Friday the 5^th March saw an impressively vibrant event held on Clifton’s 4^th beach – The Intervarsity Surf Ski Race between UCT, Stellenbosch, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Varsity College.

An extremely picturesque evening on Clifton 4^th, with the backdrop of Lion’s Head and Table Mountain, provided the location of the much-awaited Intervarsity showdown.  Some of the best paddlers in the world were present on Friday to represent their respective universities - Dawid Mocke (top 2 in the world), Sean Rice (top 5 in the world) and Jasper Mocke.  This provided incredibly tough competition over such a short distance.

Each university or college was required to put forward a team of ten current students, ten alumni and ten female paddlers.  UCT and Maties each put forward three full teams, whereas Varsity College and CPUT combined due to a shortage of paddlers.   The event was held over a seven kilometre course in the Clifton bay – two laps of a triangular circuit of Fisherman’s Rock, Barker’s Rock and a buoy behind the backline on Clifton 4^th Beach.

UCT absolutely dominated the evening, bringing home the current students’ trophy (beating Varsity College and Maties by 106 and 304 points respectively), the ladies’ trophy, and placed second in the alumni event.  On top of this, UCT claimed the hotly contested boat race in the clubhouse afterwards! This is the first time the event has been held – and it was fantastic for UCT to ‘stamp’ their claim on what will definitely evolve into a highly competitive annual event in the years to come.