Adrian Tregoning

Happy New Year to everyone! I trust that the year went in smoothly for all!!! Mine was a truly excellent one, maybe one of the best ones yet. Spent at Johnny Heatlie’s farm I knew I couldn’t go wrong with a world class setting and even better company. Good times. So before I wrote the first article of the year I thought I’d spill a few thoughts on 2010 and some on 2011.

2010 Introduction: Much fun was had. Conclusion: 2010 was an interesting year.

That pretty much sums it up I’d say. 2011 will be even more interesting, with a lot of new things coming up and some big changes happening. I’m definitely pretty fired up to move forward again and stop the sideways shift, in many things. Not that 2010 was bad or that I stagnated but I have more drive now than before, and I’m not really talking about paddling. Kayaking wise last year was good, even though I never left the country it was fine just to paddle locally, I also lacked a few $’s in my pockets to head out. The season started strong then died down and forecasts are that the first 2 or 3 months of winter will be dry in the Western Cape Province for 2011.

Right now, the Orange is almost at 5 000 cumecs! So it’s flooding quite nicely. The Vaal is ultra high too and sadly the police have stopped all kayaking because of one death and some rescues. I guess too many people can’t think for themselves. This is a common theme on earth and something I still struggle to come to grips with. In the immortal words of Luke Longridge, “That’s your problem Adrian, you’re trying to understand.” I always remember that, and then think I should just not even waste another moment contemplating a situation further. It’s good advice.

But I didn’t really want to talk a lot of nonsense so I’ll move along swiftly. Basically, most of South Africa has received awesome rainfall and some high volume paddles have been done lately. Down here we’re in a winter rainfall region so it’s down to surf kayaking, bodyboarding and windsurfing for me. I’m jealous of the guys up north, I won’t lie. Luckily for the south east winds in Cape Town during summer as windsurfing is something I’m extremely passionate about. In fact I’ve been windsurfing for 4 years longer than I have been kayaking, but then kayaking took over and the sailing died down. But now the last few months I’ve been sailing a lot again, which is good for me. The exercise works the shoulders differently and it’s good to take a break from paddling. Too much of anything is not usually a good thing. My mother always tries to instill the ‘moderation’ system into me, often with little effect. But I’m getting there.

So here I’ll just put up a few pictures of future articles coming up soon. As I’ll only paddle the first river down here late May/early June, so you’ll only see what was paddled last year, and then any new surf kayaking I happen to do in the meantime too.

Adrian Tregoning, Smalblaar. Video still. There are two little missions to this drop, one of them we paddled down from here, which was, interesting. Article coming up on this.

Justin Abrams on the Dwars. We had a sweet trip here. Article coming up on this.

I drove shuttle (yes, I did) for two friends at the 2010 Fish River Canoe Marathon. Took my playboat with and paddled a little. Was fun. Article coming up on this. Craig Rivett braved the cold water to get some pics of me at Melkbos. Article coming up on this.

I finally got my large Detox and managed to squeeze in a few fun runs before the season ended. Photo by Scott Reinders. Article coming up on this.

Niell Taylor on a day out on the Palmiet. Article coming up on this. Hmmm, took my dad rafting. It didn’t go too well. He just had the 3 pins removed from his foot on 6 January. Article coming up on this.

Adrian Tregoning on the Witte River. Photo by Leon Pieters. Always good fun, even if it was low. Article coming up on this.

Action from the Witte, which ended badly… including a hospital trip and hike out etc. Article coming up on this. I surfed some SUPER SWEET waves at Yzerfontein. Photo by Justin Abrams. Article coming up on this.

Some windsurfing pics of me. Small waves but loads of wind. Photos by Rob Weyer. Another day of sailing with Rob, these pics are of me. Again loads of wind, gusting to 50 knots and stupidly overpowered on a 4.5. Photos by Julia Johnson.

Ben Proffitt. I’m working on getting better shots. And building my legs at the same time!!! Some pics are beginning to work now though. Looking for a good cover shot now.

Richard Potter backlooping at Sunset.  Ben Proffitt at Sunset Beach. Happy days. If I’m not windsurfing, then I enjoy taking photos of it.

Well, there you go. It should be another good year, as always! I’ve got no plans to head overseas this year and more than likely won’t. There should be a house or something looming on the horizon and one or two other interesting things happening so maybe 2012 I’ll make a mission with 3 or 4 good people to go and paddle something different. I have two countries high on my list. Probably no first descents and nothing too spectacular but something I’ve always wanted to do, something away from people. As always, paddle safe, paddle smart and have fun out there. Oh, and don’t forget to take photos to remember it all! Cheers…

Photography by: Adrian Tregoning. Unless otherwise stated.
Words by: Adrian Tregoning.