Hansa Fish Canoe River Marathon 2012- SA K1

We decided to head down to Cradock a little earlier than previous years just to get 1 more tripping session in before the race. When we left PMB I was not feeling 100%, I had a really sore throat and sinuses. We did the shorter trips in the begging of the week so I had time to get better! The tripping part of fish is always super fun! I tripped with the international crew from the Czech Republic for the first two days then on the third day was lucky enough to trip with Len jenkins which was pretty sweet!
The day before race day we tripped the first 7km of Day 1, from just below Gassridge Dam to Kieths flyover. I was pretty nervous to shoot Keiths but after a few wise tips from my Dad I shot it successfully!

Day 1
It was a tad chilly at the start but it slowly warmed up. It was a lemaarn start so it was essential to have a good clean start. I started on the far left away from all the chaos next to Jauque Theron who had a super blits start so I snuck onto his wave and he pulled me into a good position on front bunch across the Dam. My portage was good and put in in about top 15 overall, it was then time for keiths which went past in a blur. A group of 4 caught me just after keiths consisting of Ryan Louw, Clint Cook, Stu Mclearn and Micheal Mbanjwa. After about 5km or so we went through a rapid all together and after a few paddle clashes I was the unlucky one to swim! I also popped my shoulder but quickly put it back into place while trying to grab my paddle and boat. After the quick Dip in the cold water the Czech paddler Jakub caught me and I hopped onto his wave for a while but after the first portage I hopped into my boat and fell right over which then made me loose the wave. From then on it was a relatively chilled paddle with Loveday Zondi to the End! I had a 1min 16sec lead over the next junior- Louis Hattingh which was looking super strong as usual!

Day 2

We arrived to a misty cold start with tired bodies but everyone was eager to start and get the end! I started in elapsed time with the guys I finished with the day before. Luckily with Czech paddler started 10seconds behind us so we were hoping for a fast wave to the finish. Loveday Zondi and I hung on for dear life for just about the whole day until I had a silly swim just after Marlow Chute. It was a quick swim and managed to catch up to Loveday again. I didn't shoot Cradock as I was scared of hurting my shoulder like the previous day so opted for the short portage. It was then a mad dash to the finish. With about 50m togo Andy Birkett Caught loveday and myself and dominated the end sprint! I ended up 22nd K1 and 1st junior.
Everything just went super smoothly and I was chuffed to have such a good race! Thanks to the organizers for a super slick race and to my mom for driving around the Karoo seconding me! A big thanks to Kayak Centre for my Full kevlar Sniper, Gara Racing Paddles, Best 4 HealthCare and Team Jeep. Now its time to buckle down and crack these final exams at school!

Muzz. 

Winterton Tugela 20's

Just before the weir

Gav supplying the power

Day 1
Luckily with the Berg winds PUMPING the weather was super warm not like previous years were you freeze to death as soon as you hit the notorious weir!
It was a lemarn start which means we had to stand out our boats before we could start. As soon as John Oliver gave us the normal "Ready-Go!" Signal Gavin Shuter and myself were in our boats chop-chop. Put on our splashies and headed into the weir in first place. After successfully negotiating the weir we settled into a bunch of three which then later turned into a bunch of 2 after a few more intervals, consisting of Len Jenkins and Dewald Hattingh and Gavin and myself. The race was super chilled most of the way until the short portage around some weir we are not allowed to shoot. With the power from behind, kindly supplied by Gavin Shuter, we got out first and had a super fast portage to put in first with about a 20m lead. After a couple of intervals we couldn't shake off the charging Duo of Len and Big D. And the finish came down to an end sprint. We were pulling with 1km to go and were first into the last bit of channels but just couldn't match the speed of the other crew and came in second on the wave.

Day 2

Beacuse of the super strong Berg winds which were blowing the start was moved off the Dam and now started below the Dam wall. Which means there wasn't gonna be any portage which could have helped Gav and myself a fraction. The water on Day2 was rather low. Once Johnny O did his thing, a big group consisting of about 10 boats or so formed. But after a few intervals for a good spot into the channels it was shrunk down to 3- Len & Big D, Gav & Myself and Thulani Mbanjwa & Mmeli Cele. The race was SUPER short because of the new start so it was a short dash to the finish. The exact same thing happened as the previous day and we ended up 2nd for the day which put us 2nd overall for the 2 day race and 1st U23.
Well done to Len and Big D for the win, and a super strong partner Gavin Shuter. And big thanks to the Schoemans for hosting us over the long weekend!

