The Doctor 2011 from Ocean Sports Media on Vimeo.

Team Nelo had set up camp early in Scarbourgh 4 days before the Doctor world Cup Race in Perth, Australia.
The days leading up to the race we had some epic downwind paddles, sitting back and doing not much as we linked up run after run, surfing up the coast on our training paddles.

Race day The Doctor got up early and was expected to blow around 20-25km/hr.
The fast ferry across to Rottnest Island was cramped to say the least with just over 270 race entrants. Great to see so many people supporting the race that consistently has great downwind conditions. Over 100 of those entrants were from out of state and international paddlers.

The speed demons were at it from the start of the race with a hot spot 1km into the race. I actually thought I was in with a chance until with 400m to go Kenny came past me like I was standing still. Kenny’s new Nelo ski taking him to an easy win at the hot spot and then setting him up in the lead for the first 3km until we could catch him.

There were runs a plenty as soon as we turned the hot spot marker and set a course for Observation City and the Fairway buoy 11km across the channel.

From previous years the winner of the race had taken a more inside line to the finish, using the ocean currents to push them on a more direct line to Sorrento. So this was my tactic.
Bruce Taylor led the race from about 4km and held anywhere between a 50 to 200m lead over the rest of the field.
I was consistently paddling in second or third, trading places with Dawid Mocke.
I didn’t look around in the race but Jasper Mocke and Shannon Eckstein were never too far behind.
The runs were great, offering plenty of time to rest and surf onto the next with minimal effort.

During the race I stayed relaxed and didn’t think about anyone behind me, only who was in front.
In previous years I had never finished better than 8th in this race and I was mentally not expecting much more. As the race went on I found myself closer and closer to the front.
At 20km Bruce and Dawid put in an effort and put together some great runs to gap me up to 200m. I started to stress but made myself relax and the results were immediate. I put together more runs and found myself gaining on them again.
Coming down to the last 4km I knew that it was time to make a move, now or never and I much prefer the ‘now’ option and not regret it later.
I was still about 400m to the inside of Bruce with Dawid somewhere behind me. I felt confident in my line and put the belief in that my line was better.
As the current and runs pushed me in a more direct line to Sorrento Beach I was taking ground off Bruce with every stroke.

At 400m out from the finish, mine and Bruces lines crossed and we found ourselves side by side with only a metre separating us.
I actually didn’t think that it was Bruce out in front and that is why I had to look twice as you see in the video. http://www.surfski.info
On every run and bump I went right and Bruce went left trying to pull over the next run infront and get a few vital metres but neither of us could get the upper hand, continually coming back together side by side and that is the way it stayed until the final push onto the beach.
The rating went up and the power came on as we both tried to paddle over a broken wave infont of us.
I pushed hard and got the ski over it but immediatly thought that Bruce had been more fortunate in not getting over and getting the better run over it later as his speed increased closer to shore and came back.
All I had was half a metre on Bruce as we got off our ski’s but for me that was enough. My jump off felt clean and I didn’t look around, my head was down and I was pumping my legs and arms hard to get everything that I could out of them.
Soft sand running is hard at the best of times but after 27.5km of paddling it feels like you are running on a treadmill and not getting anywhere.
After 15 metres Bruce had not come past and I knew that it was my, the adrenaline was pumping and I knew that I had broken him.

I have been in close finishes before but this was one of the best, with the crowd cheering us on on the beach it was an awesome feeling to run across the line first.

Who would have thunk it after my previous races that I have had in Perth.

TJ

Hi everyone

The race went really well, I finished in 1st, about 4 minutes ahead, and at about 85% of the men’s time, so I am pretty happy with that. I entered the relay event the next day with the men’s winner Tim Jacobs, and we managed to win that too.

I am still in Perth for another week, got 2 more races then I head back to South Africa.

Full race report up on http://www.micheray.com plus pictures.

Thanks for all the support.

