Today's podcast guest may be best known as the younger brother of paddling legend Dawid Mocke, but Jasper Mocke is in every way a legend in his own right. Jasper is an incredibly talented athlete with several notable accomplishments including World Surfski Champion in 2014, World Champion in K2 Marathon 2014, and 3x Perth Doctor Downwind champion. You may also recognize Jasper as the star of many of the best surfski promotional videos Epic Kayaks has produced, whether it be breaking the Miller's Run downwind record or deftly maneuvering a V14 in big breaking surf conditions.
In this podcast Jasper shares his wealth of knowledge and passion for the sport including, but not limited to the following:
- Jasper the prankster, stand up surfing on a surfski
- Getting to watch Dawid as a junior and Oscar, Lee McGregor and the other legends as open ocean racing was just starting to evolve
- Starting out in the Guppie / K1 as a pre-teen before getting into a surfski
- Watching the young kids now getting into surfski paddling and downwind at the age of 9 or 10 and trying to imagine where they'll be in 15 years
- The differences between racing surfski ocean racing and sprint kayak river racing
- Navigation tactics and tips in racing, both surfski and flatwater
- Getting into the zone for downwind paddling
- Why you should focus on stability first then stroke rate
- Thoughts on feathering the paddle
- Examples of cadence and 10k times that the best in the world maintain
- Choosing the right paddle blade size
- Jasper's experimentation with going to a smaller paddle and even higher cadence