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River Paddling

Marathon racing is the most popular discipline in South African canoeing, and a vibrant calendar of events takes advantage of the many excellent paddling rivers and flat-water courses across the country.

The domestic river season starts with the Berg River Marathon, a 4 day odyssey in the Cape winter from Paarl to Velddrif, followed by the Breede Marathon, Lowveld Croc, Fish, and Vaal marathons.

In the summer season the major races switch to KwaZulu-Natal for the DrakChallenge, 50 Miler and peaking at the Dusi Canoe Marathon, which remains the biggest race on the calendar. The Umkomaas marathon is arguably the roughest water raced in K1s and K2s anywhere in the world, and the river season winds down with Nonstop Dusi and Tugela Marathons.

Read more about River Proficiency and River Safety before getting your river legs on. 

River Marathon news

Dabs News | Surfski, Canvas Canoe, Plastic Kayak and Club Stuff

Last weekend there were 3 very different, almost fringe events, all which show how much there is to do in our wonderful world of paddling, even if it’s not this kind of fringe stuff…. The Carbonology PE2EL Challenge is not a race for the average paddler; actually it’s...

Dabs News | The Lions River Descent and the Orange River Descent

Two races were run on the same weekend with similar names, but miles apart in terms of location, look and feel, numbers and age profiles. Congratulations to the Midmar Canoe Club, Jaques Theron and team on the 2025 Lions River Descent. With a lot of hard work, clever...

Dabs News | The 2025 Pete Marlin and Lowveld Croc Weekend

The last weekend of October saw one of the SA’s finest river races being run at the same time as one of SA’s finest surfski races. Over half a dozen of the Dabs guys who went up to the Lowveld Croc were at last year’s Pete Marlin, even though they were back markers at...

Dabs News | Fish River and Surfski News

With it’s willows and weirs, thorn trees, testing rapids and long flats, there is no other river quite like it, and with it’s great Eastern Cape hospitality, there is no other race quite like the Fish which has served as the SA K2 River Champs for many years,...

Dabs News | The 2025 Liebenbergsvlei Clean Water Challenge

While we can’t say this was the best ever Liebenberg’s; almost all who went had the best time ever, thanks in part to the fantastic water and weather conditions. Unlike previous years we didn’t have a title sponsor so there was no nice goody bag with a shirt or...

Dabs News | Marathons, Rivers and Mad Men

It was a busy 10 days in Gyor Hungary for the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, where we had a crew of over 20 representing South Africa in the Masters section which is run before the main events. Clint, who had been getting lonely on his own over in Europe was...

Dabs News | Marathon, River and Sea Stuff

In international racing a champion was crowned in China but there were no stars in Spain, while locally Dabs cleaned up down in the Lowveld and our Navy Boys went to a 2 day challenge that didn’t have a second day… Congratulations to Hamish Lovemore on bagging two...

Dabs News | The Masonic 2018 Reloaded

The year the paddling stories were drowned by the party chatter...A few years back when WhatsApp chat groups had got popular, but long before the delete option became a thing, invites were sent out: “The Inaugural Masonic Reloaded Party. Rugby is at 5pm (SA vs NZ), so...

Dabs News | Portugal, Ponta and Pretoria

From Sprints in Portugal to Surfski in Ponta to Marathons in Pretoria, Dabs people have been paddling all over the place… The Centurion 9 Miler, renowned for cold and windy conditions almost as bad as the Berg, was for the second year in a row breathless, sunny, warm...

Dabs News | Berg River Marathon 2025

The long 4 day race that was decided after just 1 for the guys and 2 for the girls.   For day 1, the rain promised for Paarl never arrived and the first 62km stage was raced in mercifully dry but cold conditions. As is tradition, the little cannon started the...