35 knots of cranking South Easterly wind, record participation and a stack of Personal Best times!

Fifty SUP’s and 40 surf-skis lined up to make this a record field in the 4th round of the 2012 PRIMI Naish Downwind Dash Series. Conditions were close to epic with the strongest winds and biggest runners we’ve seen so far this year.

These conditions clearly suited our SUP championship leader Chris Bertish (Naish) who was first out the back and never looked back. Chris caught runner after runner and although brother Greg (Coreban) was keeping up initially, it wasn’t long before Chris dropped him and the rest of the field like pieces of hot coal.

Greg held 2nd to the line, but only just, as surprise of the night, Justin Bing (Coreban) tore through the field to take his first podium finish in only his 3rd downwinder! Justin Bing is the reigning South African SUP surfing and Longboarding Champion and represented South Africa at the last ISA Worlds – so he is clearly used to winning and will be a man to watch in the future!

In the ladies class Brigette van Aswegen (Starboard) once again took the win but young Mishka Steyn (Starboard) had her best downwinder ever and is closing the gap every week. Mishka even lost her paddle in a fall and was gracious that Wayne Robertson spotted the distress call and was there to pick it up! In third was Monica Wohlgemuth (Naish), who nearly cracked the one-hour mark, also setting a personal best in the process.

In total 42 out of the 50 paddlers set a personal best time – plenty of proof that conditions were exceptional.The juniors are getting fast, very fast, with PB’s to all of our top three in Ethan Koopmans (Naish), Kimon Dos Santos (Naish) and Joshua Robertson (Fanatic).

The 4th completed race means everyone gets a discard in the overall standings, and Chris Bertish maintains his lead over Dylan Frick and Greg Bertish.

We had a couple of exciting newcomers, notably Nico Pfitzenmaier who is an ex-professional Xterra tri-athlete and Nick Hulm, also with a profesional tri-athlon background. Both dipped under one hour on their first ever downwinder and Nick placed mid-field with a 56.27 after having set foot on a SUP for the first time only last week!

Full race results below (…catch up with the results from the first three races >>> 2012/2013 PRIMI Naish Downwind Dash Series).

– Peter

PRIMI Naish Downwind Dash Series – LEADERBOARD

 

PRIMI Naish Downwind Dash Series – Race #4 RESULTS

Date: 7th November, 2012
Wind: SSE 25-35 knots
Course: 10.1km

MORE >>>>>
Downwind Dash Series – Race #1 RESULTS
Downwind Dash Series – Race #2 RESULTS 
Downwind Dash Series – Race #3 RESULTS