"The Doctor" SUP Race from Rottnest to Sorrento
Perth is known for it's powerful seabreeezes, But this year has been challenging. Perth is going through a La Nina season, which means the water temperature is around 2 degrees warmer than usual, and results in far milder seabreezes.
Competitors were awoken on Friday morning to a massive lightning and thunder storm which lasted for hours and dumped plenty of rain. Not your typical 25 degree/25 knots seabreeze weather!
Saturday, at 10am, it was already classic "troughed out" Perth weather - everybody sweating and hoping for the seabreeze to rush in and save the day. Humid cumulus clouds were building over the mainland - pretty much a seabreeze killer. Competitors were camped under any shade they could find, and some were found rigging inventions to carry more water on the journey across.
"The Doctor" is a fantastic paddle event run by Dean Gardiner from Ocean Paddler - it's been running for years, and SUP are managing to find a way into the event for the last 3 or so years. This year saw a total of 33 SUP's enter the race (5 female), with 19 of the boards being over 14 foot.
This year also featured a massive sponsorship from Starboard. And the sponsors we must mention, for without them, no event exists. Starboard had a huge presence with flags everywhere and injecting
$10,000 into the event - amazing.
A few crew warming up...
Lots of gear ready to go... will this be all the SUP's next year?
Cruising around & checking out the gear, I bumped into Fanatic team riders Paul Jackson, Alicat and Adam Quinn, all getting ready and putting the sponsors stickers on their boards.
Paul shared how his knee had become infected and had been oozing puss the night before. He wasn't too confident of a podium finish. Alicat was all smiles and joy, and Adam thought it would be a race of liquids! Crikey we were only standing around in the shade and we were already sweating. These guys & gals had a three hour paddle in front of them! Drink up!
At midday, the wind was still coming from the north. Not strong, but any northerly wind is not a good sign for getting a decent southwest seabreeze.
Guys heading out to the start line...
Just in time for these snaps of the SUP fleet heading out to the line..
As per The Mandurah Duel, I take my hat off to these crew. Three hours on a SUP in 30+ degrees is hard work. Only three weeks prior I'd done the same course on a kiteboard in just thirty minutes in the Red Bull Lighthouse to Leighton race. That was armchair work compared to what these people faced. No swell, and the seabreeze was not kicking in, and didn't even look like kicking in. Already looking forward to being in the event next year.
Some times are in, and so far they are:
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Little Bay, NSW
