Windguru couldn’t quite make up its mind as to how hard the wind would blow come Sunday, however it was certain of one thing: the surf coming in at La Mercy beach would be massive!

I had woken up with a sore throat and blocked head on Saturday morning. In my final race prep paddle my heart rate was unusually high, and I slunk off the water and into bed for the rest of the day. I am learning (finally) that when your body gives you warning signs, you need to listen, and act on them. Lots of Vitamin C, water, and an immune booster and the most crucial ingredient-REST. With Berg only 2 weeks away, I really couldn’t afford to get sick now. Luckily it seemed to work, as i woke up with just a small head cold on race day.

My small (really small) rental car, with awesome Thule racks and Nelo Ski loaded on top must have looked pretty crazy driving along the freeway to Marine Surf Life Saving Club for the start at 9am. At least I had wheels! The wind was nowhere to be seen, and the swell looked big, but I knew it would be travelling pretty fast to try to catch.

As usual, the race started with the slower batches first, racing snakes last. We were off in B Batch, and we had some pretty fast guys in our batch. I wasn’t feeling fantastic off the start, and let the front bunch go, along with Nikki. I knew this was going to be a long, hard grind and didn’t feel it was necessary to blow myself up in the first 5 minutes.

After about 2km I made a small break, and then basically tried to go just below max the rest of the race. I wanted a nice time buffer over any competitors in case I had a problem coming in at the finish, and ended up winning by 5.5min from Nikki Mocke, with Australian Ruth Highman in 3rd. I felt great the whole way, and managed to keep my boat speed up, as well as catching the odd bump (few and far between), and so I am happy with my form going into Berg.

As is Hank I am sure. He looked phenomenal when he came past me just before the Lighthouse, and I am sure he is going to dominate Berg as he did this race!