Mauritius Ocean Classic

Written by Rob Mousley
Sunday, 05 July 2009

"It's hectic out here," yelled videographer Greg Kitto. "These swells are massive!"

Kitto was on the media boat following the lead paddlers as they rocketed down 20-30ft faces...

Here's their story...

Hank McGregor

"I thought we had a fair start," said McGregor. "No-one was left behind. We all took off - to get out into the runs as fast as possible."

McGregor, Dawid Mocke and Matt Bouman immediately went to the front. "Matt and I cut in close to the reef; Dawid took a slightly more conservative line out of the bay."

"For the next 15km we were swapping the lead run for run," McGregor said. "Then at Baie du Cap, Dawid started taking a deeper line. Matt was further inshore and I stayed in the middle to mark them.

"From the previous trip I knew just how far it was from Le Morne to the finish, so I saved a bit for the end," he went on.

Bouman dropped back at about the 20km mark, but Clint Pretorius arrived on McGregor's tail. "I started pushing the pace," McGregor said, "and I could see Daw start to fall back."

Trying to avoid a counter current he'd spotted on the previous trip, McGregor had lead the two men in a little too close to the reef. "We had to angle out to sea and Clint yelled ‘where do we go in?'"

McGregor took a wave - but pulled off it when Pretorius yelled a warning - he'd spotted that it was starting to barrel... "Clint then caught a wave and pulled off that one," went on McGregor. "Finally I caught one - but Clint caught the next one which was bigger and by the time we were in the channel itself he'd caught up right next to me.

Hank McGregor and Clint Pretorius - navigating the bomb craters at the Le Morne pass (Pic: www.barbarayendell.com)

"We cut across the channel into the next break, milked the same wave... and then he started to go backwards."

Hank stopped and waited for Pretorius to come up to him and the two men cleared weed off each other's rudders. "Then the race was on!" said McGregor.

Pretorius pulled for a while, and then McGregor put in an interval and took the lead. "I pulled away and he didn't have an answer," said McGregor. "It was a nice clean win."

Hank wins: (pic: www.barbarayendell.com)

History repeats itself

"It's interesting," McGregor commented, "that in the last race with big conditions, exactly the same thing happened. In Durban last year - Dawid went wide and lost the race coming in. We had exactly the same result - me, Clint, Dawid: 1, 2, 3!"

History won't repeat itself this year. McGregor is paddling the Berg River Marathon instead of the Durban World Cup. "I told Epic that I couldn't do justice to both races," McGregor said, "so they said I should rather do the Berg.

"I'm sad not to do Durban again, but there you go."

McGregor is attempting to match the existing record of six wins at the Berg.

Dawid Mocke (SA)

As he approached the channel through the reef at Le Morne, Dawid Mocke saw the other two skis and realised his mistake. "I was too focussed on heading out," he said. "The story of my life - I had the perfect race and then I came third. I had no reason to lose this race; I'm really, really mad at myself."

Dawid Mocke - intense concentration (pic: www.barbarayendell.com)

Until then, the race had gone according to plan. "The first section was hard work," he said. "The swells were big but there wasn't much wind.

"I was in front after 4 or 5km," he went on, "and then I took a different line and I never saw the other guys again - until it was too late."

The only part of the route that Mocke had had a chance to reconnoitre was the channel. "That went perfectly," he said. "I caught run through the pass, took the perfect line across and caught another wave off the point and across the inner reef." But it was too late. His deep line had cost him some 400m and his race was over.

"Congratulations both Matt and Clint!" he said ruefully. "They paddled a great race."

Jonathan Crowe (Aus)

"Who's this guy Jonathan Crowe?" I asked when I saw his name on the entry list. "I'm not sure - some Aussie living in Dubai," was the answer, "but I think he can paddle. He's been unemployed for the last six weeks so he's been training non-stop." Turns out he's an ex-ironman, used to paddle for a lifesaver club in Aus and was more than qualified for the conditions in Mauritius - a dark horse indeed.

That dark Aussie horse - Jonathan Crowe had a 'perfect race' (Pic: www.barbarayendell.com)

Crowe came fifth and was elated after the race.

"Yeah, I had a great race," he said. "It went exactly to plan."

The only mistake that he made, he said, was to take the turn slightly wide after the start at Souillac - he went a little too far out to sea before turning downwind. After that though, it all came together.

"I wanted to keep a little petrol in the tank," Crowe said, "so I went out conservatively and just kept the other guys in view. I'd been doing two hour training sessions in Dubai so the distance was perfect for me and I knew I'd be able to pick it up in the second half of the race."

When they passed Tamassa resort, he put the hammer down, and started reeling in the paddlers ahead. "I passed Ando, reeled in Brett Bartho, then Zsolt."

Like Dawid Mocke, Crowe had studied the Le Morne channel. "I spent an hour out there the other day," he said, "just sitting there watching the breaks."

