BOB NORRIS
Though 2025 was the big year of the 50th Discovery Surfers Challenge, there are hopes within the alternative running fraternity that 2026 will be bigger for many other reasons, inclusive of a return to the 17.5km version taking precedence.
Will it though given that the 11.2km, strangely referred to as the 10 has now been going for many years and is ingrained in the hearts and souls of those who are not sold on distance or perhaps tradition, but the do like pace, pushing hard and winning?
All that said, for every competitor it is a case of “so did you do the Surfers?”
And the answer flows in the affirmative with many excited stories flowing of who they met, beat, saw from a distance, and so it goes on. The old-timers will simply shrug in disbelief and mumble into their beer or another beverage they might be enjoying.
The beauty about 2026 is that there is no clash with a major event, no reason for anyone not to run, given the race is two weeks before Border’s major marathon, the Buffs, and way out from Two Oceans as an excuse of “injury”.
There is, according to Neville Wilkins, race boss in the truest sense of the word, nothing new that has been added to worry runners and those who are aiming to win or place.
They will either stay away and focus on a big money event or simply come along to soak up the atmosphere of the local spectators who come out in their droves, especially in Gonubie and, of course, at the finish on the soft sands of Nahoon Beach.
Paddlers will be in the ocean taunting the runners to beat them to the finish, while many hundreds will have churned up the sand from Bonza Bay to Nahoon in pursuit of dominating the 5km event and offering the paddlers a chance to triumph.
The Surfers Challenge, in its entirety, has attracted a “who is who” in sport down the years and there is no doubt this will play out again on February 21.
Rugby players, soccer, and cricket types, hockey heroes, even cyclists on foot will sure to be represented and will hope to proudly depart the beach with the much sought-after Surfers t-shirt in differing colours and depicting which Surfers they ran, walked or paddled.
Was it the “real Surfers”, or one of the more accommodating ones to suit the abilities of all?
