Life on the banks of the Happines(blyde river)

The 2011 Blyde Xfest was our biggest yet, we finally broke the 100 competitor mark. I know to many of the non South African’s that might not sound like that much but for a whitewater festival (no mtb’s or trail running just paddling) hitting a 100 is a big deal. The 2011 Xfest might just have been the largest gathering of kayakers ever in SA. Biggest thanks has to go to everybody who made the journey and joined us on the banks of the Blyde River we had paddlers from all over SA and this year we had a total of 7 countries represented at the festival.

Friday morning saw some last minute running around getting everything sorted for the biggest white water festival in SA. The original plan was to have a freestyle session Friday afternoon but after getting the ramp sorted and chatting to the paddlers already at the festival we decided to rather just go have a “king of the hole” session in Gecko’s. In the end we had so much fun that we never got to the point of having a winner.

With the light fading and hippo movement’s on the up it was time to get out and start the evenings fun and games.

With the festival grounds filling up with people and kayaks everything was looking good for the weekend. Friday evening’s big thing was the South African premiere of Halo Effect from local brothers Steve and Dave Fisher, we also had Shane Raw (the oke who broke his arm) here to introduce the film and give us that little bit of extra info on the broken arm. Shane has been dominating the Blyde Xfest Pro Race, so with his arm still not perfect 2011 would be the year to go for gold.

Halo Effect is truly one of the best kayaking adventure films we have ever had at the Blyde Xfest, big thanks to the Fisher brothers for allowing us to premiere it and to Shane for managing to download it over Swazi internet.

With the films finished it was time to for one of my least favorite activities; loading 40+ kayaks onto 2 trailers that will survive the gravel roads over the highest part of the Northern Drakensburg into the canyon. 3 hours later it was time for a last quick beer before hitting the sack.

Pro Race paddlers had a super early start with coffee and rusks at 05h00 in an attempt to hit the road by 05h30 eventually by 06h00 we were on the road ready for action.

To our amazement only 1 trailer died on the way in but due to our supreme rope skills the kayaks held everything together and they made it to the start. The drive in is always one of our major hurdles but for a change all went smoothly. The other concern was the water level on Thursday I do a last scout run of the canyon and we paddled on 30+ cumecs (double our commercial cut-off level) but luckily for us the levels dropped down to around the 20 mark and the water was running clear again.

put in, with some more twitchy than others

Our first race rapid is roughly half way down the canyon, the section starts with some easy grade 2 stuff for about the first km and then it’s basically gr 3 3+ to the 1st race rapid. We had a couple of swims on the way down to Alley’s but nothing major.

The above shots are from a rapid called Poachers Corner, then it’s Amphi and Amphi Extension. Amphi Extension will become the 1st race rapid at the 2012 Blyde Xfest. Here are some shots of Amphi Extension, nice long rapid and the major siphon undercut combo is easy to protect.

The next section heads down to Log Waterfall. This year to safe time most of the paddlers portaged Log Waterfall a short tight rapid with a super dodgy siphon and then a undercut rock right in the middel of the current. Some paddlers where allowed to run the far shoot which gets you away from the siphon but you still have to avoid the under cut. Luckily this year nobody tempted fate with the undercut, Adam did how ever stuff up the entry but due to his weir surfing/survival skills (he has spent a vast amount of time practicing this skill, mostly not by choice) he managed to safely escape the pour over that feeds the siphon.

The next little challenge was Island extension a long fun rapid also sporting a nice siphon and undercut. Luckily for us everybody made it through in a mostly upright position.

So after Island we only had Throwbag left and then it would be race time.

We had now arrived at Alley’s Staircase. Here every body gets a break of about 20 min and then we start racing. The race is paddler vs clock, from 2012 onwards due to the increase in numbers we will race this 2 paddlers at a time. The top paddlers finish in just under or over 40 sec then at the other end of the range is 147 sec. The trick in Alley’s is to make it through the 2 holes at the bottom and also to approach them in an upright position. As always the safety paddlers race first so they can show the line and set up safety for the rest, unfortunately Shaun’s run didn’t do well for the more nervous paddlers’s confidence levels.

I really enjoy handpaddling, to make it even more interesting we decided that we should have a head to head session, rather than racing the clock.

Next up was Terminator/Marks Drop and the Weir. This is an optional rapid for those that want to paddle. Just before it there is Gutter 1, nothing to funny but with a deceptively sticky little pour over just to make sure you stay awake.

Luckily most paddlers who ran Terminator had good runs. Capetonian paddler Stefano was back again this year hoping to have a clean run, unfortunately he decided to spend a bit of time upside down which resulted in a “early bag” which caused him to swim, better luck next year.

After spending several minutes collecting gear and getting a float bag out the weir it was time to head down to Gutter2 and Jenny’s Drop our second race stretch. The top times on Alley’s were really close so a good run here could get you to the top.Once again the safety boys ran first to show the line and once again Shuan’s run did nothing for the more nervous racers confidence. The big trick to this section is avoiding getting broached in Gutter 2 and making sure you boof on Jenny’s.

With the normal paddlers done it was hand paddling time again. We decided that we would once again all go at the same time. Some were a bit nervous about going upside down and getting ridden over in the shallow and fast Gutter 2. The decision was made that we would all sprint for the entry of Gutter 2 then as soon as we are in we would fall in behind each other until we are out of the Gutter. As with most things amongst friends on the river nobody was willing to fall in behind anybody else, man it was fun! I was lucky to roll out from underneath Daniel or Luke ending up at the front of the group and held the lead all the way to the finish.

With the 2nd race finished it was to head down to the last race rapid, Camels Humps. This is a long rapid with various lines so paddlers paddled in batches of 2 or 3.

That was the end of the day’s paddling in the canyon. We made the last little bit down to the dam without any hassles. Paddlers competing in the Kayak Ramp got the first boat ride out and the others were left behind with loads of ice cold beer. Ant took control of things and started Big Bang jenga to keep the beers flowing and the humor running high.

….Part 2 is up next….

Pro race results