The Muscle Milk Australian Ocean Racing Series (AORS) is on again this weekend in Coffs Harbour. The Pacifica Downwind is race three of the national series and will see the best paddlers from across the nation come together for what will be another great spectacle of Ocean Racing. The course will vary depending on conditions with the Pacifica Canoe Club yet to pick a course due to ever changing conditions. Race organiser Mike Mills said he was “excited to see the series come back to Coffs Harbour. We were lucky to join the AORS last year and it’s been invaluable not only to the local sports community but paddling as a whole”.
Currently the winds are not looking favourable for the event with a calm 3knot ESE predicted. However the forecasts always change and strong winds are predicted for Sunday so paddlers will be praying the front comes in a day early. Most of Australia’s top paddlers will be present with Cory Hill, Bruce Taylor, Dean Gardiner, Greg Tobin, Mark Anderson, Nathan and Josh Myer and Mike Murray headlining the event.
With such a solid top ten the podium will be hotly sort after. Cory Hill will be the man to beat coming off his recent win at the ICF World Championships in Tahiti. After not being able to sink an international win over the past few years he has truly made his mark on surf ski paddling this year. He changed ski’s to Fenn this season and he has been the man to beat adding the Molokai title and World Series Crown to the trophy cabinet. The World Number 1 told us that he is “really looking forward to paddling against the best that the East Coast has got to offer”. He further went on to say that he was excited “to be back in my first race on the water as a World Champion”.
Cory won’t have it all his own way however with Dean ‘The Captain’ Gardiner lacing the boots once again. Dean is this year’s current series leader and 9 times Molokai Champion (technically 10x if you add in an OC6 title). The evergreen Gardiner knows a thing or two about ocean racing and believes he can still mix it with the youngster “if the ocean can muster up some great wind I can definitely out surf many of the younger ‘faster’ paddlers”. After an extremely solid international season Mark ‘Ando’ Anderson is also one to watch. After sitting much of the year in second position in the World Series the Nth Curl Curl resident believes he has what it takes to be at the pointy end this weekend. Ando says he just does the sport ‘for the love’, but the little fiery redhead will be hard pressed not to be on the podium this weekend. Ando will be travelling up on the 5hr journey with one of the sports figurehead paddlers, Greg Tobin, who will be representing his hometown Newcastle. Tobin is coming of a win recently and has the credentials to take a win in all conditions. Tobin told us he has been “sticking to the surf ski of present” and“not doing as much work in the ocean as he would like.” However Tobin is known to play mind games leading into events and we are sure all guns will be a blazing come 1230pm on Saturday.
The Ironman brothers Nathan and Josh Myer will also be making there way down from their comfy Mermaid Beach homes to dice it out for line honors. In between firefighting duties and illustrious holidays, the ex Uncle Tobies Ironman Nathan has been doing a lot of secret squirrels out of Seaside ave With his Physio brother Josh, showing him just how its done on a regular basis. The big dark horse for this weekend’s race is Dane Sloss, could this be the return to the big time for the avid paddling enthusiast? Despite a few ups and downs over the years Dane could definitely throw a spanner in the works over the hour and a half course. Last but not least is the newly crowned firefighting machine of the Gold Coast that is Mike Murray. Murray has been on the paddling scene for some time now, paddling anything someone will pay for him to do, whether that be prone, outrigger, surf ski or ocean ski. He may like to save a penny out of his back pocket but he will be spending all his juice on the weekend to take the coveted crown.
Notable absences from this year’s event include Tim Jacobs who was last year’s winner. Jacobs has since retired from competitive racing after many years dominating the field. Michael Booth who was unable to ever get Tim in a race, is out with a rib injury. Booth is last years series champion and will lose valuable points by missing this race, “Coffs Harbour has not been kind to me over the years. So I was keen to get there this year and give Cory a run for his money”. Booths focus will now be on the Epic Doctor in Perth at the end of November.
Jeremy Cotter is also missing the event after a historic 3rd place at the Coolangatta Gold two weeks ago. Cotter was over the moon with the result as he said “to come back into competitive ironman after 10 years out of the sport and be so close to Ali and Nathan was well beyond my expectations”. Cotter will also compete in the 4-star Epic Doctor but is currently focusing on recovery before racing the Guy Leech Gold on November 15th. ICF World Championships second place getter Clint Robinson will also miss the event deciding to spend some time with the family and do clinics close to home. Reece Baker and Michael Baker will also be missing the trip having to pull out last minute due to work commitments.
The event will start from 1230pm on Saturday, the 24th of October. Registration and briefing will be held at Coffs Harbour Fishing Club from 9am. The course will either be a 19.5km race from North Beach to Coffs Harbour or a North heading 23km course from Coffs Harbour to Woolgoolga. Please check the Pacifica Canoe Club Facebook closer to the event for more details. https://m.facebook.com/PacificaCanoeClub.
Good luck to all athletes competing. We are sure it will be another classic race with many battle stories yet to be written!
