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Cape Point Challenge 2019 - GOLD

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Ending my season on a high by winning the Cape Point Challenge, this is a huge race and a massive achievement just to finish it.  For anyone that does not know about the race, it is a 52km race around the iconic Cape Point in Cape Town, South Africa. Coming into the race I had trained well and felt confident I could be competitive. Following the online coaching program of Linton Hope and my gym coaching set out by Hayley Nixon both coaches from the Wildog Squad, I knew I had the best chance of being right up there. My nutrition and hydration the week leading up to the race also played a vital role in going into this race ready for a long morning out on the water. I use Precision Hydration and make sure I am topping up my "system" on a daily basis leading in an ultra race like this. We arrived in Fish Hoek on Wednesday 11th of December, a few days before the race, so I could just settle a little bit and get used to the area again. With the ever frantic refreshing of all

Cape Point Challenge 2018

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It is not called Cape Point Challenge for nothing and this year was no exception. Leading up to this year's Cape Point Challenge we were all refreshing our different wind apps to get an idea of what the wind was doing. At first it was looking like a light SE wind with a small swell of less than 2m. But this was changed as the days went by and on Friday the forecast was for the holding Black South Easter to rear it head for race morning. Pete Cole made a call to stay inside the bay for the race, that would take us from Simon's Town to the Point and turn and then head back to Fish Hoek with a compulsory check point just off the beach at Buffel's.  So race morning arrived and its an early start from Simon's Town, I was starting at 6:00am. I felt good and knew it was going to be a long tough paddle up to the point. As we turned into the wind after the shelter of the harbour wall I knew I had to pace myself and do my own race, as it was gusting well over 30kts.

Swedish Downwind Camp

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There is only one spot left for the Swedish Downwind Camp, see below for details. Chloe Bunnett from South Africa is our coach 2018. Welcome to Aterra Surfski Experience in Helsingborg/Skalderviken Sweden. Chloe is one of the worlds best surfskipaddlers and she will help you to take your paddling to the next level. We will work in small groups during the day so that you can get personal coaching. Aterra arrange camps for surfski and kayaking in Sweden, Gran Canaria, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. For the first time we arrange a longer camp in Sweden and invite you here so you can explore our exciting environment. We have fantastic conditions for surfski downwinds. Most of the summer is normally windy and that gives us nice wavy experiences. Click here to find out more and book  DOWNWIND in Sweden

First at the Eurochallenge 2018 - Viilajoyosa

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The Eurochallenge 2018 kick started the season with classic conditions;                                         We were only in Tenerife for one week after leaving South Africa before heading to Villajoyosa for the Eurochallenge. I really love this race. The town of Villajoyosa is not far from Alicante airport and with a beautiful stretch of beach, great harbour and the home of the famous Valor Chocolate makes an awesome venue for the race. We arrived on the 25th April, a few days before the race window, once we had dropped our bags at the hotel we walked to the race venue so I could set my boat up and go out for a light session. The next day Kenny arrived along with the wind so after a bit of lunch, Juan from Club Nautica Villajoyosa dropped us off in Benidorm for a 12km downwind. A short side wind section to get out to sea and then we had a fantastic downwind back to the club. I was feeling really good and my Carbonology Pulse was handling the conditions perfectly.  T

And that is a wrap. Happy New Year

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Happy New Year to you all, may 2018 be everything you wish for and more. A quick look back at 2017, which was a great year for me, Started in May with a podium at the Eurochallenge World Cup. The Eurochallenge is in Villajoyosa and it is a great event, if you have not been you are missing out. Dates for 2018 are 28th April to 1st May so get booking. In June I won the Spanish Cup in Cartegena to set me up for selection for the Spanish Team to go to Hong Kong for the ICF World Ocean Racing Championships. The second part of selection is later on in my season at the national championships ;) In July I went over to England to compete in the Icon Classic, which is another well organised event and the race takes you along some rugged coastline for a great experience of true ocean racing, great to finally get my name on the Iconic Trophy. After that we travelled to Portugal to race the Nelo Summer Challenge ICF World Cup, unfortunately there was no wind and it landed up being a pret

Gran Canaria

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We have just come back from an incredible few days in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. It was awesome to train with Club Amigos and everyone over there. The club is right on the beach and there are so many options for different downwind routes. Thanks to  LivingSea  for everything, click on their name and check out their website for any training camps they offer or you can get a group and get LivingSea to arrange a camp for you and your friends. Check out the video below to get a taste of what is there. Now we are all getting ready for the Spanish National Champs next weekend. Look forward to racing again. Live slow, Paddle Fast....happy paddling :) Chloë :)

Travelling, airport lounges and Booking.com

I thought I would write about my travelling as I am always doing write ups on races and we do travel a lot so this should help anyone else who travels a lot. Booking.com Booking.yeah Firstly I have used booking.com 48 times, so my profile tells me. This booking site is the best hotel booking site I have used and it is the only one I use. If, which has only been once, I have a problem they do their best to resolve it. So if you want to get a discount off your first booking click on the link below and follow the steps. We will both benefit so give it a go. https://www.booking.com/s/b0c43e15 We stayed in 4 different booking.com  hotels last week and we had great stays in all of them, I am not sure who or how they check their hotels but they are doing a great job. Airport Lounges This is by no means an insight to cheap travel, but more a way to find value for money and convenience whilst passing through many airports. Pete (my partner) bought a Priority Pass, which for a sma