From Mild to Wild as record are broken!

From last week’s mild Dash to last night Wild Dash memories of the 6^th of February 2008 which was dubbed Big Wednesday (ARTICLE ). Three years later almost to the date Big Wednesday No 2 played out. The wind gust recorded at Kite Beach was 53kt (98km/hr) but it seemed the sea conditions were a lot messier than the first time. The tide was very low which caused the swell bounce back to be exaggerated messing up the final stretch from Seli 1 home. Nevertheless FIVE records were broken. Three for the Ski paddlers, three for the SUP’s and all the runners setting personal best times.

Only 25 ski paddlers lined up at Milnerton beach with the gale force winds keeping the rest safely indoors. There was a line of sea spray about 400m off shore and this was the first place to get too to make the most of the thumping wind. It’s a strange feeling having the wind trying to blow your paddle out of your hands just as you try and set up for the stroke. Not to mention the pain from the sand blasting while waiting for the start whistle.

In the singles class Steve Farrell (35:07) managed to come home under the old record time but it was Daniel Kantor (35:04) who romped home victoriously to clinch the record by 16 seconds. Both these times are recorded as having gone through Big Bay as opposed to the more direct route through Small Bay cause of the low tide which would have necessitated a short portage over the sand bar. The direct route is estimated to be between 20 and 25 seconds quicker. The old record was set three years ago on Big Wednesday No 1 by Ian Black.

Marais Steyn took control of the Bullets class to push the bar 24 second higher and claimed the new bullets record of 36min 31 sec and improved his personal best by 2min 31 sec. Christo Smit who in his "youth" held the Bullets record paddled to his full potential in the wild conditions. Not only did he crack the elusive 40min barrier for the first time, and claim a new personal best, he also set a new record for his current age class, the Pace Makers, in a time of 39 min 46 sec.

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The windiest downwind dash to date produced some amazing times for the 32 Stand Up Paddlers in the 6th edition of the PRIMI Naish series on Wednesday night. Due to the severe weather conditions with winds of up to 45knots (90km/h) entry was restricted to experienced paddlers only. The sea was rough with a 2m swell from the SW adding to the excitement. Very few of the entrants had ever paddled in such high winds and looking out into the bay from Milnerton all you could see was white mist from the wind ripping the top off the waves. The sand was flying 2 meters high across the starting area and nerves were frayed amongst the competitors. As the Milnerton to Big Bay 10km course is straight downwind the higher the wind, the higher the speeds and the more exhilarating it is on a SUP.

Safety was a concern as visibility drops significantly in these conditions and paddlers in distress are hard to see from the safety boat, let alone land – the BIg Bay Lifesavers again did a sterling job making sure everyone got home safely. Apart from the SUP of Sebastien Cattelan breaking in the surf on the way in at Big Bay and Kimon Dos Santos getting blown past the finish area and close to the rocks (resulting in a long walk back) all went well.

Chris Bertish once again showed his class and produced a new course record of 43:39 (ave speed of 13.8km/h) despite getting taken out by a couple of waves in Small Bay and losing substantial time. His brother Greg came in 46:51 whilst Ivan Van Vuuren got a 47:16. Brigette van Aswegen has been trying to break through the 1-hour mark for months and she managed this comfortably with a 54:41 to set a new ladies course record! Monika Wohlgemuth, in second, set a new personal best of 1:07:06 while Kim Duvenage rounded off the field in 1:14:02. Kim came in with a massive grin on her face saying this was the greatest thing she’d ever done! A couple of Ladies withdrew their entries at the start – we look forward to seeing you again next week – winds rarely get this strong two weeks in row!

Due to the high winds, staying upright and using the swells to your advantage, was more important than necessarily having the latest greatest raceboard – case in point was Dave Smith on an 11’6 wave-cruiser. Dave is an expert surfski paddler and lifesaver with tons of experience and he nearly broke through the holy grail of 50 minutes on his Naish 11’6 Nalu with a run of 50:27 to finish in 6th overall – well ahead of many dedicated raceboards! The waves were at times several meters high and controlling the speed and picking off the runners takes a lot of technique and Dave’s experience clearly paid off.

Our two juniors once again didn’t fail to impress with Matthew van der Linden smashing his previous best by over 10 minutes to set a new juniors record time of 52:32 and coming 11th overall. Kimon Dos Santos overshot the finish and landed well downwind off Kamers Beach so he didn’t record an official time as the timekeepers couldn’t see when he came in.

In total, 27 of the 32 entrants improved their personal best times, and with new records in Mens, Ladies and Juniors divisions, the downwind of 16.02.11 will stand in memory for some time.

4 more editions of the 2011 PRIMI Naish SUP Downwindseries remains before we wrap up on March 16 and resume again with a new series in October. Next week will be the 7th race which will trigger another discard in the points race for the overall prizes of R8,500 cash – so we look forward to more paddlers entering next week where forecast already looks promising.

I urge all paddlers to check out the overall standings to see how you are doing and remember we got 4 more to go!

The popularity of the 12 km Downwind Dash is growing quickly amongst the runners, who have recognised it as an important speed training session for the upcoming Two Oceans Marathon, and it adds a sense of fun and competitive mix not only amongst themselves, but racing the paddlers too.

This Wednesday saw yet another 10 new participants, making a field of 30 runners and a total now of 37 athletes who have participated in the past.

The runners made good use of the exceptionally strong South Easter, with everyone running their personal best times, with Gary Britz taking advantage of the handicap system and coming home first overall in a time of 54:47. Willie Coetzee, who is a Master and one of the clubs top runners, showed all the younger guys a clean pair of heels, and dominated with the fastest time of 45:36, followed by top lady runner Linley Holmes in 46:43, who showed the rest of the men how to run fast. Both these runners were running at a blistering pace of well under 4mins per km. Brett King was third in 48:19.

The event is open to all runners, and anyone wanting to participate can email Dave Johnston at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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