Ben Fouhy World Champion K1 1000m Kayaking New Zealand

I have now been in Dubai for a few days and so far it has been a great experience. As always it is a relief to arrive and find all your kit waiting for you and not find out its in London or Hong Kong.

The first day we did an out and back paddle of about 8km just to settle in and make sure our new skis were set up right. I was stoked to have a nice shiny new High Volume Epic V10 waiting for me – These skis are impressive weighing just under 11kgs which is no mean feat for a 6.5m vessel that is rigid as. In the afternoon I took part in a Oscar Chalupsky coaching clinic that was put on by the Dubai Shamaal organizers. Oscars knowledge was immense and to learn some tips from one of the legends of the sport was an opportunity too good to miss. For me two of the most valuable tips were about understanding your quadrant – and not sitting too deep on the wave – sitting back a bit in other words.

They have a great set up at the base here with a nice pool and really good storage right by the finish of the race course.

Day two we took the opportunity to drive up the coast and get a nice 20k paddle in on the course finishing with a 15k downwind run. After getting a little heat from what we can only guess as being the local authorities (may have been restricted access in hind sight..)we left the shelter of the man made land mass and got into the best part – the conditions were stunning with great runs the whole way down. I was impressed how well Busto Fernandez multiple World Marathon kayak Champion went. He has obviously put some work in on the ski. Also to paddle out there with a 218 Braca 1 is not going to make life easy either. As a reference Oscar uses a 210 and at the moment I am using a Epic 211.

Below is the put in – Paddling paradise

Today I am leaving for the Dubai Shamaal International Surf ski race.

I am really excited as I havnt been to Dubai before and like most people I have heard lots about it.

The main purpose of the trip is to race. I am in good shape so if the conditions are light I hope to be competitive, on the other hand if the wind is up and some good swells are running which is what Ocean ski racing is really all about I am sure I will have a lot of fun, but will find it difficult to be competitive amongst the worlds best ski specialists. I have really enjoyed the training that I have done for the event. A big thanks to the local paddlers who have helped me out and done their best to show me what they can about ocean paddling in a very short time. I still have lots to learn. Also a big thanks to Oscar and Greg and the team at Epic for their support. www.epickayaks.com

Tonight we had the first race of the Takapuna beach series, which is a great event that runs over the summer on the North Shore of Auckland city.

We have the choice of a 5k run,1k swim or 6km paddle with everybody starting at the same time.

Tonight I was really happy to win the first race of the series for this summer. After a good tussle with series defending champ Mike Walker and fellow Olympian Steven Ferguson I was able to gain some ground and win by a good margin.

The ski race series will provide some good training for a big race I have coming up in December – The Shamaal International Long Distance surf ski race. Also thanks to Epic for helping me out with a very fast V10 surf ski.www.epickayaks.com/

http://www.dubaishamaal.com/