After another whirlwind tour that had me flying all over the world, I have been back in Durban for a couple of weeks, preparing for next weekends World Cup event.  I’m very excited about this event as it is right in my backyard.  With the quality of competition locally and internationally (particularly the Aussies) this is right up there at the top of the list on the World Series tour.  Especially if we can get the conditions we had last year!

 

I have had to kick my training into high gear right away since arriving home.  It’s never easy to keep up the regimen when traveling extensively.  I had a nice little wake up call during the weekend races when my son Luke beat me!  (I had a little incident in the surf zone.)  Overall I feel like I am going well, very well when there are bumps out there.  I am still off the pace when it comes to totally flat conditions.  Right now I gauge that pace as Hank McGregor.

 

Building up to the race I have been running and hitting the gym three times a week.  I only spend about 45 minutes in the gym focusing on core exercises.  I’ve been doing the local weekend races, and usually do two interval sessions on flat water, and up to three downwind paddles of 1-1.5 hours.  I’m looking forward to a wild & windy race.

 

The course is fantastic, and our conditions are some of the best in the world, but what really is driving these World Series events is the competition.  I predict the South African contingent will be showing the way this weekend.  The top guys I’ll be watching for this race will be Hank McGregor, Herman, Dean Gardiner, Dawid Mocke, Tim Jacobs, Matt Bouman, Lewis Laughlin and Barry Lewin.  Also up there should be Clint Pretorious, Richard Van Wilderman, Jeremy Cotter, Caine Eckstein, Jasper Mocke, Steve Woods and Ian Gray.  I’ll be watching for Luke also, if he has a very good race he may surprise some people.

 

After the Durban World Cup I’m off for more adventures.  I’ll be doing many clinics throughout Europe, traveling for two and a half weeks throughout the continent.  On the 14^th of July I’ll be competing in the Belgium Surfski Championships.

 

I’ll post my reports here as I can.  Cheers.