My Seaforth Ocean Contest: Best 4 Surfski Series 2012

Race #9 of the 2012 / 2013 Best 4 Surfski Series took place at Seaforth Beach near Simon’s Town on Sunday 27 January 2013. Another windy, sunny day in a another stunning setting!

Seaforth Beach is fairly confined, so we had a water start. This is the first time I have started already in the boat, and it felt pretty awesome paddling out like a naval flotilla to the start line. It was certainly less chaotic that the Le Mans-style start we had this past Friday at Sea Dogs!

As we headed upwind on the first loop a group of penguins came swimming by. I have seen them a few times on land, but it was really fun to see them swimming around in the clear water.

There was some sneaking around between large rocks and through kelp beds which provided some interesting challenges. Nikki Mocke ended up spending her race guarding a fairly narrow channel between two rocks which unseated a few paddlers: she is such a legend!

I caught some nice runs and finally felt a little less like a raft of kelp wallowing in the waves.

Prize-giving was lots of fun as usual, and there were heaps of great prizes. The sponsors seem quite active, and we see Civvio, Red Bull, and  USN involved. I tried the new blueberry flavoured Red Bull when I came off the water, and it’s really tasty (let’s be honest, standard Red Bull is not that tasty).

Read the race report here: www.thepaddlingcentre.com