Splashing onto the water in unison and slaloming their way through the rapids of the Umzimkulu River in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal are four paddlers going head-to-head for glory.
With the extra challenge of upstream and downstream buoys suspended above the choppy waters to navigate, the adrenaline-fuelled race proves enthralling for spectators to watch and kayakers to paddle.
These thrilling scenes delight Don Wewege, a multiple national champion in Canoe Slalom who is utilising the rise in kayak cross popularity to rebuild the Olympic discipline in his country from the grassroots.
Wewege is the Chair of the Canoeing South Africa (CSA) Canoe Slalom Committee and is excited by the growth of kayak cross which made its Olympic debut at last year’s Games in Paris.
Since 2002, South Africa has staged the Trombi X-Fest – an event largely featuring extreme whitewater kayakers in a head-to-head format.
But for the first time the CSA made the annual event a Level Four International Canoe Federation kayak cross competition – a first for Africa – with the aim of it becoming a fixture on the ICF World Ranking circuit in the future.
“With the development of kayak cross as a formal discipline, the Canoe Slalom Committee decided to join the extreme whitewater kayakers and the slalom paddlers together and the first official event of this combined effort was the Thrombi X-Fest Kayak Cross event,” said Wewege.
“South Africa has a rich history of extreme kayak events, with events often following a very similar format to modern day kayak cross with either time-trials or head-to-head racing or often both.
“Running these events under the umbrella of the federation has a lot of benefits for all the participants and the sport as a whole so the Canoe Slalom Committee is working hard to standardise these events as kayak cross events.”
This year’s Trombi X-Fest attracted paddlers from across South Africa along with some from Namibia.
Brandon Orpwood, a former national slalom team member, won the open category, with Andrew Kellet and Craig Willament finishing second and third respectively.
The women's event was won by Tessa Harmse, while Scott Venniker was crowned U18 champion and Matthew van Heerden clinched the U23 title.
Wewege insisted that staging kayak cross events was “incredibly important for the development of the sport”.
“It was the first official kayak cross event run in Africa, and this was important to validate that this discipline can work in South Africa,” said Wewege.
“The Canoe Slalom Committee has the ambition for this to become a permanent ICF World Ranking race for kayak cross which will be important for the growth of Canoe Slalom and kayak cross in Southern Africa.”
Wewege said his Canoe Slalom Committee was working hard with support from the CSA to put in place the infrastructure to help develop the sport.
“Kayak cross and, in general, whitewater kayaking is seen as a stepping stone into competitive Canoe Slalom racing,” said Wewege.
“We have a number of kayak cross events in the provincial school league in KwaZulu-Natal this year and this will provide a good platform for the sport.
“We will still hold National Championships in Canoe Slalom although the focus is more on kayak cross as it is far more accessible to South African kayakers and paddlers.
“We are hoping to have a stable calendar of multiple kayak cross events like this one in the future years.
“At an international level, we will aim to send a team to the Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom World Championships every year and the aim will be to develop our senior teams in the future from these paddlers.
“The discipline committee is very aware that we need to build the sport back up from grassroots before we can have any form of Olympic ambitions so participation in the 2032 Olympics will be the target.”
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