LANGEBAAN - 20 JANUARY - REPORT

The weekend was well worth the trip.

I left Friday evening and joined Basil at his very comfortable weekend house. Dinner (after Drinks at the Yacht club) was at Friday Island where we met up with a Silke and her friend and colleague (Sue). They (the restaurant that is) serve a superb cheese burger with Thai sauce.

Right through the Friday evening and Saturday morning both Grandpa and I weren't sure whether we would take part in the Surfski race, both pleading fatigue. However Silke phoned us at 09h30 Saturday to tell us that she was waiting at the beach and had registered. We would not be shown up by a Land Rover (it broke in MOZ) driving German expat from some strange shrinking island in the middle of nowhere and so we duly reported for duty with the other manne. The organization was, as usual, very good. Having registered with a slightly stressed lady who seemed to have difficulty looking up from her laptop (and who would not give me a race sticker), we proceeded to the beach for pre-race briefing.That is where things started to go wrong for my race. I don't know if it was the fact that there was no loudhailer in a pumping South Easter (apparently there is only one in SA and it was being used at the Duzi. Has Discovery Health exhausted the annual Budget??) but I misunderstood the start procedure.

The nett result was that I was on the wrong side of the Short Course field and had to wait for 1/2 of SA's surfskiers to go past before I could join Bas and the Land Roving Hun. The short story is that into a 40km/h S.E Basil was the Second Boat home. Silke and I had our own race but she eventually beat me at the Island after some really good downwind surfing (@#$^&! Epic). Well done Basil and Silke! I beat a few beginner Surfskiers... Incidentally I tried to be friendly with one of those I beat but she seemed too peeved and wouldn't even look at me (I think that in any event their is a rule that the girls only talk to guys under 15). That counts Bas and I out. Anyway - Thanks again to those superfit surfski Dudes and chicks for counting us in on their great race.Makes us feel very young again.

That afternoon Derek, Margaret and Gary joined us. Derek, Gary and I did a short paddle into the lagoon shortly afterwards. On Saturday evening dinner was at Friday Island. We stayed quite late because The Land Rover lady and her friends had devised a fiendish new way of working out the bill. Ask her. Eventually I pulled out of the dastardly scheme and paid my own bill. Derek, in the meantime and as Derek will, became fixated with the Comet - in particular with the reason why the tail appeared curved. He was not impressed when someone informed him that it was the South Easter.

On Sunday morning we left from Friday Island and paddled up to the main beach where we met up with 3 strange ous. The one didn't even have a life jacket or shirt on (??). Number 2 was paddling a lime green tank like mine (paddle(u)ak?) with flat paddles but worked like like a demon to make sure he remained in contention. Number 3 seemed fairly normal. Sorry dudes - this is a joke. Anyway none of them will probably paddle with us again after this story or after we left them behind at Kraalbaai. They will now buy surfskis. All in all a good 12 - 15km paddle.

The entry into the beach at Friday Island is worth a mention for the challenge. Surfing skills are a recommendation so both Margaret and I were rescued by the NSRI. Not really. Margaret was.
Many thanks to Sir Derek and Lady Margaret for the idea. The weekend was a jol and I wish more of you had joined us. Keep an eye out for the next one away.

best regards
Paul

PS
The surfski guys were most impressed by Basil and he was mentioned in their weekly newsletter report on the races.

"The short course of 7km's had 20 paddlers heading straight up to the Oudepos turn can and back down via the back of Schaapen Island. A very notable performance here was by another Langebaaner, Basil Thomas who was not only the oldest paddler in the field but was also paddling a sea-kayak as opposed to the much quicker surski's that everyone else was on, Basil came scond in the short course and raised many an eyebrow with this brilliant performance."