Paddler News Feed

 

•	Features
•	Hotline
•	Destinations

< January February 2007
	Hotline
Double Trouble South African Defends U.S. Surfski Title Joe Glickman

David Mocke wasn’t born when South Africa’s John “Jonty” Skinner set a world record in the 100-meter freestyle in 1976. But growing up, he heard his dad rave about Skinner’s brash racing style. In discussing his own strategy to defend his U.S. Surfski Championship title last September in San Francisco, Mocke said, “Jonty would go off the line flat out. Initially, the guys didn’t worry about him because he always died, but gradually he died later and later, and then one year he didn’t die. Back home we called it ‘doing a Jonty!’”

Mocke’s own boldness—and training two to three times a day—has earned him two titles in New Zealand’s King of the Harbour Race and a wire-to-wire win at the Cape Point Challenge last December. The combination of courage and fitness also enabled the South African to add his second straight U.S. Surfski title to his resume.

With a purse of $10,000, the fourth edition of the 16-mile race featured athletes from 10 countries, including the U.S.’s four-time Olympic medalist Greg Barton, a two-time U.S. Surfski winner who was second to Mocke in 2005.

“I lined up next to Mocke,” said Barton, 46, “but he jumped out so fast I wasn’t fit enough to stay with him.”

The first leg was a 2.5-mile downwind dash against a stiff current toward Alcatraz, the famed, defunct maximum-security prison. Mocke, 29, and fellow countryman Barry Lewin, 23, left a pack of sprinters in their wake and headed toward the Golden Gate Bridge, a dynamic spot where current, cliffs and concrete can turn the chilly water into a cauldron. Mocke caught three ricocheting waves and surged to a 30-meter lead.

“Catching up into the wind is very difficult,” Mocke said of his pivotal move. “Once I got ahead I pressed hard to hold him off.”

Two days earlier, Lewin had surfed the rebounding waves under the south side of the Golden Gate. However, even after Lewin sprinted onto a run, Mocke had too much Jonty in his tank.

“I thought if I caught a big one,” Lewin said, “I could make up the 40 seconds I was down. I was just beat by the faster paddler.”