just not catch her. So Tarryn took the ladies title, with myself in 2nd and Angie Mouden from France took the final podium position.

After the prize giving we had a big Paella…when I say big it was big, it was 2mx2m dish! With beer and wine.

Thanks to Vio and all at Club Nautico La Villajoyosa, what a great event!!

The one thing we could not miss was a trip to the Valor Chocolate shop, so later that evening we went there for a very rich dessert. Chocolate with Churros, see the picture below – yummy!!

Thanks to everyone for all your support on and off the water.

Well its almost time to go to fly to Alicante and then travel to a beautiful village called Villajoyosa for the EuroChallenge, I land in Alicante late tomorrow night. It is a great way to start my racing season. I will be doing a full update when I get to Villajoyosa……..so I will keep you posted.

Watch this space!!

An introduction to Ocean Ski paddling with Ivan Lawler. Filmed on a glorious October morning in Studland Bay, Dorset, UK, ‘Off Piste’ gives an introduction to the surfski world. Ivan is joined by Ben Brown, Ben Farrell & Chloe Bunnett for a little play time off Old Harry Rocks.

Thanks to Roger from Paddlesport TV and Ivan from Ultimate Kayaks for this great promotional video. Exactly what the sport needs. It was a great morning for filming – sunshine, not much wind but great swell to play in!!

Enjoy 🙂