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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 | Gauteng Sprints and the Stihl Umko Marathon

From rocky river racing down in the Umkomaas valley to speedy sprints on Roodeplaat Dam our guys and girls have been flying the Dabs flag high. After last year’s near flood conditions, the 2026 StihlUmkomaas served up relatively low levels of 1.2m on day 1 and 1.1m on...

Dabs News | The Non-Stop and the One-Hop

Two very different races on two different rivers that only a few take on – so only they can appreciate the amazing feeling of finishing a One-Hop and/or a Non-Stop. The ‘Dusi in a Day’ started as an informal event in the mid-eighties when paddlers first completed the...

Dabs News | Dusi 2026

The 75th Dusi Canoe Marathon promised to be one for the history books with the prerace events suggesting that we would either see the first black K2 crew take a win or that the Popes incredible record of 15 wins would be broken. And being the Dusi, it also promised...

Dabs News | Januappy 2026

New year, new beginnings, new events, old events, new news, read all about it here…. 2026 Started with a new event – the Dabulamanzi 5km Run, a time trial around the park starting at the same time as our paddling time trial on a Thursday evening. Well done to Rob...

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...