A very interesting canoeing innovation was launched last evening (Wednesday 11th August) by the Milnerton Canoe Club, with their ‘Sunglass Hut 10km K2 Challenge’ and drew good initial response by paddlers from all the clubs in the Western Cape.

The idea was to create a different ‘vibe’ in canoe racing for K2 (double canoes) where elite’ paddlers could be paired off with paddlers of lesser stature and this by an auction process to raise funds for the various canoe clubs.

The purist might have argued that there could have been a couple of ‘duzi’ pairings, but the idea was to have a good paddle that was well sponsored both for placings in the event and in lucky draws and certainly, the sponsor came up with the goods..

‘Sunglass Hut’ came to the party with some R20 000 worth of prizes in product and vouchers and are to be sincerely thanked for their input into the sport and in a way that really got paddlers interested and ‘buzzing’.

The event it self was very hotly contested – the weather was perfect, the tide was in and although the starter could perhaps have been faulted on his handling of the start (no this isn’t PdV writing this!), on the word ‘GO!”, 33 racing K2 took off with flailing paddles and flying water, heading south under the Bridge Island road bridge to the 1^st turn buoy towards the mouth of the vlei. The scene was very interesting, with K2’s spread out over a front of approximately 60m but all having to come down to the turning buoy which represented a turn of 180 degrees before the paddlers could proceed north, back up the lagoon, to the northern turning buoy. 2 laps of the course makes up 10 km although this was contested by several paddlers sporting Garmin’s at it being 9.7 km – could the few 100 m too short be blamed on the outgoing tide?!

Following the 1^st turn, ‘bunches’ of canoes started to work the slip-riding scene as the paddlers made their way back up the lagoon and past the Milnerton CC clubhouse, from whence emanated cheering (in some cases, hysterical!) as the canoes went by.

The top, northern, turning buoy presented a real challenge, especially for paddlers not used to the Milnerton canoe course, as it is in a narrow part of the lagoon and K2’s need a large turning circle – especially if the angle they need to describe is 180 degrees – which it was. This resulted in many canoes on the outside of the turning buoy crashing into the reeds on the river bank and in many cases, losing touch (and slips) with others in their racing bunch. But that is what canoe racing is all about – it is not necessarily the fastest canoe that wins, but that one which is raced ‘smartest’.

For the record, the first 3 canoes across the line were 1^st Lance King/Chris Logan (arguably both elite paddlers!) in 41 minutes 18 seconds, 2^nd and 1 second off the pace, Bianca Beavitt/Zaren Courtney (also arguably both elite paddlers, both having won SA canoeing colours), whilst in 3rd place, was Heinrich Schloms (a current SA National paddler) who had as his partner a novice canoeist from Paarl Canoe Club – Francois Basson - in 41 minutes 28 seconds.

The only all-Women’s crew, that of current Junior SA paddler, Melanie van Niekerk and Marisa Pretorius, were credited with an excellent 11^th place.

A good number of mixed doubles to part, with excellent results being posted by Ian Trautmann/Natasha Bracale, in 1^st place (4^th overall) and Chris de Waal/Lisa Scott, 2^nd (8^th overall), whilst married couple Lindi-May and Marius Harmsen were 3^rd (9^th overall).

Results – Sunglasses Hut, 10 km Challenge, Milnerton Canoe Club.