Sunday saw another successful running of the 4-Hour Enduro at Emmarentia. Well done and thanks to all who supported our event on what was an awesome day after the Boks beat the Poms, again. The 2-hour race for juniors, novices (and our teacher couple) was won by ‘The Underdogs’ Cayden, Asher and Phamana, followed by ‘Team RKR’ Ruwan, Kylen and Rio, while the first junior girls were ‘The Royalty Family’ with Amy and Permission. In the main event, ‘The Harloop Hoenders’ Jess, Sarah and Renschi took the ladies win ahead of ‘The Mottley Crew’ of Jen and Kirsty. Wayne, Clint and Brad B teamed up as ‘Passop Donkey’ and did 51 laps to take the overall win ahead of ‘The Knobbs’ MJ, Siseko and Alex, while the ‘Oats Amazing’ team of Matt, Daniel and Ethan came third. There were so many prizes and lucky draws given away (including cash, tie downs, juice bags, caps, paddle bags and even sunglasses) it seemed like almost everyone won something. Race winner Wayne was once again also a lucky draw winner, so our Chief Administrator, Ms. Naude is going to get him to buy a lotto ticket for the club.
Thanks to the sponsors Canoe Concepts and Dabulamanzi for all the paddling goodies and thanks to Fresh Earth for the delicious croissants. Well done to Sean E for organizing the event, to Courtney and Anu for all the lap counting, and to Caren, Elandrie for all the support. Like us, these are people who also have families, jobs and other commitments outside of canoeing, yet they tirelessly strive to make things happen, for the likes of us. Thanks guys.
In other news from the weekend, we had club members participating at all sorts of different endurance stuff around the country. Respect to Levick and Piero who finished the 100km Sky Run in 26 to 27 hours. Hard core adventurers. And well done to Rob Crichton and Sibusiso on doing the 65km, in about 12 hours, with Rob making the top 10 and Sbu just missing out. Many will say the 100 is madness, but the 65 is doable, and you will get to cross incredible parts of South Africa that few have ever seen. We also had Dabs people at the 94.7 here in Jhb and at the 70.3 in Mossel Bay. Given that both involve cycling, we won’t praise those who participated, but we will say respect and well done, because this is way better than lying in bed and doing nothing, simply because the Boks beat the Poms, and you some did some endurance drinking.
In other canoeing news, well done to those who flew the Dabs flag at Saturday’s ERK night race including Clint & Wayne, MJ & Elandrie, Sarah & Jess, Renschi & Kirsty, all giving us some insight as to who might be with who at the Vaal. In K1’s we had Sean E and Stan (Buffalo) Frieman who was also there in his new Nelo, in what must be his first race in 20 years. Go Stan. Finally, the Dusi qualifier race in KZN, Ozzie Gladwin had just one Dabs paddler, well done Rob Collier; does this mean he is doing Dusi?
Next up it’s the ADG Vaal, which is serving as the SA K2 Champs. While we hope that Dabs crews take the wins, to those who are just participating for the paddling, we say enjoy and thank you for supporting our event.