Perth will host the biggest – and richest – race week ever staged in ocean ski paddling history, when the world’s leading paddlers converge on WA to take on Australia’s best in the five event Shaw and Partners WA Race Week from November 19-26.
Kicking off on Saturday November 19 with the 24km Fenn West Coast Downwinder from Fremantle to Sorrento Beach; mid-week racing continues with two short-course 11km hit-outs with the Dr Benjamin Hewitt Sunset Surfski Series from Fremantle to City Beach on Tuesday and Thursday ; followed by Friday morning’s Dash for Cash, an early morning sprint event at Sorrento.
Action culminates on Saturday November 26, with the 19th running of The Doctor, the holy grail of ocean ski racing – a 27 km downwind race from Rottnest Island to Perth’s Sorrento Beach.
WA Race Week will see close to 600 paddlers chasing a massive $265 000 prize pool – the richest prize pool ever offered in the sport of ocean paddling. Add the spectacular WA location and legendary status of The Doctor, and the week has attracted the world’s best paddlers from South Africa, the UK, USA and Europe. They’ll face a barrage of local paddling and surf lifesaving talent, all fighting for race honours and the hope of cracking the race records of paddling supremos, defending champions, Australia’s Cory Hill and Kiwi Danielle McKenzie.
Saturday’s Doctor is the ultimate ocean paddling race. Both men and women, the vast majority on ocean skis, will contest the iconic 27km downwind race from the calm waters of Rottnest Island and Thomson Bay. The field faces a mad dash to the first turn east and the $5000 Hot Spot, and then face a tactical crossing to the mainland negotiating the fast-moving ocean chop, whipped up by the south-west wind, the event’s namesake, the famed Fremantle sea-breeze. For 90 minutes plus, paddlers will hook into the steep surfable chop, before turning at the Centaur Marker for the final 6km up the Perth coast to the Doctor finish arch on the pristine sands of Sorrento.
First launched in 2002, the brain-child of Perth born Dean Gardiner who remains the event director, The Doctor returns to Perth in 2022 after a three-year hiatus due to COVID lockdowns.
Australian Olympians from games past making the trip west include kayakers Riley Fitzsimmons, Jimmy Walker, Grant Leury, Grant Kenny and Naomi Flood, rower James Tomkins, and pentathlete Colin Hamilton – plus Sth African Olympian and twice winner of The Doctor, the legendary Oscar Chalupsky. Veteran surf stars Guy Andrews, Matt Rees and Martin Kenny are also signed on 2022.
Perth locals will race in force led by World SUP Champion and fierce paddler, Michael Booth. Also on the grid from WA – talented youngsters, Pat Eley from Quinns Rocks, Jazz Shipway-Car, and Ash Webster from Busselton; Australian champion surf paddler, Reece Baker; in the over 50 class, Dr Ben Hewitt who sponsors the two-race Sunset Series; and Perth’s Harriett Brown – the 18-year-old Mullaloo paddler, who’ll face her namesake, the Gold Coast’s Harriet Brown on the start line.
A boom sport of COVID, paddling proved perfect for social distancing, mateship and fitness, and as the entry list shows, the sport can hook you for life. The field is littered with teenagers from surf clubs, the largest age category is age 50+ men with 138 on the line, while even the over 70’s are in training for the Doctor, the eldest being Duncraig’s 74-year-old David Norton from Sorrento club.
2022 World Ocean Ski Champion Jemma Smith.
Four time Doctor Champion Cory Hill.
RECORD PRIZE POOL
The Shaw and Partners $265 000 pool sees $100 000 allocated to race finishes, while the $100 000 bonus prize pool will be awarded to the best performers over all five races*.
For 2022, there’s two new incentives – a $5000 Hot Spot for the first male and female paddler to the turn east from the Doctor start; and a $60 000 jackpot prize pool for record-breaking performances in The Doctor, with $10 000 to the top three men and three women that break existing race records. The times to beat held by the Gold Coast’s Cory Hill who set the record in the men’s category in 2017 with a 1h33m20s time; while the DMACK machine, Danielle McKenzie, blew the field away at the last staging of the women’s event in 2019 with a 1h47m16s crossing.
For further information go to www.oceanpaddler.com
Released for Oceanpaddler by Ingrid Roepers at iroepers@irpr.com.au mobile 04 111 989 44
*see oceanpaddler.com for full details – to eligible for the $100 000 bonus prize money you must compete in all WA Race Week events applicable to your category and there must be at least 5 competitors in each category.
Shaw and Partners WA Race Week Schedule – November 19-26, 2022 | Prize Money |
Nov 19 – 2pm – Fenn West Coast Downwinder – 24 km Fremantle-Sorrento | $25,000 |
Nov 22 – 5pm – Dr Benjamin Hewitt Sunset Series Race 1 – 11km Fremantle-City Beach | $5,000 |
Nov 24 – 5pm – Dr Benjamin Hewitt Sunset Series Race 2 – 11km Fremantle-City Beach | $5,000 |
Nov 25 – 8am – Shaw and Partners Dash for Cash- Sorrento Beach | $15,000 |
Nov 26 – Noon – Shaw and Partners Doctor – 27km Rottnest Island-Sorrento – including the $5000 Hot Spot to Phillip Rock Marker (1 km dash from start) | $55,000 |
WA Race Week Overall Points | $100,000 |
RACE PRIZE MONEY | $205,000 |
Bonus Jackpot | $60,000 |
TOTAL PRIZE POOL | $265,000 |
