Photo by Anthony Grote

MultiCoach athlete Craig van Heerden had a 7% improvement in his race time from Race 1, Head’s Up to Craig! Keep up the good work, S2B is in your grasp!

Durban – The defending champion in the Discovery Men’s Health Surf Ski Series Matt Bouman won the 14 kilometre Powerade Dairy Beach race which formed the second leg of the popular winter series ahead of Barry Lewin and the brothers Herman and Oscar Chalupsky, continuing the impressive form that saw him win the European Surf Ski World Cup title earlier this month.

“After the start it was pretty much Indian file all the way to the finish,” said Bouman, who has set his sights on the Mauritius and Durban Surf Ski World Cup events and feels that it is essential that the title is captured by a South African paddler.

“Michele (Eray) caught me on the third lap,” said Eder. “We were about three or four waves apart at the end and Michele (Eray) took a little bit of a swim, which made for a close run up the beach with just metres between us.”

Luke Chalupsky won the junior title, Herman Chalupsky took the sub-masters honours in third overall, and the evergreen Mark Lewin bagging the Masters title once again.

The double ski category was won by Marc Germiquet and Warren Valentine

The race was rescheduled to an earlier to start to try and complete the event before the arrival of the forecast cold front. However conditions improved throughout the morning, and the South Westerly buster that was predicted never materialised.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

Women
1.Michele Eray 1:22:41.2
2.Michelle Eder 1:22:44.0
3.Carol Joyce 1:25:38.4
4.Donna Winter 1:26:22.5
5.Nathalie Veckranges 1:31:12.3

Double ski
1.Marc Germiquet/Warren Valentine 1:14:16.7
2.Anton Fouche/Greg Frizelle 1:16:25.0
3.Gary Waud/Glenn Hilliar 1:16:57.7
4.Dave Herridge/Richard Lowe 1:17:02.7
5.Richard Philps/Gary Clarke 1:17:20.5
6.Mike Nichol/Ted Walburger 1:17:31.9
7.Guy McCormack/Kelvin McCormack 1:18:35.3
8.Andrew Neal/Chris Muller 1:18:49.3
9. Joe Boy/Stephen  Evans 1:19:05.5
10.Ross Poacher/Bruce Poacher 1:19:46.3
11.Stretch Struwig/Colleen Struwig 1:20:28.2 (Mixed double)

Full details of the series can be found at www.surfski.co.za

Bouman made a clean break at the start going out through the moderate metre-and-a-half surf at Dairy beach, and as he turned for the first of three laps from Addington to Pirates he was alone at the front of the race.

Photo by Anthony Grote

On Sunday I took part in the Grading race for the Discovery/Men’s Health Surf Ski Series. It was a great event, and even though I still had remnants of the flu I picked up in Spain, I managed to win the race in 86% of the winning man’s time, giving me the PowerAde Performance Bonus! Here are some links to the articles that went out to the press: http://www.gameplanmedia.co.za/sss/sss0903.html and http://www.gameplanmedia.co.za/sss/sss0901.html  

MultiCoach athlete Craig van Heerden took part in the Grading Race, as part of his build up to the Scottborough to Brighton race later in the year.

This weekend coming is the Molokai Challenge, and MultiSport athlete Ian Parmenter is taking part. All the best Ian!

The Surfking Team in action-Jacqui Cochran

Straight after the race, Barry Lewin (who hosted me over the weekend-shot Bazzle!) rushed me over to Ushaka where I took part in a really fun event called the South Africa Rugby Legends Associations (SARLA) Challenge, as part of Team Jeep. The Challenge was over 3 days, and the guys got up to lots of fun stuff, like mountain biking, fishing, a cook-off and then the part that I was involved in which was the Surf Challenge. It involved some Sea Kayaking, Stand Up Paddling, Beach Flags and Surfing. Ryk Neethling and some other celebs were there. 

Great fun, and of course even more fun because we won!