What a difference twelve months makes.

This time last year Chase Kosterlitz was still licking his wounds after Jamie Mitchell literally stole victory at the 2012 Tahoe Nalu distance race.

After 90 minutes of back and forth dueling across beautiful Lake Tahoe, the race came down to a sprint to the line. In the closing stages, Chase was half a board length in front and probably thought he was about to, finally, defeat the 10x World Champion. With just metres to go Chase could almost taste the victory… He knew he was in front and just had to hold on for a few more seconds. Then, out of nowhere, Jamie Mitchell came storming past. Not on his board, but on his feet…

Jamie, with his surf life saving background and fierce competitive instinct, read the conditions better than the Floridian and realised the final few metres of water were less than a metre deep. And it’s generally faster to run than it is to paddle, so the Aussie simply hopped off his board 20 metres out and sprinted through the water to victory, leaving Chase bewildered and, to put it mildly, a little bit annoyed.

Here’s the sequence from last year thanks to Matt Ivey…

Twelve months have gone past and no doubt Chase has relived that memorable moment dozens of times in his mind. So it was fitting then, that Chase got the chance to redeem himself against another Aussie.

It wasn’t Jamie Mitchell this year, but Chase used the 10x World Champ’s tactics, the very tactics that had caused his downfall last year, to defeat another Aussie, young Jake Jensen, in an almost mirror-image finish to what we saw in 2012.

Chase’s proud Instagram collage sums it up pefectly.

Top: 2013. Bottom: 2012…