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Surf\'s Up!

Susan McKenzie / 02.10.2005

The surfers probably didn’t know what hit them. One minute they had Guarita Beach to themselves, just their boards and the surf. The next minute the beach was swarming with hundreds of people as adventure racers, support crews, media and race organisers descended on to the sand for the start of Ecomotion 2005. Loudspeakers were blaring pounding music and making announcements in Brazil and English.

“I don’t like this part of any race,� says Merrell/Wigwam Adventure’s Robyn Benincasa. “I just want to get going, get racing.�

Benincasa had arguably one of the biggest packs on the beach. But appearances can be deceiving: it was big and bulky, but weighed next to nothing.

“It’s just kayak seats’ she confessed. “We’ve heard the kayaks aren’t exactly comfortable, and it’s a bit of a paddle.�

Benincasa didn’t have long to wait. Shortly after four pm, 52 racers attached to bright orange ropes simultaneously rappelled down a 25-metre cliff to the beach below, where their teammates waited to start the race. It was an incredible spectacle, and over within minutes (at most). That’s when the real race began. With the tide lapping at their shoes, teams then had to regroup and run down the beach, across the highway and down a dirt road to the double kayak put in, a narrow strip of rocky shore on the Lagoa de Itapeva.

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