We got together in the late afternoon on Monday. The wind forecast hadn't looked good and Dawid had planned to do another wave session at the beach, but as we readied our gear he felt the wind picking up from the southeast and declared that we would paddle out to the Roman Rock lighthouse and do some downwind drills back from there.
The lighthouse sits about 5 kilometers from the beach, and we faced a tiring slog into the wind to get there. Dawid had a resistor on his boat--a length of bungee cord with several plastic practice golf balls on it to create drag beneath his hull--so that he could paddle hard without leaving me in the dust. For a while we paddled with me trying to stay right on his stern, and then we played some "leap frog"--I sprint by him, he sprints by me, I sprint by him, and so on. There was something surreal about sprinting past Dawid. I don't care if he was letting me pass him, or if he did have that resistor on his boat; the guy is still one of the best paddlesport athletes on this planet.
There was a heavy mist hanging over False Bay, and we had to trust Dawid's sense of direction on his home water to reach the lighthouse. On and on we went, climbing up and over one swell after another, and I started to worry that I would completely wear myself out, just like the day before. Finally the lighthouse emerged from the mist. We'd missed it to the left by quite a lot, so we adjusted course and looped around it, and at last we were headed back downwind.
We now commenced the "official" workout for the afternoon: a set of downwind drills. There were two of them. In the first, I was to paddle for five minutes, and was allowed only 100 strokes for that period. That meant that I had to avoid unnecessary strokes at all costs, and try to prolong each run without paddling as long as I could.
The second drill called for me to paddle for five minutes as well, but this time I had to paddle at a constant cadence the whole time. I was allowed to take very hard strokes or very easy strokes, but I had to keep the stroke rate the same throughout.
Both drills were intended to improve my downwind efficiency by eliminating unnecessary strokes. It took a lot of discipline to abide by the rules of each drill, but as we went along I think I made some progress in getting the conditions to work for me.
Monday night I was invited to the Mocke household to have supper with Dawid, his wife Nikki, and their children Sam and Sarah. They're all active members of this beach community and I enjoyed getting to know them a little more.
While I was there we pored over the wind forecast, and it appeared that the earlier we got on the water Tuesday morning, the better the conditions for a Miller's Run were likely to be. Dawid said he would pick me up at 5:30 AM. I winced a little but said, "Okay, let's do it!" The wind is one of the main reasons I came here, after all.
We were joined by a guy named Ed, a local paddler whom Dawid coaches. We got to Miller's Point right at dawn and paddled out. The first step of a Miller's Run is to paddle a kilometer or more offshore, and to me it felt labored because I wasn't entirely awake or warmed up yet. After we'd turned downwind toward the Roman Rock lighthouse Dawid went back and forth coaching me and coaching Ed. The first few kilometers were a mixed bag for me, as I caught a couple of decent runs but stalled out a lot. Dawid had to stop me several times and refocus my attention on certain details.
We took a break next to the lighthouse, and Dawid shot some brief footage of me with his phone. You can watch it here.
We proceeded on and I continued to paddle well at times and struggle at times. Dawid shouted, "Let the waves do the work!" Then I started putting together some really good series of runs. The conditions were at their biggest for the morning, and I was seeing the runs well in the large, well-defined swells. I couldn't see or hear Dawid or Ed anymore--I assumed they were working on something somewhere behind me--so I just focused my attention in front of me and tried to keep linking runs together as much as I could.
The swells got smaller and smaller as I approached Fish Hoek Beach, and I tried to keep getting what I could out of the little runs. At last I arrived on the beach, and when I looked back out over the bay Dawid and Ed were paddling in some 400 meters back. When Dawid arrived he said, "It looked like something clicked for you! I tried to go after you but couldn't catch you!" Keep in mind that Dawid had a resistor on his boat again, and had probably spotted me a generous lead while coaching Ed. But I was nevertheless feeling good about my run and hearing that praise from him lifted my spirits even higher.
Dawid accompanied me back to my B & B and we partook of some breakfast there. After that he went on to attend to his daily chores, and I decided to take a hike. Just south of town there's a mountain called Elsie's Peak, and there's a hiking trail to the top where one can take in some stunning views. Here's the view of Elsie's Peak from my balcony; the left end of the ridge looks out over False Bay:
A rather imposing climb, yes, but I fastened up my sneakers and dug right in. I was at the top maybe 45 minutes later and admiring this view of Fish Hoek Beach and the town of Fish Hoek:
I could even spot the Atlantic Ocean off to the west. You can see a piece of it in the center of this photo, between the two peaks:
And then, of course, there's the Miller's Run:
Miller's Point, where the run starts, is marked, and the lighthouse is circled. The paddler continues toward the lower left corner of the photo, rounds Elsie's Peak, and finishes at Fish Hoek Beach. By the time I took this photo the wind had died almost completely, and so the water is placid, as perhaps you can see. That's exactly why we'd gotten ourselves going at 5:30 AM.
I'll just add that the day had grown quite warm and humid by the time I reached the peak. By the time I got back down to the B & B my clothes were drenched with sweat:
I got to sleep a little later this morning, as Dawid and I weren't scheduled to meet until 8 o'clock. The plan was to put in at Fish Hoek Beach and paddle a few kilometers up the coast to Muizenberg Beach, the site of reliably good surfing waves. Here we worked on my wave-catching skills some more. I started feeling more comfortable with moving right or left across the face of a wave, using my rudder to "counter-steer." I could use some more practice spotting good waves to catch and knowing when to start accelerating my boat for that purpose.
We didn't spend too much time at Muizenberg because of the lengthy paddle back. As we made our way back toward Fish Hoek Dawid called for an impromptu workout that went like this:
10 strokes on
10 strokes off
20 strokes on
10 strokes off
30 strokes on
10 strokes off
40 strokes on
10 strokes off
50 strokes on
10 strokes off
60 strokes on
10 strokes off
70 strokes on
10 strokes off
80 strokes on
10 strokes off
90 strokes on
10 strokes off
100 strokes on
By the time we'd gotten up over 40 or 50 strokes on, I was seriously questioning my ability to finish out the workout. But I bore down and got through it, paddling hard even though I was slowing up a bit toward the end.
I'd been sore in my hips and lower back before today's paddling, and my back was wicked sore afterward. Dawid said it was probably because of the heavier boat I'm paddling--I've been paddling a Fenn "Blue Fin S" all week; it's one of the shorter, more stable skis, similar to an Epic V8 Pro. Anyway, it's loosened up some, and I hope it'll be feeling better by tomorrow. The wind is supposed to return overnight, and our plan is to do another Miller's Run tomorrow morning.
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