What a weekend! Fast flowing, cold, clean water conditions, followed by fantastic fun at the Skip Skop with fast flowing rugby to boot, and then another day of river racing under the summer sun…
Rivers, like life, are all about highs and lows, ebbs and flows. Just a few months ago the Breede was in full flood, then when it was time for the SA K2 Champs it was too low to go, so the Liebenbergs doubled up as the K2 and the K3 Champs and, fittingly, a fine time was had by all.
Saturday was the Doubles day; the weather was warm and not too windy, the water clean but ice cold, and the river level was perfect. Some big names arrived: from Dabs we had Luke Salmon with Wayne Jacobs, while KZN had the Mtolo brothers and their partners along with Clint Cook & Jeremy Maher and Hamish Lovemore & young Keegan Vogt. Hamish won the LBV in 2024 when it was serving as the SA K1 Champs as well as the 2025 SA K2 Champs on the Fish with Andy Birkett and having seen what he’s done since in sprints and marathons (a few weeks ago at the World Champs in Poland he was cruising along in the back of a diamond with 150 metres to go, then dropped back, went wide, found what looked like a 6th, then 7th, then 8th gear, motored past the masters Mads Pedersen and Amund Vold, then challenged Pimenta for the win, but settled for silver) the money was on him and Vogt – if they stayed with the contenders till the end sprint. Before the 10 km weir it looked to be a 4-boat race with Msawenkosi Mtolo & Zamokuhle Meyiwa behind Lovemore & Vogt who seemed happy to sit back and let Luke & Wayne fight with Clint & Jeremy through the rapids. Mtolo & Meyiwa were dropped, the other 3 crews then stayed together for the rest of the race but Hamish & Keegan were first down the Tweeling Bridge rapid and then stayed in front to take the K2 title, Clint & Jeremy were second while Luke & Wayne were third. The winning time of 1 hour 50 for 31 kilometres (almost 17km/h) shows how well this stretch of river flows.
First ladies home were KZN’s Hillary Bruss & Tamara Sneyd, the U16’s Hanna Morrow & Ashley Craig were second and Gabby Van Rooyen & Lesedi Bobo were third. In the Mixed Doubles KZN’s Raymond Radebe & Nosipho Mthembu took gold, MJ Robb & Elandrie Zietsman took silver (although for a moment it did look like they might SwemJ) while Amy Hulett & Theo Smit took bronze. KZN’s James Gotte & Siyabonga Ndlovu were first U18s (7th overall) while Sanele Mtolo & Ayabonga Jali were first U16s. In the end KZN crews won all the main K2 categories, but not too many stayed for the prizegiving’s or the party.
Those were the guys playing to win – but there were lots more who were simply there winning in play, being out and about and having a good time. Here a special shout out goes to Rob Levick who recruited a bunch of boys (and his baby sister) to come have fun. On the Friday afternoon Peter Geach took several novices down the fun 4 km stretch from the Tweeling Bridge rapid to the finish at Zorgvliet farm. One guy swam the whole way and wasn’t allowed to paddle again (but he loved the whole weekend), one K3 had a long swim; there was some damage and lots of blood, but nothing a bit of duct tape couldn’t fix, and they were then certified as ‘river proficient’. So off they went on the Saturday (in three K3’s each with experienced pilots Pierro, Gregor and Rob) and although all 3 crews were stoked to finish the day with no swims and had lots of fun, the lure of the party at Skip Skop and the late-night fourth Test against the All Blacks was too much. So in the end they only did one day, but all had a fantastic time, made all the better by lots of beer (plus several soapy cokes and many shooters) along with the Boks pummeling the All Blacks to win the series 3 – 1. Go Bokke! Well done to Roberto and all involved there.
Be afraid when you see this bunch in the bar at Dabs, although that said, almost all tried to take on Puppy in down-downs, and failed, till later in the night when one Mike declared another Mike to have won one. Fun and games…
Sunday was the K3 Champs day. Some thought that the river might drop, but the conditions seemed the same, perhaps with a little less wind owing to the earlier start, and definitely with a few more bleary eyes and sore heads, owing to the rugby. From Dabs we had a few elderly lads who thought they might be contenders, but some had had too late a night and too much fun, while others were well behaved and went to bed early, but they hadn’t factored in the other crews who were playing to win. The Men’s title went to Spuda Chwayi, Benji Mntonintshi & Richard Cele, silver went to Gustav Radloff, Theo Smit & Krzy Lapacz and bronze to Kwanele Banda, Siyanda Majozi & Esihle Ngobo. The Ladies title went to Amy Hulett, Hanna Morrow & Ashley Craig – they were the only all-female boat. The Mixed Doubles title went to Moshe Nghomani, Lesedi Bobo & Gabby van Rooyen, silver went to Gillian Jones, Kaylen & Ryno Armdorf and bronze to Sarah Field, Elandrie Zietsman & Ethan Cockram.
Over and above the SA K2 and SA K3 Champs on the Saturday and Sunday there was also the LBV Two Day Race with medals for those who competed both days in the same craft. Benji Cockram won the K1s, Hamish & Keegan won the K2s and none were happier or prouder than Dabs’ 200 year young K3 crew of Warren Stead, Lloyde Hanson and Peter O’Connor who beat their mates on both days and then took much joy in telling them: “Medals aren’t won at time trials”. Well done Steadie, Lloydie and Boetie, your beers are in the post.
This race is Dabs’ major event of the year, and all who went thought it was a huge success. Thank you to Karen and the team: Caren, Pierre, Courtney, Ethan and Richard for putting it all together. Thanks also to the SCARC youngsters who gave up their race to sweep and show us the way. Thank you to the sponsors Polyprint (Brad & Jordan Benham) for the shirts, bags and water tables at the end, Vertus Consulting (Bruce Dixon) for prize money, Fresh Earth (Mat Ballenden) for goodie-bag cookies and Breede Marathon Organisers (Lisa Scott) for sending wine and Salt Kayaks shirts our way. Thank you to Paddlesport Gauteng for all the photos (Jennie Dallas and Bertie Baard) and for the timekeeping (Rene Boehm). The only glitch was with the (relatively new to PSA) Finnish Time system which couldn’t deal with three races in one and fell over after the K3 event, creating more work and much frustration for the team.
And thank you to all who went and supported the event – it’s an easy drive from PTA or PMB, it’s a clean and easy river and Skip Skop is so much fun that you really are missing out if you don’t go. Even an old racing snake (who won everything from the Berg to the Breede to the Fish to the Umko, years before this stretch of the Liebensberg was realized) said it was a fantastic weekend.
Staying with rivers, ebbs and flows, highs and lows, Fish was cancelled – again. Covid stopped it in 2020, foot-and-mouth in 2024, and now foot-and-mouth has claimed it again in 2026. If you were planning on paddling and are pissed, spare a thought for the Cradock companies who were counting on your coins, and more for the farmers – they’re in the midst of the worst epidemic in SA’s history and the terrifying threat of entire herds having to be destroyed; livelihoods lost. It’s awful for all, but we will live without the 2026 Fish and await its return. Sorry guys. In the meantime we wait to hear who will now host the SA K1 Champs, and where Rob will take his recruits for their next dose of river race fun. Names that have been touted include the Lowveld Croc (no, not good for novices) the Vaal, the Lions River and the Orange – sadly/madly the latter two on the same weekend. Eenie, meenie, miney, moe – to which one will you go?
Lastly, all the best to Kyle Armdorf and Daniel van Eeden who are at the Olympic Hopes Regatta in Bratislava, Slovakia – go make your parents and our clubs proud.
Till next time – Go Dabs!