Beautiful balmy evening and the wind decided to take a breather for the second week running on our Wednesday night so an impromptu Doodles and back race was called. Around the rocks in Big Bay - surfskis around northern rocks and SUP’s around southern rocks – down to Doodles, round Swerve with orange flag on beach and back to Big Bay Lifesaving Club.

Everyone got off the beach at Big Bay with little difficulty, whereas the in-out through the surf at Doodles caused a number of casualties. Junior Dylan Frick negotiated the swells well as did Andrew Cillie whom both had a healthy gap on 3rd placed Chris Bertish. The paddle is tricky because there is a lot of refraction from rocks off Big Bay and Small Bay which causes very unstable waters – so plenty of dips where reported. Ryan Butcher from PE came in a commendable 4th place using all his skills, kneeling, proning and Stand Up paddling as conditions where a tad more tippy than what he was accustomed to. Greg Bertish, handicapped like his brother Chris, by using their 12’6ft boards as opposed to everyone elses 14ft boards, came in 5th with Brad Adams about a minute further back. Our two lady contenders rounded off the field after spending a fair amount of time getting back out through the surf at Doodles with Brigette van Aswegen eventual winner ahead of Monika Wohlgemuth. Guy Bubb managed to sneak ahead of Grant Hulley who finished the race with a broken paddle – the second in 2 weeks.....Second junior, Mathew van der Linden just managed to sneak ahead of Mitch Wagstaff who has been windsurfing everyday and therefore had little juice left in the tank. David van der Spuy caught a great wave in only to bail when he saw numerous boogie-board speedbumps ahead – he reported some difficulties balancing on a raceboard 7inches narrower than his normal SUP in these conditions.

Great sunset at BBLSC and a social prizegiving with Derecks burgers and drinks – great wind predicted for next week so lets see if we can finally get our 2012 downwinders kicked off in style! And to warm up for that one we have the small matter of Cape Town Downwind Series Lagoonbeach to Big Bay 11.3km scheduled for Saturday 21st – reg 1pm and start 2pm. Join in – we should hit 100 paddlers this Saturday and we want you to be one of them!!!

Results
1) Dylan Frick 38.22
2) Andrew Cillie 39.06
3) Chris Bertish 40.24
4) Ryan Butcher 41.14
5) Greg Bertish 41.31
6) Brad Adams 42.42
7) Gary van Rooyen 44.49
8) Guy Bubb 47.45
9) Grant Hulley 48.45
10) Mathew vd Linden 49.18
11) Mitch Wagstaff 49.56
12) David van der Spuy 50.10
13) Brigette van Aswegen 53.53
14) Monika Wohlgemuth 56.11
15) Sebastien Cattelan DNE

Results will not count towards DWD title as it was not a downwind race.


Peter Petersen
SUP-culture  - NAISH SUP DISTRIBUTION
&
WATERSPORTS WAREHOUSE SUP-KITE-WAKE-SKI
Ocean Square
SUNSET BEACH

Reg.no: 2009/183906/23