So you’ve always dreamed of paddling one of those small plastic boats down a steep creek choked with waterfalls or down some huge, remote river. Or maybe you want to get into a surf kayak and rip up the wave in a carving machine or bust some aerial moves at a river wave or hole. Whatever you want to ultimately do, starting off on the right foot is extremely important. Getting the right boat, paddle, advice, training etc. is all very important in making the learning curve as gentle as possible, b…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on July 12, 2008 at 11:46am —
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You’ve just put your hand through the gasket and as you’re about to climb onto another cold river you realise that latex seal is torn. The top is ruined and you’re about to toss it away when you remember that it can easily be fixed! All is not last, except for a guaranteed freezing cold day on the river...
[Warning: All advice offered in this article is to be used at your own risk. If in doubt, take the dry top/dry pants/dry suit to a professional, a friend, a scuba diving shop that deals with…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on July 12, 2008 at 11:43am —
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I had heard a lot of things about the Dwars but had never seen it myself. There are almost no photos of this river anywhere on the net except for one site which belongs to a professional photographer. As I had just moved to Cape Town I thought I would scout this river and see what all the fuss was about.
I left early that morning and stopped past the put in for another great creek, the Wit. Or Witte as it is also and probably more correctly known. I’d hiked the section above the normally run st…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on July 12, 2008 at 11:40am —
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The following morning we got up and gathered our gear for the day ahead. Some people struggled to shake off the effects of the previous nights’ booze but eventually everyone clambered onto the truck that would take us on the long but beautiful drive to the put in. The format of the event was simple and the same as the year before. We would paddle down the roughly 8 km section of river and have three races down three different rapids. There is no other option as one cannot access the gorge in any…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on July 12, 2008 at 11:38am —
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Wednesday morning 12 March 2008 and Luke Longridge and I were back in his car and on our way up north again. Our journey through South Africa’s northern most regions wouldn’t take us to the Zambezi this time, but to a little known and rarely paddled gem in the furthest corner of the Limpopo province. The Mutale River has only been paddled a handful of times and the majority of kayakers have never even heard of it. That is probably because it exists in a low rainfall region that is very remote an…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on July 12, 2008 at 11:36am —
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There had been some rain at home but not a great amount. Not certainly within the last few days, although several localised thunderstorms should have done the trick. I was desperate for a paddle and so Luke Longridge and I drove down early that Sunday morning and met up with Neil O’Leary and Chris Barichievy. Having our usual breakfast of Steers was great, like always, and after that we hit the road to the put-in.
Luke had just got his medium Fluid Solo and desperately wanted to test it out and…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on July 12, 2008 at 11:34am —
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This unknown section of the Olifants is not paddled very often. It was paddled on the odd occasion in the past but now the people who own the land at the Bobbejaan Hiking Trail will not allow us kayakers to use their land to take out on. Karl Martin phoned them up and they refused us. Quite weird actually, perhaps somebody, somewhere along the line pissed them off. Karl is a very friendly and diplomatic person but he couldn’t get them to change their minds. So we didn’t have a choice and would h…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on July 12, 2008 at 11:31am —
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At last year’s X-Fest we ended up not racing at all and just tripping the section twice on the Saturday and once on the Sunday. This year we had a similar plan and already Luke Longridge, Ernest Vosloo and I had agreed that the three of us would do this as last year’s sessions had been absolutely amazingly fun!
Marius du Preez would also be joining us and we waited for him to join. Once he had, Marius and Ernie ran the shuttle while Luke and I watched the change over at the event grounds from t…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on July 12, 2008 at 11:26am —
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The sun rose to clear the darkness and another glorious day started. Our stomachs were not on the happy side of life and things could have been better on that front. But this was the Zambezi and I could have thought of worse places to be at that point in time. Breakfast consisted mainly of bacon on a roll and by the time the first roll was finished the guides and their girlfriends had scoffed the rest. Nice one, we were getting our monies worth alright. Feeling a little disgruntled we headed off…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on April 13, 2008 at 11:24am —
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After our epic little Injusuthi trip it was time to get on the water again. Well, maybe not everyone and Dave had to unfortunately sit this one out as he had no boat! I felt for him and wished we had a spare boat for him to at least use as the level was looking very good.
