Well we arrived in South Africa towards the end of January and spent a few days in Swellendam, I really love that place!! The home of the Breede River Canoe Marathon and a selection of the best wine fields in the world!! After a couple of nights there we travelled onto Knysna……my home!!

We are staying on Thesen Island in Knysna, which is close to town and even closer to the water. Click on the above photo from our balcony to see it is only a stone’s throw from where I put my boat in to train. It’s quite quiet on the Island at this time of year and paddling through all the canals on the Island is awesome and such an eye opener as some of the houses situated on the canals are just out of this world, with almost everyone having some type of canoe/K1/surfski on their jetty!!

The weather has been that good that not many evenings have gone past that we have not been able to have a braai (BBQ!), that is one of the things I miss about South Africa! We have had some cracking thunder storms as well, the lightning here is spectacular. And they need all the rain they can get so it is very welcoming when it does rain.

After only being in Knysna for a couple of days I was already all booked up to do a ski race!! Great little race with a big swell, unfortunately the wind didn’t play ball so we didn’t have much of a downwind….but still great fun to get back out on the sea! Best thing was that I didn’t see any Great Whites, only seals!! Thanks to Knysna Racing for the loan of a ski and to Jenny/Trevor for getting it there…..main downfall of a hire car = no roof racks!!

For the past 3 weeks I have been mostly training in my new K1. It’s been great and getting some good sessions in with guys here in Knysna, and some really tough sessions with Michele Eray – with great (well deserved!) breakfasts afterwards – we must get another pancake brekkie in soon 🙂 !! The Time Trials every Tuesday are well attended, with lots of socializing after some solid dicing over the 11km course! The water has been unusually cold for this time of the year, on a few evenings we have had a really thick fog come in off the sea and it makes training quite eerie – luckily the Knysna lagoon is pretty safe as I would not like to be out on the sea when that comes over!!

Now I am just getting a few more weeks of  good solid training in before I head down to Fish Hoek for what should hopefully be two weeks of downwinds!!

Crossing the finish line in Dubai

I am so excited for the 2011 season. I am loving Surfski paddling so much as every time I’m out on the water I learn something new!

Well 2010 was a great year. To start it off I was in South Africa and did a few awesome downwinds. Paddled from Knysna to Sedgefield – a great 30km+ run. I also managed to do a few of the famous Miller’s Runs and in some hairy conditions. Thanks to everyone as it has helped me learn a lot more about Surfski paddling. To think that in August 2008 I bought my first surfski from Knysna Racing Kayaks, Robberg Express, and had it shipped over to the UK. After paddling flatwater sprints as a junior in South Africa this was my first time back training since the end of 1999. My first few times out on the ski I was just managing to string 30-40 minutes together and then having to stop. This year I paddled around the Isle of Wight (90km) in my Epic V10L with Ivan Lawler and Peter Molnar, to top it off we did it in a record time! I’m just waiting to see what challenge Peter has in store this year.

This years training is about to step up another gear as I leave Tenerife on Friday for some more great training in South Africa. I will be there for just over 2 months, spending most of the time in Knysna then a couple of weeks in Fish Hoek in March and I can’t wait, but firstly I am spending the weekend at home in Poole before we fly out to Cape Town on Monday evening.

Thanks to everyone who helped me in 2010 and here’s to a great 2011 🙂