This weekend was the annual 80km Dolphin Coast challenge held between Durban and Zinkwazi on South Africa's east coast. The race was held over 2 days with both days being held with a following wind. On the 1st day a distance of  42km, Herman beat me by 4 minutes. He did a time of 2 hours and 55 minutes I think? The conditions were very calm with about a 5 knot tail wind. The results should be on the website www.surfski.co.za at a later stage. Herman went a different way and I didn't see him the whole race, the only time I saw him was when I saw his ski on  beach. This happens in the sea if you don't watch out for your opposition. The next day was shorter day and with more wind I thought I would try a different tactic. To beat Herman by 4 minutes on a strait neck and neck paddle would be impossible. I opted for a close inshore route which seemed to be working for the 1st 10 km but again I saw Herman for the 1st time about 1 km from the finish and he  beaten me by about 2 minutes.

All in all it was very good training for the world cup races in Tahiti and Perth Australia later this month.

Also this weekend Len Jenkins, Epic paddler, with Mike Mbanjwa won the biggest one day race in South Africa. The race had about 800 entries over the rocky Umgeni River, the results can be found on www.kncu.co.za .

I am training very hard at the moment to be in peak form for the world cup races and the Cape Point race in Cape Town on the 17th of December. I am doing about 3 sessions a day mixed with gym, swimming, Waterpolo, running and of coarse paddling.