Hi ,

By the time you will be reading this, the first day of the Berg will be a thing of the past (hopefully for all).

The four-day epic attracts a unique brand of individual and is one of the only remaining ultra distance paddling races left on the calendar.

From the Facebook posts it appears that the paddlers are enjoying some balmy, sunny conditions with a reasonably full river.

With the record number of wins that Hank has accumulated over the years, he must start as the odds-on favourite - and he backed my prediction by winning Day 1 by a big margin. His primary opposition should come from last year's gold medalist, Tom Lovemore and another multiple winner from an even older time period, Robbie Herreveld.

In the women’s race, I am going to stick my neck out and put my money on Jenna Nisbet. Her tenacious character might be enough to make up for her lack of river knowledge and distance training. Her biggest opposition is likely to come from fellow SA team member Nix Birkett.

From the international scene, here is a short report from team manager, Iain Rennie who is currently in Spain with the SA slalom team.

“In early June the advanced party of the largest Canoe Slalom Team South Africa has ever fielded, landed in Spain. Waris Mills started the team campaign by racing World Cups in Spain and France and gaining valuable experience. Waris was joined by Brady Raw, Matt van Heerden and Emmi Wood in Prague to race the third of the World Cups, including the first World Cup short slalom race.

On 30th June, Hannah Trower, James Gotte and Scott Venniker arrived in Barcelona to join the team once again in Spain at La Seu d'Urgell for a brief team building and training camp. This Included a valuable talk by Joe Jacobi, Olympic gold medalist, talking on slalom and life.

The team is now en route to Foix in France to get a final bit of prep before the World Championships in a week's time”. 

The South African national team that will be representing the country at the Ocean Racing World Championships in Durban in October has just had a manager appointed.

Gavin Harvey, who is part of the Eastern Cape surfski furniture, has kindly put up his hand to lead the team. Gavin is no stranger to team management, and has been a massively positive influence in the sport, having sponsored numerous paddling events over the years.

Good news for the team as well as all who are planning on entering the event, is that the organising committee have taken the decision not to increase the cost of the entry fee, as advertised in the bulletin. The price increase will only come into effect later.

There are less than 15 weeks to the best world champs that will ever be held.

That is enough time for even the average plonker to get themselves into shape so as not to miss out on what is promising to be an awesome event.

The days are, however, flying by so don’t procrastinate for much longer.

Those who are in the KZN area might wish to get in some early distance training by entering the second oldest surfski race in the world, the Scottburgh to Brighton, which will be taking place this weekend. The race will most likely be held on Sunday, to take advantage of the SW wind that is predicted to come up later in the day.

The PSA marathon container is packed and will be heading to the port to be loaded tomorrow.

That gives an indication of how close it is to the world marathon championships in Hungary.

For Saskia and Hamish, a trip to China in early August to compete in the World Games, will be squeezed between the two events.

Unfortunately there is some tragic news to end with. Paddling legend and KNCC stalwart, Bruno Cullen, collapsed and died from a heart attack at the end of a KNCC committee meeting on Monday evening. Bruno had completed 41 Dusi’s and was a passionate clubman and contributor. He will be sorely missed by the KZN paddling community.

Out of respect, no joke this week.

Until next time ... 

Your SG
Copper