Luke Longridge and I were joined by Ernest Vosloo, Chris Barichievy, Brendan Bosman, Adrian Vroom (aka Aqua Man), Neil O’Leary and Everd Vermeulen.. It was a full house of paddlers and usually one could take a play boat or riv…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on April 9, 2008 at 10:50am —
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The scene was set. Luke Longridge, Dave Joyce and I would be heading down to the Thrombi X-Fest armed with three green Fluid Solo’s; one large, one medium and one small. Our mission would take us first to the Injusuthi River, then the following day to either the Waterfall Section on the Umzimkulu or, water permitting, the Polela and finally then the X-Fest at Thrombosis Gorge itself. It was assured to be a super duper weekend and water levels were predicted to be up.
The drive was uneventful an…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on April 4, 2008 at 4:40pm —
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After another cramped drive through the outskirts of Barberton, up through the mountain pass which I have so many fond memories of as a child, through Nelspruit and finally we had arrived at the head of the Crocodile Gorge. A foreboding place to be. We had managed to get to the southern side, on a road between the railway line and the river. It had been decided that we would drive down a little to see what the river was about and to see how much water was flowing down. The river seemed placid an…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on March 11, 2008 at 8:14am —
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Another early morning and Adrian Vroom arrived merrily at my house. Well, maybe not that merrily as mornings aren’t really his thing and he claims that ‘normal’ people don’t get up that early. Ha, we kayakers aren’t too normal anyway. Still he was as stoked as I was to be getting away from this horrible place they call Johannesburg and we left armed with two boats each. Our mission was to paddle the Steelpoort on the Saturday, then drive down to Vygeboom Dam and stay with a good mate of mine and…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on March 6, 2008 at 6:19pm —
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After a long wait I finally got my production Fluid Element. The only downside is that I haven’t had the chance to paddle it yet! I have tried two prototypes but that’s it. So in the meantime I decided to throw up a few shots of the boat and in desperation do something in the swimming pool.
For the full article and loads more photos, click
HERE!
…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on March 4, 2008 at 8:07am —
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From what I had heard, the Sabie X-Fest hadn’t been on the calendar for quite some time. Certainly not since I had started paddling in 2004 there had never been one but I had heard some great carnage stories and tales of wild parties. It sounded like a full on weekend so we took to the road with a car full of full on people!
For the full article and loads more photos, click
HERE!…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on March 4, 2008 at 8:06am —
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Just below Witbank Dam is a sweet, river wide drop known as Valletjies. Dropping cleanly for about four to five metres on river left and a variety of other lines in between. Centre is very meaty with a bad hole at the bottom and far right there are some class 5 lines. The suck back at the base is well around three to four metres and I’m not even sure it could be run. We decided to huck the clean drop on the left.
I got the sms from Karl around 13:00 and heard that they were opening 4 gates on t…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on March 4, 2008 at 8:04am —
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I’ve been paddling since April 2004 so not too long by most standards. Throughout the time I’ve been either a student or working and see myself as just a weekend paddler. I’ve paddled various rivers in South Africa, Sweden and Norway and also in Swaziland and Zambia. I’m not much of a play boater and prefer to run rivers, creeks and just chill on overnight trips. However I can still do a few tricks and enjoy playing although it’s not my favorite type of boating. Paddling a big wave is still an i…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on March 4, 2008 at 8:02am —
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The following morning we felt really hung over. Right, so maybe hung over doesn’t describe the feeling quite enough. We were close on death, awakening with dehydrated brains and regretting taking maximum advantage of the booze cruise! Now the puzzle pieces were shifting together as I fully understood why it was called the ‘baboon cruise’. With only about an hour or two to get ready for the start of our multi-day trip, things were not looking good. The next three nights were to be spent under the…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on March 4, 2008 at 8:00am —
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After three super days of paddling I decided to take a rest day. Muscle pain was increasing but at least my shoulder seemed to be holding out ok. Still, I wanted to take it easy, so while Luke decided to hit the river again, Marten and I visited Victoria Falls while Bart lazed around at Fawlty Towers.
For the full article and loads more photos, click
HERE!
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on March 4, 2008 at 7:57am —
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Neil and I woke up at 06:00 at Karl’s house. It was a warm, clear morning and the scene was set for a super relaxing day. We weren’t certain on the water levels but knew that it would be dropping. With some luck we’d have a good level. Only one way to find out and that was to take the short drive from Witbank down to the magnificent Kingdom Farm.
For the full article and loads more photos, click…
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Added by Adrian Tregoning on February 29, 2008 at 10:14am —
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