Bouman and Nixon snap up first Wall and Back wins

TYPICAL spring weather greeted paddlers on Friday evening for race three of the 2016 Illovo Suncoast Pirates Wall and Back Surfski and race winners Matt Bouman and Hayley Nixon have kept the series well and truly alive as they powered to their first wins of the 2016 series.

The opening two races of the series has seen paddlers take on varying conditions and race three saw paddlers take on a westerly wind as they set off from Suncoast Pirates for the harbour wall in some small surf as the competition at the front of the field heated up throughout.

Epic Kayak’s Bouman had played second fiddle to Wade Krieger in the opening two races of the series and was under pressure to keep himself in contention with just three races left in the series after this weekend, getting the positive result would have pleased the surfski veteran.

“The south westerly wind meant that the race was really going to get interesting on the way back and it really did! Lucky for me I managed to get ahead of the guys early on the return and just maintained my gap all the way to the finish and the race for second was really intense between Wade (Krieger) and Luke (Nisbet). I made a couple of mistakes in the first two races and so getting a win is great. Being able to paddle against guys like this week in and week out just keeps us on our toes all the time!” Bouman said.

The rest of the men’s podium was wrapped up by series leader and Gravity Sports/Epic Kayak’s Wade Krieger and Fenn Kayaks/Bay Union’s Luke Nisbet.

In the strongest ladies field of the series so far it was Euro Steel/Carbonology’s Hayley Nixon who proved to be in a class of her own as she builds up to the South African Surfski Championships in East London next weekend.

Nixon, who was joined by the likes of Jenna Ward, Donna Tutton and Kyeta Purchase for the 8km Friday night hit-out put in a cautious display towards the end as she hoped to not make a silly mistake coming into the tricky break at Pirates.

“All the girls got out past the backline together which meant that it was going to be an interesting slog to the harbour wall but I knew that I needed to get ahead and that was always the plan. About one kilometre out past the backline I managed to get a gap on the other girls and just tried to maintain the advantage all the way. I had a group of guys that I was with and I knew that they would push me so I ended up getting back to the break with quite a significant advantage,” Nixon explained.

The infamous break at Pirates has claimed a number of high-profile victims and Nixon was adamant that she was not going to be one of them with the race victory in her sights.

“I was very careful when I got back to backline and just waited for the set to come through as I still have a good advantage over the other girls and I didn’t need to risk it at all. Getting a win against those girls is a good confidence boost ahead of a very busy couple of weeks with the Pete Marlin next week and then the Dragon Run in Hong Kong the following week,” Nixon added.

Nixon led the young duo of Euro Steel/Fenn Kayak's Jenna Ward and Kyeta Purchase home as the pair finished in second and third respectively.

The young pair of Hamish Lovemore and Emanuel Zaloumis were the second double home behind the power pair of Hank and Pippa McGregor.

Race four of the 2016 Illovo Suncoast Pirates Wall and Back Surfski Series is at 5.15pm at Suncoast Pirates on Friday 4 November. Visit: www.wallandback.co.za