Hi ,

The last of the provincial marathon championships took place over the past weekend.

KZN held their annual event at the picturesque Dudley Pringle dam, with the K1 class racing on Saturday and the K2s on Sunday.

No massive surprises in the results, with Hamish Lovemore dominating the men and Saskia Hockly dominating the women.

All eyes now shift to Sandvlei, and the Peninsula Canoe Club, for the SA Marathon Championships, which kick off this Friday with the short course racing, followed by the K1 on Saturday and the K2 on Sunday.

With the national championships being used as the selection event to choose the team that will represent South Africa at the ICF Marathon World Championships, to be held in Gualeguaychu, Argentina, in October, the racing will be intense.

The organising team from PCC have been putting in a massive amount of work, and the cream of the country’s marathon paddlers and supporters are in for an exciting weekend.

A full pre-race report will be sent out by our media partners. Suffice to say that there are some serious line ups in a variety of age groups that will have you on the edge of your seats. Hopefully, the notorious Cape Town winter weather does not bare its teeth on any of the days.

While our local marathon paddlers will be churning up the waters on the Vlei, a young and super enthusiastic slalom and kayak cross team will be flying the flag of the rainbow nation at the ICF Junior & U23 World Championships, being held in Krakow, Poland. The event starts today and stretches until the 5th of July. Our junior team of four consists of Hannah Trower, James Gotte, Jayden Davis and David Dent, under the management of Don Wewege. This is the first time in many years that South Africa has had this many juniors at a world championships.

The event is being live streamed through the ICF pay channel.

The second oldest ocean paddling race in the world is being held on Saturday.

The annual epic, from Scottburgh to Brighton, was first held in 1958, only a single year after the oldest race from Pirates to Umhlanga and back.

If windguru stays true to current predictions, the intrepid field of paddlers will have almost perfect conditions in which to compete. A nice following swell with very little wind.

The compulsory stop at Amanzimtoti has been taken off the table, so the high levels of trepidation will not manifest if the surf is big.

As you can see, lots happening and lots about to happen.

Until next time

Your SG
Copper

With thanks to Andy Pike

Two sisters, one blonde and one brunette, inherit the family ranch. Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble. In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need to purchase a bull so that they can breed their own stock. The brunette balances their chequebook, then takes their last $600 dollars out west to another ranch where a man has a prize bull for sale. Upon leaving, she tells her sister, "When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home."

The brunette arrives at the man's ranch, inspects the bull, and decides she does want to buy it. The man tells her that he can sell it for $599, no less. After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her sister a telegram to tell her the news. She walks into the telegraph office, and says, "I want to send a telegram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch. I need her to hitch the trailer to our pick-up truck and drive out here so we can haul it home."

The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds, "It's just 99 cents a word."

Well, after paying for the bull, the brunette only has $1 left. She realizes that she'll only be able to send her sister one word. After thinking for a few minutes, she nods, and says, "I want you to send her the word, 'comfortable.' "

The telegraph operator shakes his head.

"How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pick-up truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you just send her the word, 'comfortable'?"

The brunette explains, "My sister's blonde – She'll read it very slow."