HPC Testing at TUKS with Team Best 4 Kayak Centre

Howzit Guys
Team Best 4 Kayak Centre was at TUKS HPC Check out the video I made.

aQuella Richmond Mudman

With SA Slalom Champs the previous day, where i managed to place 4th overall and 2nd in the junior boys section, my body was really tired but i was eager to race the new Richmond Mudman!

it Started off with a 4km paddle which went pretty well, the lead speed boat made it rather intresting riding waves and trying to keep upright!

I got off the paddle in the first group of three, all good strong paddlers.
Then hopped on the bike to tackle the 20km MTB ride, it was a really sweet ride which the organisers put alot of effort into, on the second lap it was Carl Folsher and my self upfront untill a flying Jedson Thooms came screaming past us as if we were looking for parking. i started the run in 3rd place behind Carl and Jedson and trotted into the finish in 3rd overall and 1st in my age group. It was a really well organised race that went off super smoothly!-

cheers chaps....

2012 Unlitmited Dusi Canoe Marathon

Day 1
We started off in A batch with all the top guys, we had quite a good seeding from midmar mini which allowed us to start on the front row. The adrenaline was pumping when the lines were dropped... As soon as they were lifted the cannon was fired and we were off, my paddle got stuck in the rope which caused us, with many other boats, to have a bad start. We went flat out to the first weir and we were about 14th.

Once we reached the first long portage of the day we were still in that position. We climbed out at the first take out with other Team Best 4 Kayak Centre team mates, Brandon van de walt and clint Cook. We were feeling pretty good and ran most of the steep uphill. As we crested the last climb of cambells portage we had a glimps of other junior Maritzburg College crew, Murray Haw and James Speed. Those two looked as if they had just stole their boat and were sprinting away from the cops- they were super blitz!... Because we were stronger paddlers we never ran hole in the wall... The next tough portage was the infamous Ginny fowl and devils cauldron, these two were death to put it simply. Donovan and my self ran as hard as we could up and out the steep valley. After that it was the short paddle to finger neck portage which is only about 300m . We decided to run cabbage tree as the river was a tad on the low side of things... Well I don't remember much of cabbage tree. It was... Well... Horrible. But well worth the effort in the end... After that portage it was a short paddle to the end of day 1 at Dusi Bridge.

Day 2
We were lying in a reasonable 26th overall and 2nd junior behind our mates, Haw and Speed.
We started off at a blistering pass towards the 1st portage called saddles. We had a quick get out and a pretty solid run. We crossed the river to start 2nd saddles. Once after that we progressed to the start of the confluence section. And this is were the disaster occurred... We were flying through the top of confluence getting all the sneaky channels dialed in, but as soon as we arrived at washing machine the sad news arrived from the front of the boat with a simple "shit, the nose is broken" followed by a few other words...

Luckily Kayak Centre's main man, Ric Whitton, was on standby just below the confluence section ready for any mishaps that might have occurred... He was a huge help, with out Ric there I doubt we would have even made it to the finish. We managed to fix the boat but had to stop another 3 times after that just for some more adjustments on the nose. The last place we stopped was at umfula store where Team Best 4 Kayak Centre seconders were with a few more metal plates to hold our nose on. After that it was a crazy slog to the finish. With the duct tape acting as a parachute it felt as if we were towing a bucket across the dam. Let me just say I slept well... Very well that night...
After all that bad luck on day 2 we were lying around 67th and 4th junior 12min 30sec behind 2nd and 3rd junior boats.

Day 3
Our boat was all patched and Donovan and myself were excited to get to Durban. Don and I had a little chat and decided that we had nothing to loose and we were just going to go and have fun out on the fast flowing clean water... We started off in A batch after elapse time. We had a super fast wave on the dam courtesy of the Czech Republic crew. They pulled us across the whole dam but when we got to the dam wall portage we never saw them again, we actually never saw anyone from A batch again,,, we paddled the rest of the way to Durban by our selves... Half way during Day 3 is the infamous rapid known as island. Probably the biggest rapid along the 120km route... We shot it perfectly which we were both pretty stoked about! After that there is another big rapid, Pumphouse. It wasn't so bad at this level but its the last bit of fun before you hit the flats of blue lagoon. We managed to catch up to the 2nd Place womans crew of Abie and Alex Adie. We then had a rather cool paddle into Durban. In the end we had caught up 13min on the 2nd and 3rd place Junior boats putting us in 2nd junior and 41st overall.
It was my second dusi and it was tons of fun but rather hard. I have learnt a lot and am already looking forward to the next one.
A big shout out to every one who helped us out for dusi especially Team Best 4 Kayak Center for the XTerminator boat, it is the best boat I've ever paddled. Really fast and incredibly stable!! And to every one else you guys are legends(seconds- Jenna, Blaine, mom, frances, james) you guys made it a little easier.