Kind regards,

Michele

Andre from Nelo took the above photo of TJ, Henrique and myself before our first paddle here in Perth at Scarborough Beach. The lifeguards wouldn’t let us paddle out as they had just spotted a 2.5m Tiger Shark! However, about 150m up the beach they were letting people swim? So we walked along the beach and paddled out there…

The sea is an amazing light blue colour here, and really warm (well compared to Plett), and its so clear that you can see the bottom (and the Tiger Shark). So far I am loving it here. The people are super friendly, and everything is clean and organised. We did a great, although short downwind in the arvo (hows that for Aussie slang?), and luckily Lara and her buddy gave us a ride back to out apartment. I then got to catch up with ex South Africans James and Tanya Mangold. Great to hear the SA accent after all this Aussie

Hoping for the wind to pick up again today, so I can have another crack at it with my uber-cool Blue and Lumo Yellow NeloSki. Then registration tomorrow, and finally race day. Although I havent prepared specifically for this event (more of just continued my training after my peak for Dubai, and ultra test at the 50km Cape Point) I am very happy to be here to race. The conditions look great, and the women’s field is looking to be the hottest ever! I love a good race!

p.s. For all my SA readers, I am 6 hours into the future here:) So apologies if I don’t return messages until the next day. Also the phone is on roaming text but not calls…

http://micheray.com/2011/01/20/perth-so-far/

The final race in the fantastic Sydney OceanSeries, and undoubtedly the hardest was the 20 beaches, starting all the way from the top of Sydney’s northern beaches at Palm Beach, and finally finishing at Freshwater SLSC, some 23km later.

After racing in all the events in this year’s series, and leading the women’s overall pointscore, I was hoping for a strong result to secure my spot at the top of the women’s category, and win that plane ticket to attend any surfski race in the world. However, knowing the calibre of the field that the 20 Beaches normally draws, I knew the women’s field was going to be bigger and stronger than any of the races this year. I was not wrong, with Queensland ski specialists Kirsty Homes, Kelly Jury, flatwater paddlers Bernadette Wallace and Alyce Burnett, and even New Zealand’s Katie Pocock making the trip over to race.

Despite a small dilemma in deciding whether to swap boats to a smaller volume one just before the race, we were soon headed out off Palm Beach.  (I decided to go with the M Volume Nelo). As usual, the start of the race involved a lot of hustle and bustle, with most paddlers jostling for position on the line right up till the siren was blown.  I got off to a really good start, probably my best start all year, and found some clean water and nice wash off the back of a few male paddlers for the first section of the race. The wind was at our backs from the get go, and I took off hard trying to take advantage of my good start, and the runners that the wind was providing.

As far as I could tell I was leading the ladies race, until about 3 or 4km in when Kirsty Holmes pulled up along side me and went past me. I set off on her tail following her for about half the race and trying not to let her get too far in front. For the most part, I managed to keep her lead on me to about 50-100m, but at about the halfway point she pulled away and increased her lead on me to about 200-300m.

At this point I tried to concentrate on keeping her lead to a minimum, and started to link up some great runs coming past Long Reef.  I was still feeling pretty good at this point, and was able to work really hard on the runs. I still couldn’t see Kirsty and thought that I would have second place wrapped up if I kept up this pace. This good feeling was soon interrupted at about 5k to go by a strong westerly wind that changed the race dynamics and had us struggling against a strong side wind/chop. I kept my head down and really tried to grind it out rather than letting the wind push me around. I could see Manly and Freshie in the distance now and knew that there was not far to go.

All of a sudden I had a look around and spotted Kirsty. She was about 100m further into shore than me, but I had about a 50m lead on her. This was it for me and I decided to really give it all I had for the remainder of the race. I could see my lead increasing as we headed towards the final finishing buoy, and despite the last 2-3km slog into a headwind, knowing that I was in the lead made the pain go away for a little. 

Thanks so much to Team Nelo, and Jimmy and Nigel for helping me out on the day with my last minute boat changes! Also a big congratulations to all the other Nelo Surfski paddlers out there yesterday, a great effort taking out the open men’s, women’s, junior women’s, over 40’s and over 50’s categories. Awesome boats! Overall, the 20 Beaches was a great race, with a high quality field, which is increasing in numbers every year. The conditions ended up being great and I was stoked to get a win in such a race.