There was wind, then there was none

We know that summer is here because I almost lost my roof in the wind last week, and that was in Mordor (otherwise known as Newlands).

Unfortunately for us this lasted only long enough to tease us and then disappeared just in time for Sunday's downwind from Milnerton to Melkbos. Neither the distinct lack of wind nor my raging two day hangover could ruin what was a great paddle and I got to race two very amusing French guys.

Highlights for the week were quite a cool little route that Dave Black put together for the Thursday Oceana dice and Daniel abusing Clyde for his less than awesome line before Big Bay on Sunday.

Standings are pretty much as they were. Ruby, come back, we miss you!

Ooh, it's Quiet Out Here

That picture of Ruby even scared Ruby out of paddling this week - the few of us who were around felt a bit like this guy this week.

A quick welcome to Ernest van Riet. He comes from a long line of fine Afrikaans men who also happen to quite like a short paddle down the Berg River. A little more on Ernest's invitation later.

Anyway, Rich got a bee in his bonnet this week and made our normally acceptable 10 km Hout Bay Tuesday Time Trial into a 16km beast. I am going to claim the first back to the beach hotspot and gloss over the fact that this may have resulted in a spectacular blow later on. Solomon was playing with us and it ended up Solomon, Farrel, Shaun Butler in a double and then me.

Thursday was a little quieter than last week with the only Needle Participant on the starting line being Daniel (although he was somewhat absent from the finish line - just saying).

The Langebaan race had perfect conditions with a nice stiff North Wester helping us home. I must admit that I do enjoy Langebaan as a race destination and lunch at Pearly's afterwards is not a horrible way to spend the afternoon. At this point I must mention that Mr van Riet suffered his one and only defeat against yours truly in the last 3 years (thereby earning his place in the Needle :) ) Ernest, you get to nominate someone who you would really prefer doesn't beat you as your Needle Match

No race next weekend but there is a Cape Point Qualifier at Fish Hoek at 6am on Sunday morning for those who believe in self flagellation.

Updated results here

Things Are Not Really Turning Out How We Expected

RUBY

Quotes of the week "Bloody Rubenstein" and "I need a bumpy day so that I can bring myself back". I am going to leave it to you to figure out where those came from.

It was a slightly less testosterone filled week with none of the Needle competitors threatening to have each other disqualified. While this is perhaps disappointing, we always have next week.

Tuesday seemed like a bit of a smaller field with only Kantor, Erasmus and Farrel and there were rumours that Erasmus caught Farrel on the downwind. This was out of the view of the judges so perhaps we should just ignore this as simple conjecture and posturing on the part of the Show Pony.

Dave Black's Thursday series is getting some good interest and there was a good strong field led out of the blocks by yours truly (jumping the start still counts). The front bunch of Ruby, Farrel, Sean Rice, Tom Schilperoort and Solly quite quickly disappeared into the distance but even from back there I was able to see the panic at Currin Point (The Lighthouse) and Ruby's excuse for not taking the win was that the rest of the bunch caught the break while he hooked a sharp left on the way back.

I for one am just glad that Anton is not a competitor here as he is currently handing me my arse on a plate.

Sunday was pretty awesome and Erasmus raced like a champion although we do need to work on his aggression as he wasn't able to look after his wave when the juggernaut of Iain Black came a calling.

Claimed my win over Farrel this week, I can now retire.

So the updated standings see Ruby far out ahead with Farrel next up which is the real upset of the season so far. Erasmus and Kantor are now neck and neck and the Surfski paddler turned Ironman, Currin, will probably have to join us one of these days.

Langebaan next weekend, should be good.