Canoe Polo
Canoe polo has its origins in the slalom discipline. It was during the winter months in european countries, when rivers froze over, that use was made of indoor swimming pools to practise basic skills. Gates were strung

Marathon
Marathon racing forms the backbone of canoeing in South Africa. The discipline of marathon paddling in South Africa is divided into two sections; flatwater marathon, which is the internationally recognised discipline and; river marathon, which is unique to this country. The disciplines are not mutually exclusive - sprinting provides an excellent background for marathon and vice versa.

Flatwater marathon consists of a standard international distance (38km for seniors and 19km for juniors and masters), with a set number of short portages. Teams are selected on an annual basis to compete in either World Cup events or ultimately, the World Championships. The races are used to select the teams for the SA Flatwater Marathon Championships, as well as another trial. Both events simulate the World Marathon course.

River marathon is by far the most popular aspect of the sport, evident from the large entries received for races such as the Dusi, Fish and Berg. It's the fun and adventurous side that draws numbers. There are annual national "river" K1 and K2 marathon championships.

Slalom

NOMINATION FOR SLALOM CHAMPIONSHIPS

Training:
The training program below has been set out for anybody who wants to try slalom. It's for you to experiment and find what is the best way to train. It extends until the SA champs, after that a team will be chosen and given a new program. It takes a lot of dedication to reach the top of the sport but to just improve your general paddling skills will come much sooner than you think.

Essential are the following:

• Clean and fast
• Find a training partner
• Race often
• Enjoy sessions
• Try and use a Hear rate Monitor
• Eat healthily
• Before each session do a proper warm up for at least 15 minutes. In this get your heart rate up to a point where you struggle to talk and do all essential strokes.
• After a session make sure you cool down for at least 10 minutes. Make sure to stretch before and after a session.
• Always use the water to make you fast as you “feel” the fastest way through gates
• Spend as much training time in a slalom boat
• A training session is only worth it if you are in the boat for longer than 45 minutes, otherwise go for a run
• A famous SA slalom paddler, Ralf George, said “Remember it's 80% mental”

Abbreviations you must know are:

Minutes are written as ‘

Seconds are written as “

A rest period is in (x)

I have put only one session a day and that is ok if you want to race at SA champs. However if you want to make the national team to go overseas you have to have another session. There are a few options:

• 60' on flat water
• 30' run
• 45' cycle
• WWT

Exercises:

•  Endurance. Easy going at a heart rate where you can talk. On flat or in rapids without gates

•  Endurance. Easy going but in gates

•  Endurance. Harder in gates enough to struggle to talk

•  WWT. 5 gate courses, clean and a total of about 15 runs in a session

•  GA2. 80% of you max going at a pace where you can talk and your arms burn. 3'(2') x 3, break for 10' and repeat.

•  Resistance. 2'(2') times 6, have 5' rest and repeat. Flat out going in straight line on flat water

•  Sprints. Max time of 10” having a break of about 1' and doing about 20

•  Lactic pyramids. One set consists of 30”(30”) times 3, 60”(60”) times 2, 90”(90”) once, 60”(60”) times 2, 30”(30”) times 3, do a second set.

•  4/4. Break a normal length full run into 4 parts and rest at the end of each part for about as long as it took to do that part. Do a total of 4 runs

•  2/2. Break a normal length full run into 2 parts and rest at the end of each part for about as long as it took to do that part. Do a total of 4 runs

•  Fulls. Do 4 race runs with at least 10' break between runs

Enjoy every moment and remember it doesn't come easy, go do marathon paddling if you want that!

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Cameron

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Sprints/Flat Water
Sprinting is an Olympic discipline in canoeing. Here participants sprint in a big 'swimming pool', with lanes over 500m and 1000m distances. Roodeplaat Dam in Pretoria has a permanent course. The sprinting season in SA runs from March to May. SA teams compete for World medals in September.

Surf-Ski
Although Surf-Ski is a new disipline at CSA, it has existed for 50-years under the lifesaving association. Essentially it involves racing a Surf Ski over distances ranging from 5-250km on the sea. Shorter sprint races (in/outs or round-the-cans) remain governed by lifesaving.

The sport has an enthusiastic following with some races having over 400 entries. Paddling on the sea is different and fun. Downwind paddling is thrilling. Long distance racing varies between "the most fun you can get on a Sunday" to "a long lonely grind". Cape Town and Durban are the main centres with evening timetrials and weekend races throughout their respective seasons.

Surprisingly GCU has many sea paddlers. Perhaps that's a reflection of how many of us take holidays at the coast. You will generally find a number of GCU paddlers travelling to the major races.

As goes with any growing sport regulations are needed. Proficiency testing has being introduced and a grading system is in place for many races. Paddlers are graded for batch starts, preventing massive congestion in the surf. For many races reqire lifejackets, flares and leaches are compulsory. Most importantly you must be able to swim.

Paddling on the sea is very different to flat water paddling. Start with a stable ski and graduate to the very fast slim and hard-to-get-back-on style. It is easier to start out with a partner on a double ski. Of interest, top paddlers worldwide and most of the rest are paddling SA designed and built skis.

Visit www.surfski.co.za for more information.

Wild Water
Wildwater racing is a test of speed, strength, stamina and skill over a down river course, of not more than 30-minutes, in a wildwater boat. Competitors are set off individually at one-minute intervals and the time difference between first and second place is sometimes less than a second after 25-minutes of racing. Team events are also held with three paddlers in a team paddling the course together, the time of the third boat counting as the team time as long as the three boats finish with less than 15-seconds between the first and third boat.

In Gauteng, the Klip River's Meyerton sports Ground to Caravan Park section is not that exciting, but there is always water. It is also an ideal river for introducing novice wildwater canoeists to the discipline. Other suitable Gauteng rivers include the Lowveld and Highveld Croc, Bushmans River in Estcourt, the Vaal River - below Parys - and the Elands River.

SEE OUR OWN WILD WATER PAGE

NEW SELECTION CRITERIA FOR 2006