As the UAE’s leading kayakers returned to the tranquil waters of the Arabian Gulf over the past week, they might have collectively wondered: Did Durban really happen?
The country took its largest contingent yet to the ICF Ocean Racing World Championships on the wild seas off South Africa’s coast in October.
Between the 10 of them, they brought back a swag of medals. Even more impressively, all paddles, kayaks and personnel made it back to shore in one piece, too. Not every country participating could say the same.
“No one broke a boat,” said Ellecia Saffron, the Abu Dhabi-based paddler who returned to the capital with a singles silver medal, as well as a bronze from the opening day doubles.
“Everyone finished and got through it, even though we had some newer paddlers. That in itself is such an achievement.”
All of the UAE participants at the event, which is the leading surf-ski ocean racing competition in the world, fit paddling around their day jobs. Even the professionals in the field told them the surf in South Africa was some of the most challenging they had ever experienced.
The rules of the competition stipulated competitors had to start on the beach, before running down to enter the water with their paddle and kayak, surf-ski life-saving style.
Around 25 doubles boats were broken in the extreme conditions. Saffron and Wayne Hilton-Taylor, her partner in the doubles race, were ejected from their boat by a huge wave just as they started.
They managed to reboard, then raced the 31km course, and still finished third in their age category.
“It is a great lesson in resilience and carrying on,” Saffron said. “You should always keep going because things are never as bad as you think they are. It is a great example of the fact the race isn’t over till it’s over.”
Her experience of the two days of racing was book ended by drama. At the conclusion of the following day’s singles race – so after an aggregate of over five hours of endurance racing on choppy seas – she made it to the shore just fine.
Then, before she could make it up the beach to the finishing gates, she was levelled by another vast wave. The rules only deem a participant to have finished if they make it through the gates on the beach with kayak and paddle in hand.
“I thought I was going to lose it all,” said Saffron. “I had made it to the beach perfectly. I just didn’t stand up and get out of my boat in time and pull it up the beach quickly enough.
“It was like a monster coming out of the water pulled me back in. It took my paddle, the boat spat forward, and I thought: What do I do?
“I was going to after my paddle but I saw this monstrous wave. It was huge, so I ran forward, and luckily my paddle was spat back out. I grabbed that, grabbed my boat, and ran up. When I got through the gates, I was so exhausted.”
Another boat that medalled was a mother-son team from Dubai. Georgina Hallatt is a former professional figure skater who only took to kayaking around a year ago for two reasons.
Firstly, for a fitness fix. And, secondly, as an excuse to spend a little extra time with son Fraser, a 20-year-old student.
When Fraser agreed to let her join him in a doubles team for the Ocean Racing World Championship, she was thrilled. Then she saw the sea, and she wondered what she was getting into.
“We finished, and I was messaging [husband] Tim to say we were back safely, and I had to say, ‘You won’t believe it; Fraser is now running in to save boats and grab people,’” she said. “It was just carnage. There were boats and people floating all over the place.”
Fraser juggles paddling with his studies, as well as a weekend job coaching surf life-saving at Viking Surf Sports, just along Jumeirah Beach from the Paddlers Hub, where a number of the UAE team train.
He has had some experience of rough surf at life-saving competitions in Australia in the past. But, even for him, Durban was something else.
“Dubai gets some waves, but [Durban’s] smallest day is not even our biggest day,” he said. “But it was so much fun. I really, really enjoyed it and would happily do it again.”
Amid the carnage at the end of the ocean races, his training kicked into gear.
“One of the boats broke in half, so me and a South African guy who I know from racing with grabbed a half each,” Fraser said.
“They are so heavy because they are waterlogged, so it is not a case of lifting them. You are having to drag them up the beach. I saw so many [kayaks] either in two, three or four. They were snapping left, right and centre. When it goes wrong, it goes wrong badly.”
The mother and son duo came away with a silver medal in their mixed-doubles age category. Whether the satisfaction over that achievement last as long as their stories of adventure remains to be seen.
“We picked up a bluebottle jellyfish along the way,” Georgina said, casually. “It got wrapped around my paddle, it flicked past Fraser, and I just saw a blue trail pass his ear.
“It landed by my feet in the boat. It was electric blue and I could see its tentacles. The waves were battering us, and I couldn’t put my feet out to balance us as the tentacles were around by my feet.
“A safety boat came to ask if we were OK, and we had to say, ‘Yep, we are just trying to get a jellyfish out of the boat.’”
They managed to, then tried to focus on the next job, which was also easier said than done.
“We had just got rid of the jellyfish, started paddling again, when I said, ‘Fraser, what was that?’,” she said.
“He said, ‘Yes, mum; that was a fin.’ A [shark] fin crossed our path, and I thought to myself, ‘What am I doing?’ Fraser said, ‘You didn’t see it. Let’s battle on. You have to put the power down.’”
Despite the ordeal, they recovered to take silver in their category, while Bence and Balazs Bartfai, a set of brother based in Dubai, took gold in the Under 23 men’s doubles race.
