THE SURPRISE PARTY THAT SAW HARBRECHT’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS WIN SINK IN
For weeks, Gordan Harbrecht says it just didn’t feel real.
He stood on the podium, he received his gold medal and he was inundated with messages of congratulations from paddlers right around the world.
It wasn’t until he walked into a surprise party back at home in Rostock, organised by his training group and attended by his friends and family, that the magnitude of what he achieved finally sunk in.
In the 11 years of the ICF Ocean Racing World Championships, Europe had never claimed an overall medal when Australia and South Africa had been able to attend.
Now, the continent stands on top of the sport.
“It was very nice and so good to see everyone,” Harbrecht told The Paddler. “We celebrated together with some cake… and lots of beers.
“They are just so happy that someone who trains from here could do this.
“We have a Saturday training group with all different skilled paddlers together… to think that one of us here is a World Champion in ocean racing, this is huge for our people here.
“It’s so good to be able to show that you don’t need to grow up in South Africa or Australia for surfski.”
“I understand that this can be a little chance to push ocean racing even more here in Germany, and also in Europe.”
GALLERY: Harbrecht’s reaction says it all, surprised by his training group to celebrate his World Championships victory.
Late in 2020, Gordan Harbrecht sat down with The Paddler to reflect on his journey from sprint kayaking to the world of surfski.
The German powerhouse could only laugh as he recalled his first race in true ocean conditions.
“I fell in the water and couldn’t get back in,” he explained at the time.
“Somehow, when I eventually did, the leash was wrapped around the boat.
“Regardless, I really fell in love. This experience out there in nature and the waves was just so cool.
“I don’t look back to my flatwater career, honestly. I’m happy that I did it, but what we are doing now is just so much fun.”
In the cycle leading up to the 2016 Olympics, Harbrecht was a member of Germany’s sprint canoe team.
He picked up two World Cup medals, both bronze, in the K4 1000. But when selection rolled around, he fell agonisingly short of his Olympic dream.
The transition to surfski, and the journey that followed, has been front of mind for Harbrecht since arriving home.
GALLERY: Harbrecht competing as part of Germany’s K4 1000 crew.
When asked whether his previous self, the elite sprint kayaker, could comprehend what he would go on to achieve, the now 38 year-old could only laugh.
“No, not this time,” he chuckles.
“It was a long process and it didn’t come overnight.
“I started surfski in 2012, but just very little. I really dived into it in the summer of 2015 and 2016.
“In the last couple of years, I actually began to believe, ‘OK, this is not impossible.’”
“I had some races where I pushed for the win, but in the end I knew it must come all together for me on a specific day.
“I’m really, really happy that I could do that. It means more to me than I would have thought.”
Few are aware of the work that Harbrecht has put in to catch up with the world’s best.
It was around 2017 when whispers started to spread about a hulking German who had made the switch to surfski.
But without any major results to his name at that point, the knock from brash Australians and South Africans was the same.
Can he do it in wind?
Harbrecht was aware of it, too. So he began making frequent ‘strike missions’ to some of Europe’s warmer, and windiest, paddling destinations to hone his skills.
And the results followed.
9th at the 2017 ICF World Championships in typically messy Hong Kong conditions, then 7th at the 2019 titles in France, contested over a glassy, rolling ocean.
But the real work came at home.
The weather along the Baltic Sea is bearable in summer, although when winter comes around, the air temperature is near freezing. And the water, even colder.
“But all of it does not feel like a sacrifice,” Harbrecht says.
“Surfski and ocean racing in general, it has kept me hungry. I did lots of flat water when I was younger, and ocean racing is so much more exciting.
“When I started to dive into it, we moved homes closer to the sea. Now we are 150 metres away from the Baltic Sea. That was a game-changer for me.
“Basically every day, or five times a week… if there were waves, I am on the sea.
“This, together with travelling to places like the Canaries [Islands] and spending time in the ocean… it never felt like a sacrifice. It felt like a privilege.
“Especially with my mates. It’s always fun out there, it’s never ‘training’ for me.”
That outlook primed Harbrecht for his 2024 World Championships campaign.
And it also helped him move past the heartbreak of 2023.
In iconic Perth ‘doctor’ conditions, and against a star-studded field, the German was on the verge of a career-best result in the final stretch of the 20 kilometre dice.
Harbrecht was set for silver as he approached the sand, when a set wave built from out the back, bringing a flying Hank McGregor and Josh Fenn onto the wave behind him.
The distance looked safe, but Gordan couldn’t quite move like the others in the longer-than-usual beach sprint finish.
In a dramatic conclusion, Harbrecht was relegated from second to fourth in the final metre of the race.
“It was a huge disappointment last year, but I didn’t realise Cory [Hill] had passed me and was so far in front… I thought I lost the world title in a beach sprint!” He laughs.
“In the end, it was quite OK for me because the performance was good. It was really good.
