Jan
Ocean Race, Results
Mocke Defends the Doctor Title in Perth
18 January – Perth, Australia.
Jasper Mocke today successfully defended his title here at the Perth Doctor Surfski race, Australia’s premier ocean racing event and also the second race on the 2014 World Surfski Series. His win today gives him a strong lead early in the World Series.
In what was a hard fought battle for the entire 27km channel crossing from Rottnest Island to Sorrento Beach, Mocke was caught in a tremendous struggle with older brother and former winner of this race, Dawid Mocke. Young Australian Cory Hill from the Gold Coast was also wrenched into the battle and the three paddlers pulled away from the rest of the quality field.
“Cory set a blistering pace early in the race and I struggled to match his pace but after about 20 minutes I found a good rhythm riding the swells and started to pull away slightly.” said Dawid Mocke. “But then Jasper came up again and passed me, so the fight was on again.”
Dawid enjoyed a lead for much of the middle part of the race, but some great swell riding from Jasper as well as Cory Hill brought the three together again at the Trigg Channel Marker 6kms from the finish. The Trigg Channel Marker is a compulsory safety checkpoint and all paddler were required to pass the marker on its shore side.
“After the first 30 minutes Dawid really started surfing the runs well and put us under pressure.” said Jasper. “I told myself to focus on my own race and also took a more inside line. Coming into the Trigg marker all three of us were very wide and had to work hard to get to the inside. This pulled us right back to Dawid.”
A mere minute behind the top 3 paddlers the rest of the top field were locked in a tremendous battle. Among them Gold Coast stars Michael Booth (3rd at Dragon Run 2013) and Bruce Taylor, a twice former podium finisher at the Doctor were racing hard alongside local hero Reece Baker who came2nd at Mandurrah Duel last week. The Gold Coast duo eventually dropped Baker to fill out the top 5 positions, who all finished within a 3 minute gap of each other.
A feature of ocean surfski races in Australia is the depth of competition and this is especially prevalent here at The Doctor.
The Women’s event enjoyed a separate and earlier start and 14 ladies raced it in the single ski category for the title. Ruth Highman won her third Doctor title 8 minutes ahead of Wendy Rentjes and Tracey Wilson who were locked into a sprint finish to top off the podium.
The Doctor also featured the Starboard SUP Challenge with 46 SUP paddlers taking on the channel crossing. This is a category set to grow in the future.
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