Local paddlers participate in the Dusi Canoe Marathon
With years of experience in river races, local paddlers proudly participated on the recently held Dusi Canoe Marathon.
With years of experience in infamous river races like the Dusi Canoe Marathon, which he has completed 31 times, Uwe Schmidthaus still enjoys the sport like he was introduced to it yesterday.
Uwe is a well-known and frequent river paddler who can often be seen on the Klip River, through Henley on Klip/Meyerton, to the Vaal River, while his son, Kelby, is certainly becoming a very experienced river paddler as well having now finished his second Dusi Canoe Marathon.
Kelby attends the Marist Brothers Linmeyer high school in the south of Johannesburg.
They finished the 120km, three-day Dusi endurance canoe river race in 11:06, placing them 48th among double kayaks and 51st overall out of more than 300 boats that competed, although not all of them succeeded.
The Dusi Canoe Marathon, known as the toughest canoe endurance marathon, was held from February 16 to February 18, starting at Camps Drift in Pietermaritzburg and finishing at the Blue Lagoon in Durban. It has been held every year since 1951.
According to the media liaison of the Gauteng Canoe Union, Jennie Dallas, with the recent heavy rains, there was plenty of water for the 2023 race, and thankfully the issues with the water’s quality, which plagued many beaches in Durban in December, were fixed in time for the paddlers to enjoy the swift flows.
On the same note, Deon Vermaak from Brackenhurst has always loved the river that flows through the Valley of 1000 Hills. He teamed up with his friend from the valley, Thomas Ngidi, who grew up paddling the river and has since developed into a noticeably skilled river paddler.
The duo completed their difficult race in 10:04, becoming the 24th double boat to cross the finish line and qualifying for the 12th sub-veteran age category.
