Early next week I???ll be dragging the young family back to my oldies place at Cott for the first time in a few years and looking to sneak a paddle in this year???s Doctor.
From checking the event website the SUP field is currently looking a bit lean and I???m hoping there will be some more entries rolling in over the next week or so. Will also be trying to get a paddle in at the Thursday twilight series on the 2 weeks leading in and hopefully meet some of the local paddlers for a few sessions in the lead up.
While I grew up surfing around Cott since I was a young kid it???s been almost 15 years since I lived over there and I???m interested in how the habits of local wild life has changed everyone???s view on what is an reasonable risk or common practice with open water paddling.
Hi herb, Good on ya for coming over and doing the doctor, there is also a great race the weekend before in mandurah you should try and do! I'm sure there are heaps of people that haven't entered, myself included. I think there will be a pretty strong field for the doctor. There are plenty of people doing dw runs whenever it's windy, I'm pretty sure driving to the beach is the riskiest part of dw paddling so don't stress about the fish in the sea :) I do the cut run in mandurah a lot on my own and still feel safe. In perth they even have a shuttle going so it's easy as to do some dw runs, I'm sure you will bump into some of the perth gang and they will help sort you out. Enjoy, Ben
Can't wait! Booked the flight and am planning for Thursday's race and of course the doctor. As Kieran said numbers should be good from Sydney as I think 5 or 6 are booked to travel.
Hey Herb, I'm doin Dw almost every night there's wind with a bunch of bloody legends of all sorts of skill levels. If your interested in joining us, and don't already know someone here, just pm me once your over here. Fingers crossed for wind.
I'm off to see the actual Dr in the net couple of days to get the Ok on the ribs to be able to paddle again. Had a little hit out last night with the JPP paddle crew and some fun Nisco racing and also had a good chat to a few of those guys coming over.
Heard a rumour that the teams challenge is off this year to utilise the full weekend for best possible conditions for the Dr, can anyone confirm or deny this?????
Cheers everyone, looks like there are a few of us that are getting a bit excited about this years race and that there will be a good mix from the serious to more recreational paddlers.
Re the men in the grey suits. Has any of the local paddlers had any close encounters in recent times. I am a bit cautious about ending up the same as my name sake did back in the late 60's
on the grey suits, i was reading in the paper an aussie company is getting grants to develop a shark control system in a surfboard fin so they can be fitted to any modern board. that sounds pretty smart to me. hopefully they can
and a board that doesn't take water on this year 
