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The miles of smiles, on the faces of paddlers and seconds alike, at the end of the Berg River marathon last weekend would have shrunk down to a few inches if the race had been held a week later.
After a somewhat miserable first day out of Paarl, the field was treated to some pristine paddling conditions for the remaining 3 days.
The Berg is an epic, even under sublime conditions. Throwing in a 30 or 40 knot wind into the mix, just makes it a nightmare.
Many of the younger paddlers in the field are desperately trying to find the hole that Robbie Herreveld crawled out of.
The paddling community in this country constantly stands in awe at the exploits of Hank McGregor. The string of phenomenal achievements that he continues to put together, at his age, is an inspiration.
Robbie first won the Berg in 1991, when he was just 19 years old. He dominated the race for the next 6 years, remaining unbeaten.
Years later, he handed the baton over to Hank, who is the only other paddler to have won more than 3 Bergs.
There are very few betting men who would have backed the 52 year old Herries for a place in this year's Berg, never mind a potential win.
We all watched in incredulous fascination each day as he dominated proceedings, together with a much younger Tom Lovemore, eventually finishing 2nd after not feeling on top of his game on the 4th and final day.
Tom was the man of the moment. His result on each day cementing the fact that he was unrivaled, and joins his brother Hamish as a Berg winner.
Although the field was relatively small, the spirit of the Berg lives on, with Jannie Malherbe joining my Umko partner, Oom Giel, in completing 51 Bergs, after having completed his first one in 1962 and achieving his first win in 1963.
The women's category was certainly not without its excitement, with the young Neriyah Dill finishing just over 5 minutes behind Stephanie Von der Heyde, after some 22 hours of racing.
The savage weather that hit the Western Cape a day later has caused untold damage and has forced many paddlers to seek refuge in Durban this weekend, to participate in the SA Surfski Championships.
And those Durban paddlers are still trying to recover from an icy winter that started on Monday afternoon and finished on Wednesday morning, with temperatures plummeting to almost 14 degrees, forcing many to wear 2 T-shirts on their early morning paddle. Fortunately the water temperature did not follow suite, and is still hovering at a chilly 21 degrees.
The cream of the county's surfski paddling crop will be descending on Durban this weekend for the Euro Steel SA Surfski Championships, joined by a multitude of fawning rugby acolytes.
Thankfully, the windguru predictions of two weeks ago (35-knot wind and 7m swell) have not materialised.
Unfortunately the prayers of the organisers for more moderate conditions have been somewhat over catered for, with tomorrow looking like a millpond.
The SS1 race is being used as a selection race for the team to represent SA at the ICF Ocean Racing World Championships in Madeira in early October.
The organisers of our SA champs this weekend have, therefore, given priority to this category, and will be running the SS1 race on Sunday, where (if windguru can be believed) there will be favourable downwind conditions.
The SS2 race has been moved to tomorrow (Saturday), and has been shortened to a 15km, "out and back" course.
South Africa is the current leading country, in the world, at surfski paddling and our national championships is always a hotly contested affair.
We have impressive depth in both the women and men's categories.
On his home turf, Hank will be difficult to beat. However, there are a number of young upstarts, as well as some seasoned competitors who make his life difficult on the water.
Names to look out for would include Uli Hart, Dawid and Jasper Mocke, Josh and Matt Fenn, Nick Notten and Kenny Rice.
The women's race is likely to be dominated by Kira Bester, with Saskia Hockly, Michelle Burn, Jade Wilson, Nix Birkett and Melanie Van Niekerk, just as likely to claim the gold.
The SS1 race on Sunday will take place from DUC to Umdloti. The results of the SA Championships will be recorded on the beach as the participants cross the line. However, the results of the trial to select the national team, will be determined at a buoy behind backline. There will be no surf at the end of the world championship course in Madeira and the selectors decided they did not wish to bring a mishap in the surf into their selection equation in our national trial.
Unlike our other disciplines, selection to the national team is more a matter of pride than an exclusion from participating. The ICF world championships is an open event, and not being selected for the national team does not preclude paddlers from entering the event and being eligible to win medals.
Either way, it looks as though it is going to be a cracker of a weekend.
What more does a body need:
Saturday: Leisurely breakfast at DUC - a 15km paddle with some mates on a pristine ocean, in the warm sunshine and warm water, followed by an exciting game of rugby.
Sunday: A couple of Myprodols, followed by a smashing downwind to Umdloti, and then back to DUC for a prizegiving with the most enthusiastic MC in the world, Mr Dave (whose excited) Harker. |