Global Trader Drak Challenge 2012

Day 1
With JUST enough water coming down the river the start was moved back to the original starting place. I was quite chuffed when the decided to have the normal format of the race and not shorten the race for the low water start.
I was the top seeded junior in A batch which meant I would have a chance of a better start going into the first corner of rapids. A shot gun signals the start of the race which immediately gets your blood pumping for the upcoming 24km of pure awesome paddling.

The first 15km is just jam packed full of tight rocky rapids, its almost like being on a roller coaster for the first hour and a bit. I had a fairly good start which helped alot because its quite hard to pass anyone for the first hour. I was lying 12th when I reached “Black Murray” – one of the first major rapids on the river. But I was struggling with a bent rudder, and had to ask two spectators to knock down my rudder. In a rapid just after Black Murray I spun out, loosing a position to Ryan Louw.
When I reached Trout Hateries a group of 3 caught me which allowed me to sit diamond for a while to recover a bit. It was fairly flat from Trout Hateries to the end +- 7km of paddling. I came into the finish of the first day with the group lying 16th overall and 1st junior but only with a gap of 5 seconds in front of the 2nd junior.

Day2
The longest and last day of the Global Trader Drak Challenge. With a big storm on Saturday night the river changed from being bum scraping low to pumping! I started in elapsed time with the group I finished with the day before. The pace was rather high right from the word go. I dropped off the group after about 5km to settle into my own pace. The other junior (Emile Theunissen) got a slight gap on me. Another two paddlers caught me; I recovered and paddled with them for a while. We eventually caught Emile just before mineshaft weir which we had to portage because of the water level being too high to shoot it. I sprinted the portage to get a gap on Emile, I got in with Kwanda Mhlope, but we were soon caught by Emile and another guy just before Glen Haven.
After Glen Haven the flats hit you hard, luckily a big group containing Michael Mbanjwa and Shaun Biggs caught us. These guys were on a mission. I was hanging on properly. After about 8km or so i popped and dropped off, Emile managed to stay with the group. I was left alone to the end and had to settle for second place Junior. I’m pretty chuffed with that, I wasn’t expecting much as I’m focusing more on Dusi. I had a hard week leading up to the race. Drak is one of my best races and I recommend it to everyone, crystal clean water and you never get board with all the rapids along the tight river! Looking forward to next year already!

Ibis Point to Inanda Dam

With hardly any rains inland the river was rather low! The race started at Ibis point and finished, after a short paddle across Inanda Dam, at Dip Tank. It was the third Dusi seeding race so we had to give it all!
We started in A batch next to previous Dusi champions Andy Birkett and Jason Graeme. The start was carnage but we just managed to slide out of trouble, a boat did manage to climb onto our back deck of the boat pulling my splash cover off making us loose 1 place when I had to put the splash cover back on, but nothing serious.
About 5 km’s into the race we arrived to the steep 4km portage- Ngumeni Hill. We took out with two “change a life” crews. The one crew opened a 500m gap on us. We managed to keep ahead of the other crew during the portage and never seeing them again after that. Once we climbed back into our boats we had to negotiate our way down the three biggest rapids in the low river- Gumtree, Thombi, Hippo. We shot everything perfectly thanks to Donovan’s top driving skills. From then on it was a hard grind to the start of Inanda dam. We managed to catch 6th place-Brandon Van Der Walt and Clint Cook- about 6km from the start of the dam. Because of the hyasins becoming more and more of a problem, they had blocked up the whole of the river forcing us to take out and portage along the bank of the river for 2km. After that portage, which felt like the comrades, we put in with the group of 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th place. It was a short paddle to the finish but at a fast pace. Coming into the finish the two boats on our side(Michael Mbanjwa, Eric Zoni and Brandon Van Der Walt , Clint cook ) started sprinting and got half a boat length ahead of us. In the end we just managed to sneak past Mbanjwa and Zondi putting us in 8th overall and 1st junior.
We are looking forward to the next Dusi qualifier next weekend, the Midmar Mini.