Tahiti World Cup

Papeete Tahiti French Polynesia 24^th November 25 2005

Team KIA Menshealth team are sweating in more ways than one. The current temperatures on the island of Tahiti is reaching about 36 degrees and humidity at close to 100% and there hasn’t been any trade winds. The 1^st race of the world cup tomorrow will be along the island about 24km to the finish at Radisson Hotel. There are  few extra paddlers from France and Tahiti to hot up the race pace which the South African set last week in the 1^st world cup leg in Perth Australia. Unlike Australia surf ski paddling is on the front page of the all newspapers and on TV news. Paddling on the island is part of the culture and has been growing at a great pace.

The local favorite Lewis Laughlin  who came 4^th last weeks second race in Perth will head up the strong Tahitian team  says “ With the growth of the sport in Tahiti we are getting more competitive amongst ourselves. I don’t think are we quiet good enough to beat the strong South African team. The one thing we will have local knowledge and we are used to heat.” The French team is unknown factor but you can never overlook them. Team New Zealand will be lead by Iron man champion Corrie Hutchinson and veteran Paul Wilford. The 1^st race will be held tomorrow at 3.00pm but Saturdays race over 30km will start at 11.00am. The 2^nd race will be from the Radisson Hotel to another island Moorea.

The South African team of the Chalupsky and Bartho brothers as well as you guns Clint Pretorius and Barry Lewin and the evergreen Neil Bailey arrived in Tahiti 3 days ago to get used to the 12 hour time change from South Africa Tahiti is one of the furthest places away from South Africa. Most of the team have raced in Hawaii but Tahiti is about 10 degrees warmer. Although the entry fee for the race is the most expensive in the world R 1500 the prize money pool  should be shared between the South African Team.  “ We are here to try and keep our winning streak from Perth it is going to be very hot but we have a great team to do the job. Oscar and I have won and raced in Tahiti before so there is no reason the team shouldn’t do the same.’ Says last weeks world cup winner Herman Chalupsky.

One big surprise is the lack of Aussies who have had the wind blown out their sails and haven’t got all there top guns here. This is one of the 1^st times we have seen the Aussie team wimp out of a surf ski race.