The careful planning paid off. "I saw Barry Lewin ahead of me," Crowe said, "going across the corner of the reef. I waited for two huge swells to come through, and crossed the reef on the back of the second one. My paddle touched the coral twice, but it was fine."

He saw Lewin, and then Matt Bouman ahead. "I saw a kite surfer on one side of them," Crowe said, "and the kite on the other side. I yelled at Matt but he didn't hear me." The kite's lines tangled both men's rudders - Lewin got off his ski and quickly freed himself. "Matt seemed to just sit there with his paddle down and I'm not sure what happened to him," said Crowe.

Crowe avoided the kite, but hit a big clump of thick woolly seaweed. "The boat just stopped and I hit the beach, took the weed off and sprinted to the finish," he said.

"I had a great race, absolutely loved the conditions - it's the first decent waves I've paddled in since leaving Australia a year ago!"

Murray Williams

Murray came 36th and had a blast.

"Racing along the coast of Mauritius, in huge sea and stunning wind ... is one of those experiences which will stay with you forever. Like speeding across a frozen salt lake in Land Rover at 4 500m in the Andes mountains in Bolivia, or sailing into Rio after 28 days at sea.

"It was all a bit surreal.

"You're out there essentially alone, with mountains of sea rising up behind you, and the sparkle of the sun on the ocean valleys in front of you ... and you're motoring along at up to 25kms an hour.

"The sea is a rich royal blue, and water is warm and, for a while, time stands still in this very wonderful big blue world.

"Back to reality towards the end of the race, you realise that you have to come back to shore at some point, and to do so you have to find a hole in the coral reef system. Worse, this alleged gap in the reefs is between some very hungry white polar bears.

"By the time I realised where I was, I'd over-shot the mark, and had to paddle side-on into the wind and swell to reach the marker boat and be shown where to paddle in.

"From there we were in the lagoon ... you know the scene ... and there was time over the last 2kms to reflect on truly perfect race.

"Thanks Investec, Epic, Air Mauritius and Naïade Resorts - you've created a beauty here.

"This race is going to become a ‘must-do' for every paddler world-wide."

Michelle Eder

The night before the race I asked the petite blond Durbanite what she thought of her chances of beating Michele Eray in the feisty downwind conditions... The Discovery Men's Health series had been dominated by Eray - but Eder had come close to winning on several occasions.

"I'm not sure," she said. "We haven't raced in conditions like this. I love big conditions though, so who knows?!"

Michelle Eder - came so close... (pic: www.barbarayendell.com)

It turned out to be an extremely close race. "Michelle got away at the start," Eder said, "and I never saw her again until Le Morne."

Eder found it difficult to catch the big swells at the start - the wind had died and only picked up an hour after the start. "From Tamassa onwards it was awesome. But I was too close in - and had to angle out to sea again to get around the end of the reef."

Then she spotted Eray in a bunch just ahead. "I caught a wave in the pass and managed to get to within about 30m of Michelle," said Eder.

"She was right behind one of the men, but he paddled away from us. I don't think she knew I was there and I put my head down, put in an interval and caught up to her."

The two women diced all the way to the finish - where Eray managed to keep the nose of her ski just in front to take the title.

Casualties

Paul Rosenquist (Sweden) dislocated his shoulder bracing in white water just after the start. Rosenquist was taken back to the resort where a doctor restored his shoulder to its socket.

Marc Le Mentec (France), who'd dislocated his shoulder a few days previously in the wild water of the Le Morne channel, turned back just after the start. "My shoulder felt ok on the flat water in the Souillac river," he said, "but as soon as we got into the rough water I realised that it would not be sensible to continue."

The only ski damaged was that of South African Warren Beuster. "I was opposite the Baie du Cap, about 200m out from the reef," he said. "I'd just come down a run, when a wave hit the boat at an angle. I heard a crack and it immediately filled with water - the seam had popped."

Beuster was rescued by an escort boat - but not before the breakers had smashed the waterlogged ski in two.

Hank at the Finish Line (Pic: www.barbarayendell.com)

Women's Champ Michelle Eray (Pic: www.barbarayendell.com)

The winners - Michelle and Hank (www.barbarayendell.com)

Organisation and Safety

"Tyrell Impsen is the unsung hero of the race logistics," said Anton Erasmus. "He's the reason all the skis were already branded when the paddlers arrived.

"Some guys never touched their skis apart from paddling them," he went. "Their skis were washed, put on the trailers, delivered wherever they needed to be. The support from Naiade and from JP Henry was fantastic."

Transport for the paddlers was provided too in the form of (mostly) air-conditioned busses.

Safety

Erasmus was visibly relieved after the race. "I've been speaking to the paddlers and none of them felt alone out there," he said. "We instructed the escort boats to be visible, to go across and make themselves obvious.

"The sponsors are happy; the paddlers are happy," he added.

It was generally agreed though that the race is not for novices and that some sort of qualification process will be applied in future - just to ensure that paddlers are competent to handle big conditions.