Van der Walt and Ward reign supreme at King of the Bay

GRANT van der Walt outsmarted the rest of the field to power to a substantial win in the third leg of the 2014 Bay Union Surfski Series on Sunday.

It was a long, steady slog for the paddlers as they felt each other out over the 9km from the Stella Canoe Club clubhouse to the mouth of the harbour and that is where the racing started with a number of boats falling off the back of the leading bunch.

Van der Walt and Matt Bouman opened up a fairly extensive lead over the rest of the field and both chose to take different lines towards the turning can at the uMngeni river mouth and the varying tactics seemed to be the difference between the two.

Having been in the bunch through the harbour van der Walt decided to stick closer to the shore than the other paddlers once they got out of the harbour and that seemed to give him a slight edge but he was feeling good following the first nine kilometre pull.

“I was feeling really good when we got out of the harbour and I was nice and fresh so I just kept up the tempo. I saw that Matt (Bouman) had decided to take a deeper line and I stayed shallower and when I got to the can I had a 25 metre lead and I just put my head down from there and just went and it worked out well for me in the end!” a satisfied Van der Walt added.

Bouman’s charge was unfortunately impeded after he picked up a long piece of fishing line on his rudder but he was not looking to that as an excuse and was happy with his race but was gracious in defeat to an impressive van der Walt.

Jenna Ward claimed the ‘Queen of the Bay’ crown after she beat a determined Hayley Arthur to the shore.

Ward has claimed her third win of the Bay Union Surfski Series and leads the women’s standings by some margin after a challenging race.

“It was really difficult out there. When we turned at the can and headed back into the wind it made it really difficult and the last six kilometres were really tough and it was harder for me because paddling into the wind is definitely a weakness of mine,” said Ward.

It was a case of keeping her head down and pushing for the finish for Ward who was unsure about where the chasing ladies were in relation to her but once she got a glimpse of them she put the hammer down and managed to hold of a chasing Arthur to take the win.

The Short Course was a shootout over 11km and it was Hilton College pupil Thomas Lovemore who claimed the victory over Steve Botha and Luke Chalupsky and Mark Spencer claimed the doubles prize in the shorter race.

The final event of the 2014 Bay Union Surfski Series is the Bay Union Reef Challenge and the Bay Union Surfski Shootout takes place at the Durban Undersea Club on Sunday, 25 May.

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