Tim Jacobs Wins Narrabeen Beach Challenge by 3 minutes

Written by Jamie Stewart

Saturday, 15 November 2008

Rounding Barrenjoey Headland, the finish a mere 800m away, Nick Holt felt the grand piano drop. After leading for three quarters of the race, he was in second place and hanging on for dear life. Unfortunately for Nick, there were two paddlers bearing down on him.

Deano and Muzz lead Nick Holt. (Pic: Alex Buckton)

Dean "Sprinter" Gardiner
Two very good paddlers: Dean Gardiner passed him first, with Murray Stewart close behind. As would later be pointed out over celebratory beers, Dean should be putting his hand up for a spot in the sprint kayak team after managing to hold off Murray in a sprint finish and claim second spot in the Narrabeen Beach Challenge held on Sunday in Sydney. One consolation for Murray is that he and Dean will be racing as a team in the Southern Shamaal in a few weeks' time. Nick had to settle for fourth place, but turned many heads this weekend with an impressive performance.

Tim Jacobs - on form

No matter how much action there was for the minor placings, however, the day belonged to only one paddler - Tim Jacobs. Tim has been dominant this year in Sydney, and on Sunday he stamped his mark on the series once and for all, winning in a time of 1 hour and 27 minutes. While Dean and Murray were duking it out in an effort to get past Nick, almost three minutes in front Tim was cruising to his third victory in the series. I don't want to talk it up too much (mainly because he'll be ripping into me about it at training for the next month), but Tim is going to be seriously hard to beat in Dubai. (There you go, Hank and Dawid, the Aussie challenge has been laid!)

Tim cruises to victory, 3 minutes in front of the next paddler (Pic: Alex Buckton)

First True Downwind

The Narrabeen Beach Challenge started at Fisherman's Beach (near enough to Narrabeen) and proceeded up the coast, 20.6km to Pittwater. The course was originally meant to be in a north-south direction, but conditions on Sunday would have meant that an otherwise fun race would have been a 2 hour slog into a stiff headwind. Thankfully, the organisers decided to change the course direction at the last minute to take advantage of the South Easterly swell. Word quickly spread via SMS and, amid many sighs of relief, Sydney's paddlers converged on Fisherman's for the first afternoon start, and the first true downwind race, of the series.

Fastest off the start was Queensland's Dane Sloss, who, after losing his way in last year's 20 Beaches, had a point to prove. Unfortunately for Dane, the pack was on his tail from the word go, hunting him down as he headed north toward Palm Beach. The field quickly split into two groups - those going close to the shore, and those going deep. About 1km into the race, and working my ring out to keep on the front pack, you can imagine my surprise as I overtook Tim Jacobs, stopped dead in the water and snagged on a piece of seaweed. You can imagine my even greater surprise when Tim, after unsnagging his rudder, came flying past me as though I was standing still (when I was actually pulling 14km/h!).

The start, heading out towards Palm Beach (around the third headland to the left) (Pic: Alex Buckton)

Fun but Technical

Very soon after the start, the runs became surfable and the pack split up into smaller groups. The swells were at an angle to the beach, such that you had to surf hard right every time you got a run. This made the race fun, but technical, meaning that experience and skill really came into play. 15km into it, Nick Holt was in front, very close to the rocks and going strong. Peter Scott was almost in line, but over a kilometre out to sea (it's been suggested that Pete was trying to paddle home to Newcastle, 100km North). In the middle was Tim Jacobs. Nick maintains that at some point Tim must have turned on an outboard hidden on his ski, because with just over 5km to go, Tim switched into another gear and left the rest of the field behind. It was a truly impressive performance, particularly for someone who has been described on numerous occasions (on this website) as ‘not being good in downwind'.

Nick Holt after the race (Pic: Alex Buckton)

So, Tim took out the opens and Dean the over 40s. Gary David snuck in to take the over 50s title, only 5 seconds ahead of close rival, Greg Clifford. This puts Tim firmly at the top of the pointscore after three races, a full 11 points clear of second place. Bearing in mind that the 20 Beaches counts double, Tim will still have to put in a good show in that race to ensure overall series victory. Murray Stewart is currently 2nd on the pointscore with Nick Holt in third.

Women's Race

In the women's race, we continue to see fresh new faces coming out of the woodwork. Kirsty Holmes, renowned ironwoman and adventure racer, turned her hand to LD ski paddling this weekend and pipped Naomi Flood for the victory in the women's event. I'm not sure how much training Naomi has done over the 20km distance, but speaking to her after the race, she was seriously puffed. "That was [insert descriptive expletive here]ing tough" was about all I could get out of her. Kirsty on the other hand, looked cool and comfortable, and will be very hard to beat in the rest of the series. Previous race winner Kelly Jury rounded out the podium in third. Kelly has been consistent this series and is still on top of the ladies pointscore, but if Naomi and Kirsty keep up their recent form, they'll be strong contenders for the trip to Hawaii.

Kirsty Holmes takes out the women's race (Pic: Alex Buckton)

Considering that it was a 20km downwind race, it was really good to see over 120 starters at Narrabeen, showing once again how strong the long-distance sport is becoming in Sydney. Next race on the calendar is the Manly Wharf Hotel King of the Harbour. Race organisers have already announced that prize money will be at least $1,500, which should attract a top-quality field once again. The iconic race, from Manly Beach, around North Head to the harbour and back, will be held on 6 December 2008 and promises to be a really enjoyable event.

All the paddlers at the briefing (Pic: Alex Buckton)

Tim Jacobs and race sponsor Greg Bennett (Pic: Alex Buckton)

Spectators at the finish (Pic: Alex Buckton)

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