Simon van Gysen wins the closest Eurochallenge ever

As it's usual at the surfski races around the world, South Africans and Australians were clear dominators at the Eurochallenge 2012, race included in the World Surfski Series, held this weekend at Vilajoiosa (Spain). Big names at the start line to go into a Mediterranean Sea quite more calmed than the conditions many of them would have preferred, most of all for Sunday, to paddle the downwind race.

On Saturday, the first race consisted on a triangular course of 20 km. heading North along the coast and coming back to Vilajoiosa's port. Almost 200 paddlers took the start to make a small lap into the dock before going out to open sea. From the very first strokes, the southern hemisphere contestants were already setting the pace, while only a bunch of the top first line Spanish paddlers were able to keep that rythm, like Kiko Vega, Daniel Sánchez Viloria or Walter Bouzán. But the leading bunch was not in the mood to let the guests in, so the consagrated Sean Rice, Hank McGregor, Dawid Mocke, Jeremy Cotter, etc... started planning the race on their own.