Community Rant..... or not

Today's Needle was going to be dedicated to ranting about the lack of community within the surfski "community" in Cape Town. But, on reflection, I do recall similar things being said about Emmarentia Dam. Perhaps the nature of canoeing/surfski is such that, based on it's individualistic nature, the most that one can hope for is a loose conglomeration of small groups that are brought together by the love of either a good race or a good downwind or hopefully a mix of the two. Ah, 1st world problems.

Some good racing this week which finished off with a nicely attended Cape Town Downwind yesterday, have a look at some of the shots that they got here. No idea how they got some of those angles. Bet Erasmus wishes he looked that good on a run. Never fear Willem, I'm sure that Sean Rice will give you some GQ style tips if you ask him nicely. I'm hoping that he will give me some Millers tips so that I can beat Maddock next weekend.

I have decided to add some gamification to The Needle in the form of badges. There are currently 5 up for grabs, these will be awarded retrospecitvely:

Anger Management

• The Wally (as in Where's Wally for those who been conspicuous by their absence)
• The Anger Management (for a spot of rage on the water)
• The Downwind Dan (in honour of our very own specialist)
• The Penny (for particular swimming prowess)
• The Racing Snake (for not wanting to paddle with your mates - not a lot of these going around at present)

Where's Wally

Racing Snake

The Penny

Downwind Dan

We will be providing an opportunity to pick up an extra badge or two in the last two races for the year, the Muizenberg Madness Race on Tuesday morning and the Cape Point Next Saturday. In fact, I think that we should add the "Explosion Badge" which I am pretty certain that I will be fully embracing by about 9am on Saturday morning.

The Explosion

Standings are largely as they were, the only people who are close are Maddock and myself and Farrel and myself but we're are going to start having to apply negative points to Rubenstein if he doesn't start re-prioritising this whole being a father thing. Wouldn't be horrible to see Currin back on the water either now that he has returned from the land of milk and honey.