Nick Harding | @nickhdg | Sportscene - Bronze-medallist at the first ever Ocean Racing Worlds (Nelo Summer Challenge), 'Nikki' reflects on her down-to-the-wire Final and how dramatic events off the field cast a shadow over her week in Portugal.

Nikki is well-known in the canoe sprint and surfski / ocean-racing spheres.

She competed at the summer Olympics in Beijing 2008 in K4W 500m aged 27, her crew finished 7th in the Final. Following the Games her attention returned to surfski paddling. Nikki won the Mauritius Ocean Classic in June this year and so did her husband Dawid, 4-times Surfski World Series Champion!

Competing in surf lifesaving from an early age at the Fish Hoek Lifesaving Club, Cape Town, Nikki made her first Western Province (WP) Lifesaving team aged 15 and got into the South African national Marathon K1 team when 17. 

As well as 3rd place in SS1 Women Senior, she also competed in mixed doubles at this years World Championships with Dawid's brother Jasper – they finished 15th overall. Nikki had been overwhelmingly drained of energy as husband Dawid had emergency surgery to have his appendix removed on the Friday night before her singles Final.   

Nick: “Portugal; did you generally have a 'blue' week?”
“My build up to the race (the week before) was definitely the worst ever. Dawid and I left our kids (Samuel, 4 and Sarh, 16 months) at home for a "second honey moon (of 11 years) and of course the World Champs. We should have known something was going to happen because on our first honey moon I broke my foot on the second day!

Our week looked like this: Tuesday night  – arrived, Wednesday – set up our Mocke Store on the beach, Thursday – Daw started with what we thought was a tummy bug, Thursday night – zero sleep with Daw in agony, Friday morning – went to hospital on the advice of Doctor Dave Gilmer in our team, 7 hours in hospital for tests, pain killers, drip, then got sent home.

Then Rob Hansen [another team doctor] came to check on Daw. They took one look at him and sent us straight back to a different hospital where Daw had emergency surgery at 9:30pm that night. Thank the Lord for Discovery International SOS, they were amazing, without them and their initial 3000 Euro deposit we would have had a big problem!

For my "pre race dinner" I had a packet of M & M's plus a bowl of soup that the nurse stole for me and I got to sleep at 1am.

In the morning I was feeling very stressed about the situation, I had to cancel Dawid's flight home and sort out a mountain of admin. Thinking about Daw and everything was probably a blessing in disguise because I didn't think of the race at all until I was standing on the beach in my kit!”

Nick: “Talk us through your race, how proud are you of your third place?”
“I had a great start and knew (because of my limited training) I had about 1 hour 20 in me at best. The race was going to be longer than that so I basically went out as hard as I could and hoped I wouldn't 'blow'.

There were small ocean swells to catch which split up the field soon after the start. Michele Burn (RSA), Teneale Hatton (NZL) and myself got out ahead, early. Michele and I raced neck and neck for about 14 km and then all of a sudden the wind dropped and I started to 'hit the wall'. At about 17km Michele took off with a pack of guys, I had NOTHING left in the tank.

Teneale at this stage was pretty far back and Michele Eray was out of sight (well, my sight). As I limped home Michele Eray started to catch us up and the last 4 or 5km were pure agony for me. 300m from the finish she caught me, at the same time we realised that Michele Burn had missed the turn can and had to turn from the beach to go back round the final buoy.

All 3 of us ended up 100m from the beach at the same turn after 22km! The race was on! But I was running on empty, Michele and Michele sprinted up the beach with me in a content 3rd spot!

It was Nikki's shear mental strength and 18-year skill ocean-experience that got her through the World Championship Final – her secret is relaxing a bit in the downwind section, slightly different to her younger days where she enjoyed tougher races which more dependent on fitness. 

What's next for ocean racing and Nikki?

The World Championships were extremely well attended by the top paddlers in the world, a positive step in the right direction for ocean racing sport and even maybe it has an Olympic future:

“It is great to have the backing of ICF. There are a few logistics and rules to iron out as we cannot share flat water rules with ocean paddling, but in saying that, it was an amazing event and the professionalism in the admin, organisation and logistics were awesome. As far as the Olympics goes, I have heard rumours...”

As for other technicalities, an age old issue which has always been contentious is equal prize money for males and females.

“What is great news is that some of the races are offering equal prize money now and are working hard on women's paddling. Ladies only started paddling surfski in South Africa in the 90's. So it's a very young sport for females still, but growing fast.”

As for Nikki her next big race is at the Festival of Paddling in Cape Town which includes 2 Downwinds, 20km each, and the 50km Cape Point Challenge. She has enough time to train to put herself in good contention for the R400 000 prize money up for grabs.

Daily life

Nikki and Dawid have run a surfski school, have their own product range and, sharing their expertise, they have managed a surfski retail outlet for the last 7 years called The Paddling Centre, unique to the Southern Peninsula area.

Not only do the duo manage their business ventures, they are both pro-athletes and parents. They have decided to make The Paddling Centre an online enterprise, launched as of this moment in fact:
“This way we will still be able to have our retail outlet, surfski school, Mocke products and travel and train and have enough time for it all. At the moment we feel we are juggling too many balls. Thankfully I have an amazing support system; 2 grannies 2 aunties and great friends!”

Nikki's average week looks something like this:

Hectic! Thanks to Nikki for giving us an insight into her life and the chaotic events that took place during the World Championships.

Links

ICF Ocean Racing World Championships results: www.oceanracingportugal2013.com/new/results

The Paddling Centre: www.themockes.com

Photographer top photo: Jon Vellacott - Gameplan Media