Words By : Gary Van Rooyen

Images : Gary Van Rooyen & Greg Bertish

MAURITIUS OCEAN SUP CLASSIC powered by Coreban & Bulksms.com and supported by Quiksilver Mauritius.
The hype about this watersport week from the World champion surfskiers, Oscar Chalupski and Dawid Mocke was no smoke-screen. The event produced all the action of an unbelievably exciting Surfski and SUP race. A huge thanks must go out to Albert D’Unienville from Lux* Resorts and Dominic Henry from JPH Boathouse who hosted the water sport week for the 6th year running. Also, a shout out to Anton Erasmus, our SA contest director who put everything together so effortlessly!

160 surfski paddlers and a small field of 12 SUP’pers took part in daily workshops and down-winders that were not always for the faint hearted. Over the 7 days, the swell size varied between 4 ft and 20 ft on the outside reefs, fanned by winds of up to 50km per hour. The MOC Race day delivered the goods as predicted and 100 paddlers chose the inside 14km race (shallow lagoon, chased by wind swell) while the rest of the field braved the 23km outside open ocean and reef challenge. The international lineup of surf ski paddlers boasted an amazing number of champions, including Oscar Chalupski, Dawid, Nicki and Jasper Mocke, Dean Gardner, Tom Schilperoot, Barry Lewin and Matt Bowman, to name a few. Both races were decided through the pass in the end, with Jasper outsprinting his older brother in the final 100m. Matt came in 3rd, trailing by a 100m.

On the SUP side, it was all up to Greg Bertish and Durban speedster Brandon Read to show the field the way on the outside. The race started 8km up from Tamassa Resort on the east coast at a bay called Sancho. A deep channel through the middle of the bay held back the 6-8ft lefts and rights aimed directly at you as one battled a 40km per hour cross shore wind for 30 minutes before being able to start the down wind journey to Le Morne and the dreaded Manawa channel. We all had a bit of a surprise when little known Thierry (from Reunion) took off out of the bay like a scalded cat. Gary shouted across to Greg, “Sheet, this guy flies” and he replied “ let’s see what happens when we turn?” A few minutes later, poor Thierry had his first of many swims and was never really back in contention. Amidst some racy and sizey swells, Greg maintained a controlled lead of 100m all the way to the pass, with Gary van Rooyen in 2nd and Brandon Read covering the moves, just 80m back. The tricky issue at the entrance to Le Morne is that you have to paddle with the wind past the break, which was a solid 6-8ft, then head back into the wind and fight a 15km per hour flowing rip to get yourself inside the reef. This takes about 15 minutes and you are ‘rewarded’ with a 4ft
right hander breaking onto 6” of sharp coral reef. Greg came through the pass first, but had to lie down and paddle prone to make any headway at all, while Gary fortuitously hooked a 6 footer from the outside taking him to within chirping distance of Greg. That ‘reward’ claimed both Greg and Gary on the reef, but Gary was first to recover and rode a wave for 150m, leaving Greg pondering his fate on the reef. Brandon on the other hand had chosen to follow an Aussie paddler (never follow and Aussie paddler in Mauritius!) and resurrected the saying “ I almost died” as he came unstuck on the wrong side of Manawa but managed to gain composure and got to within 50m of Greg, who was still reef dancing. Once inside, it was head down and a 2km flat push to the finish line. Gary, finishing in 2 hrs 12 minutes, staved off the attack by the two favourites Greg and Brandon and Thierry (Reunion) arrived in 4th place with a bruised, cut face and gash in his arm that required 6 stitches. All breathed huge sighs of relief finishing in one piece. (maybe not Thierry!!)

The ‘inside’ race was won by a fast finishing Neil Schiebe, followed by Andrew Ratcliff and Grant Alexander. Tracy Bertish surprised with a win in the ladies. Thanks to BulkSMS.com and Quiksilver Mauritius for the amazing prizes.

A great race and certainly one to diarise now for next year! Greg Bertish from True Blue Travel will be releasing packages along with the Lux* Resorts Group in September, so get on board early! This is a true family getaway which offers all levels of paddlers a chance to participate in either the inside down wind race or the outside challenge.

Below are some event pics :

To book your holiday now drop us a line : info@truebluetravel.co.za