The endurance race, held over three days between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, runs along the Msunduzi and Mgeni Rivers, over a total distance of 120km.
A contingent of local paddlers from the Homestead Dam-based Ekurhuleni Canoe Club (ERK), as always, headed out to the Dusi to test their mettle.
Michael Stewart, consistently the top achiever paddler from the ERK, was again the top achiever from the area.
He partnered with his junior son, Liam, to win the father-and-son category.
The pair completed the race in under 10 hours, and in 29th position, in a time of nine hours and 52 minutes, to achieve a silver medal finish – an enormous achievement considering that many other paddlers carried broken boats to repair stations or ran with broken boats to the finish.
There were also a number of former gold medal winners competing in their category.
Jarryd Breeds and Tommy Booth, in the A-batch, didn’t quite have the Dusi they had hoped for, but a 163rd place finish in tough waters was still an excellent result.
Miguel Simoes and Alex Johnson completed the race in 286th position, while Franz Lottering and Dusi novice Johan Herman finished in 297th place.
Father-and-daughter team Grant and Jade Morshead improved on their position of last year to finish 329th overall, while Mike Barry and Malcolm Stothard came home in 339th.
Club chairman Richard Tandy and his partner, Guy Carter, showed true guts and overcame a broken boat on Day Two to finish the race.
Tandy was entrapped in the boat and was rescued by his partner after their boat wrapped around a rock.
They braved through to finish in 386th position.
Maritz brothers, Peter and Leon, finished in 433rd place.
Husband-and-wife duo Peter and Michelle Dunnett did exceptionally well to finish in 464th position.
Hayward and Mark Whittington came home in 492nd place, while Clint Munro and his father, Alan (67), battled through to finish in 493rd place overall.
Mike Howard, in a K1 (single), completed his 34th Dusi in a single boat.