“I was so proud of my result in that pure downwind race. And of course, it kept motivating me that Hank sprinted past me like that.
“This year I knew there was no beach start and no beach sprint, which suited me well. I had it in my mind that I just needed to be in a good position in the final metres of the race, and it would be really hard to take it away from me.
“I built my race plan around trying to make an early move in the race.”
It’s a formula that’s brought Harbrecht plenty of success before.
In fact, he was the first to turn the two-kilometre turning marker at the 2023 ICF World Championships, too.
His mind was made up. Then, in the moments before the start at Madeira, he received an unlikely confidence boost.
“I really planned for a hard start,” he recalls. “Hank [McGregor] came very close to me just before the start, and this actually gave me a final push.
“I thought, ‘OK, if you want to follow me, this will hurt.’”
“My plan worked, and I was first at the turning buoy… maybe by 10 seconds or 15 seconds after two kilometres.”
Like the rest of the field that had assembled on the far-flung, picturesque island for the race, Harbrecht knew it would be a grind.
Wind forecasts varied, but all pointed towards a final headwind grind into the finish line.
“My plan was actually to save as much energy as possible in the downwind, which sounds unusual,” Harbrecht says.
“The runs were very steep. Very steep, easy waves that are almost impossible to over-sprint.
“It would be pretty hard to catch distance to the person in front of you, but it was easy to save energy and keep your speed.”
Harbrecht lead the field, but he knew it wasn’t by much.
Three-time World Champion Cory Hill loomed large, along with Hank McGregor, hunting his first ICF ocean racing crown.
Gordan knew he was in for a fight.
And when the wind suddenly switched, now blowing directly into the path of his boat, he fired the first shot.
“That was when I made my move,” he recalls. “I had two or three really hard kilometres to try and get some distance between Cory, Hank and myself.
“The last five or six kilometres with the wind in my face, I was very positive. ‘Go Gordan, this can be your day.’ When you’re leading a race, some extra power is available. I just went for it.
“I just thought, ‘This is it. You’ve finally got it.’
What unfolded when he flew across the line is still a blur.
“I couldn’t really understand what was happening. I won the race, I knew I was the winner… but it took more time for me to really understand that this was the World Championships… and I had done it.”
In the hours after the race, Harbrecht was swamped by fellow paddlers with messages of congratulations. At the same time, his phone ran hot.
His first moment of real clarity came two days later.
Standing on top of the podium with his gold medal hanging around his neck.
“Watching the flags rise and hearing the German national anthem, that was a really special moment.
“I was just thinking about all of those years of training, that my kids now have a ‘World Champion Daddy’… it was emotional stuff.”
What added to the emotion was who he was standing alongside.
Harbrecht has known Hill and McGregor since he started racing surfskis.
Arguably his breakout race was a battle with the two of them at Mauritius in 2019.
With wild conditions and huge swell, the iconic event was held inside the reef pass. And Harbrecht was flying.
Although he didn’t win that day – McGregor prevailed in a sprint finish – it was a monumental moment in his paddling journey.
Five years later, he was again reunited on the podium with two athletes he rates as his surfski idols.
“It’s still unreal to see myself together with Cory and Hank,” he says. “This made it very special for me.
“We have so many incredible athletes in the sport, but those two have dominated the sport in recent years, regardless of conditions.
“And it wasn’t the young guns, it was the dads on the podium. I am just so proud to finally take the middle spot.”
Standing one step below, Hill couldn’t help but take note of Harbrecht’s evolution, too.
“I feel like his demeanour was different at Worlds,” he told The Paddler.
“It was almost like he was enjoying himself a bit more. Not that he’s ever intense, but with a bit of work over there, he seemed more relaxed and got the result that he did. And let’s be real, he dominated.
“I mean this with no offence, but 10 years ago, if you said you’d be beaten by a European, you’d think it would have to be a flat race.
“But if you look at the big races now, there’s so many incredible downwind paddlers coming through. And Gordan has lead that.
“A win for Germany and a win for Europe is only going to drive the sport forward.”
After a decade-long journey, Harbrecht has now realised his surfski dream.
But his racing season isn’t stopping here.
Gordan is set to line up at the ICF World Cup event in Reunion Island in a fortnight’s time, before he’s likely to again travel to the other side of the world for the Shaw and Partners WA Race Week.
Even if the training conditions at home aren’t as inviting.
“The water is getting down below 8 or 9 degrees, so is the air,” he says.
“But this is a good time to train. It’s getting windy… you just need neoprene shoes to wear.”
It’s that attitude that has seen Harbrecht elevated to the sport’s elite.
Only four men have won an ICF Ocean Racing World Championship: Cory Hill has three, Sean Rice has two, while Kenny Rice and Nick Notten have both claimed one each.
Now the German sits alongside them.
A true paddling pioneer.
