"The Doctor," one of the biggest races on the international ocean surfski racing calendar, took place on Saturday at Perth, Western Australia. Pictured here are the top three men's finishers: Uli Hart (third place), Kenny Rice (first place), and Mark Keeling (second place). All three are South Africans from the town of Fish Hoek, which I have had the pleasure of visiting twice.
In last week's photo feature I mentioned that Ana Swetish of the United States was favored to claim the women's Under-21 title. On Saturday, she went out and did that very thing. What's more, she was the third finisher among all the women in the race. Danielle McKenzie of New Zealand took first place and Jemma Smith of Australia was second, just five seconds ahead of Ana.
In all, 439 boats finished The Doctor, making it comparable in size to the Gorge Downwind Championships event here in the U.S. that I have entered four times. But I was struck by how much higher the quality of the field seemed to be at The Doctor: the fact that Ana Swetish was the 14th fastest overall racer in the Gorge last July, but only 60th overall at Perth, is just one piece of evidence. I'd chalk that up to an ocean-sports-crazy culture in Australia that we just don't have an answer for in my country.
The complete results are posted here. The summary article from which I lifted the photo (I think the photographer is Shane Myers) is here.
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