Bruce Fordyce

Such is the allure of the Discovery Surfers Challenge that community personalities and indeed some celebrities pop up in the results.

I have picked out but a few to validate the point.

The Pollock name has long been associated with the Surfers and surfing in general to the extent that the late Mick Pollock was often the rallying point of Surfers entries.

It has been well documented in the media that the family organised a paddle out to  spread Mick’s ashes off Mermaids Pool.

This meant that son John was out from the USA and he was able to paddle the race with nephew, Grant, while wife Jeanette ran the race.
Brother David and family were also conspicuous on the day while young Jessica, daughter of brother Mark and sister to Grant, is a runner of huge potential. Jessica has surprised seasoned runners for two years in succession and this year beat her time by well over 16 minutes.

Bruce Fordyce was of course in the field and although he took it deliberately easy over the first 5km of rocky terrain, he opened the throttle from Gonubie River to the finish, passing masses of people in the process.

Brett Peterson, former SA swimmer was in on the run with an excellent 1:43:43 and former rugby player and top physio, Cassie van der Merwe finished comfortably in 2:14:27.

One of East London’s land barons, Russell Seymour has given up his running shoes for a surf ski and finished comfortably in 1:42:25.

The acting MD of Tourism Buffalo City, Colleen du Randt, did not run only the Surfers, but started out on the Monday with the Wild Coast Trail Ultra from Port St Johns. Still she managed a 2:15:21.

Old Selbornian chief honcho of coaching Mitch Grotjohn looked a tad bewilderred as he neared the finish with all the vocal support and former Springbok rugby player Russell Bennett took it real easy, but added some flair to the race.

Keith Fenn is somehow expected to be there, but the man is folklore in paddling all over the world in respect of the design and manufacture of craft, as well as for his paddling prowess. Keith paddled with his son which is always a great experience for a father.

Buffalo City’s Mr Fixit, Vuyo Zambodla, was one of two big surprise entries and on limited preperation came in 1076th position.

The other entry to catch folk off guard was that of the Daily Dispatch’s Dominic Peel. Peel gave up an afternoon of watching soccer in front of the tele and witha handful of training “outings” under his belt, finished in 1124thplace. In the aftermath he said “never again…the only reason I finished was the likely hostile reception in the newsroom and a youngster who kept trying to come past.”
Do you know of any others? Let us know too.