From Emmarentia to Still Baai to Durban to Slovakia to Ireland to Germany, in the past few weeks our paddlers have been playing all over the place…
Kyle Armdorf (U15/16) and Daniel van Eeden (U17/18) went to Bratislava, Slovakia for the Olympic Hopes Regatta. Unfortunately there were no A finals and where the big hope for Kyle was the 5000m, dreams were dashed when he was knocked out of his boat before the first turn. But as someone said, fantastic learnings that will help make both our young paddlers stronger. Well done to the Capie Hanna Solomon who won SA’s first ever Olympic Hopes medal, taking Silver in the 5000m K1 event.
While they were there we had a guy called Guy Potter (the morning school and Nando’s guy) flying the Dabs flag with his mate Brett Irvine from Richmond Canoe Club at the Liffey Descent in Ireland, a 30 km race famous for its 10 weirs which bring paddlers joy, frustrations satisfaction, humiliation, elation, disgust, thrill, terror, consternation and jubilation and consternation. Also there was Brad Boulle and his buddy Matt Fenn – paddling a club called South Africa. 2026 was one of the lowest years ever, which was great for Matt & Brad as their major competition included heavyweight Danes, Pete Egan & Johan Vedel who looked good for the 1 km spirit to the first weir, but then got stuck on nearly every weir. Being in the same colour Irish green boat as Matt & Brand was quite confusing as viewers couldn’t work out which crew was cruising and which was getting stuck. Anyways, despite getting stuck in some muddy shallows Matt & Brad were able to hold off the French crew of Lambert & Carree, and take the win. Well done guys! 25 years ago Colin Simpkins & Nic Oldert won, then the Bruss brothers won in 2003, the Louw brothers won in 2008 and 2009 and Clint Cook & Joshua Simpkins won in 2024 – so this has been a special spot for Saffas.
At the same time, over in Duisburg, Dabs had 6 representatives in the South African contingent at the 2026 Canoe Polo World Championships. Niel, Karl, Ruhan and Kyle formed half of the eight-player senior men’s squad, while Zeanté represented the U21 women’s team, with fellow Dabs member Elna serving as coach. South Africa entered three teams – senior men, U21 men and U21 women. The senior men’s campaign included wins over Hong Kong, China (6–2), Canada (5–4), the USA (4–2) and Malaysia (4–2), alongside a 3–3 draw with Brazil, and they finished 19th overall out of 24 teams.
For Zeanté and coach Elna, the ladies championships presented a different challenge, that of developing a new generation. As the youngest team there (with an average age of under 17) the opportunity to compete against established international teams and learn throughout the tournament was an important part of the tour. They faced some formidable opposition, including Germany and overall champions Spain, who they held well, reflecting how the young players responded to the demands of the competition. Their 2–1 victory over Canada was a major confidence boost, while a close 3–4 loss to Ireland also showed their ability to compete in tight matches. They finished 13th out of 14 teams.
Most of our Dabs mates have never sat in a polo boat, but it’s loads of fun and often regarded as one of the best classrooms for learning to paddle. Because it’s so fast, all the different strokes become instinctive, important for rivers and even marathons when nasties are trying to knock you out. So who’s keen to have a go at polo?
Back on home soil we had an ex-Chairman and his brother (both Transvaal Navy men) up on the podium of the Still Baai Classic. Graham Neate picked a proper partner for his hometown race in Ian Trautmann and just beat his brother Alan & Robin Tindall to win their home race. Well done Washy! Awesome Alan! Nicely done the Neates! In other surfski news down by Durban, another ex-Chaiman, Copper Simpkins, was seen in the results of both the Scottburgh to Brighton and the Dolphin Coast with Dave Tattam. Both were real rodeos and Copper was caught on camera in a compromising position, trying to mount himself on Tattam’s toes. As someone said, “That’s the beauty of this sport, everyone gets to leave their dignity somewhere between the backline and the beach.”
And back at Emmarentia some months ago, the management of Morning School put out a challenge: Attend 14 winter weeks, get rewarded with something nice. On paper, the most studious student of all was Gillian Jones as the report card showed she attended 33 winter sessions, although some said that Kai actually did more. Anyways, in the end there were 20 recipients of the Winter School award, which was celebrated with a paddle and breakfast on Heritage day. Thanks to the title sponsor Vivo (Collen Gibbs) for the fancy First Ascent Morning School shirts, and thanks to Lynca Meats (Brent Fairlie) for preparing a fine feast for all – Brent is a braai master of note! Thanks to the Guy from Nando’s for the meal vouchers and well done to Hardi for not winning winter swimmer; thanks to Graham Krige for the Fit Stick beef sticks and Dabs Winter Warrior stickers and well done to Gill, Schalk and Steve for all the organising and admin – a great initiative. Morning School management look forward to welcoming back the fair-weather schoolers who hibernate in winter, although there has been one request: no whistles please.
Coming soon – Lowveld, then Lions, Orange and Vaal for the river dogs, Pete Marlin and Cape Point for the salty sea dogs (and one Nick never been to sea before Warren). Not forgetting the GCU Awards on Friday 16th October and then Dabs hosts the Sprint League Race and boat auction on Sunday 25th – so there’s always lots happening – here, there and everywhere.
Till next time – Go Dabs!