Adrian Tregoning

Alright, so this article is way overdue, but better late than never! On 15 August 2009 we had the annual Gravity Festival. Like I said, I’m pretty late with this, but there have been many other articles which have taken preference and a lot of other things which happened in the meantime. Even now, I have a large backlog of articles from my West Sumatra trip, as well as more action from last years’ river season, more surf kayaking photos and video footage, and also articles from Luke Longridge. But, I’m getting there now.

I tried to get a few of the upcountry folk down to join our festival here in the Western Cape province of South Africa and in the end, we had a few pull in. Corne van Biljon flew down on the Thursday night and I picked him up from the airport, with his boat. We headed back to my house and I hoping for an early night but I was wrong. Corne can talk the hind leg off of most of Africa’s donkeys so my fate was sealed. It was great to chat to a mate I don’t see often anyway! The real reason why I needed sleep was because that week I had been man down with food poisoning. I had already visited the doctor and been given some serious drugs. According to the doctor I had to be 100% by the Friday or else I was going to hospital to be put on a drip. Well, I just nodded, OK, and thought in my mind, whatever. What do doctors really know anyway? To make matters worse, I was on an anti-biotic which apparently is the only one in the world which you cannot drink alcohol with. The reason why is one of the side effects is death she told me. A visit to the pharmacist and a few Google searches confirmed this, damnit, how could this be?! There was little doubt that the biggest party of the year for me was going to be a dry one, and with an upset stomach – things were not looking good, not at all.

Driving up to the Palmiet River. Isn’t it beautiful?

Corne van Biljon, flying down from Jhb to join in the fun. We also had people from Natal and Mpumalanga joining!

Sunny, winter day out. Me on the left, Corne on the right. Rocks, not eggs.  

Friday morning my stomach was still unhappy but we drove off anyway to the Palmiet River. I was not going to let this get in the way of a fun weekend. It was beautiful weather. Perhaps not quite enough rain for a pumping river but at least we’d be camping with ease. We paddled the river that afternoon and really had a lot of fun. I don’t even remember who all joined us but I remember that Stuart his head ultra hard on Waterfall and came up looking very dazed. It was not good. Or was that during the race the next day? I can’t remember. After that I paddled out into the ocean with Corne and navigated out through some crunching waves. At the backline were two whales which was awesome to see!!! We caught a wave in and concluded our session rather quickly. That night the party started up a bit and some of the guys got very hammered. It was funny to see.

The next morning arrived overcast and gloomy. The camp site was at the mouth of the Palmiet River and is the new campsite for the festival now. It is WAY better than the old one and we all really loved staying there. The only thing that’s different, that one has to drive to the take out instead of walking. Oh well, can’t have it all and the drive is short anyway.

We headed up to the put in for the 5km section and got ready for the downriver race, which is basically all 5km down to the final rapid where the sprints are held. I knew I would never be able to make a good time with my weak body so I took my playboat and would do the sweep, making sure everyone got down safely. I believe we had a record number of kayaks all in the same race, 42!!! The gun went off and everyone took off to Hand Stands Up, a simple rapid that has a pourover which can really beat the living daylights out of you if you get it wrong, luckily it wasn’t too bad at this level but still, it made for some interesting lines. I choose the boof line and as I got to the lip I saw someone getting worked. I boofed and landed exactly on the underside of the unfortunate persons boat and had a very funny (for me anyway) run. Luckily no one swam. Further down, we had a pinned boat on Bubble and Squeak but that wasn’t too bad. Eventually I went through the finish line, probably some 10 or 15 minutes after the winner, who was Oli Feuillette as per usual. Then Jasper Mocke in second and Andrew Kellett in third position.

The start of the downriver race. Photo by and courtesy Andrew Kellett.

Me, waiting for a boat. Photo by Trevor Tregoning.

Walking up, not feeling too healthy. Photo by Trevor Tregoning.  The end of the sprint race area. Photo by Trevor Tregoning.

My ride down Judgement Day rapid for the sprint race. Photos by Trevor Tregoning.  

The sprint race was up next and once again it was with the format that everyone had to use a medium Fluid Solo. Fluid sponsored 4 of them once again. I personally hate that format and some of the boats (if not all) didn’t even have bulkheads in them!!! I don’t believe it really evens out the field but that’s just my opinion. Most races limit the maximum boat length and I think that’s a good rule for any race. Imagine going to the Olympics and they tell you everyone has to wear a size 9 Nike shoe - too bad if you’re bigger or smaller. Some people do like the format though and at a rough guess I’d say it’s possibly a 50/50 split. In the end, there is no choice, and the only people that do score are the ones that own medium Solo’s because they get to paddle their boats, which are obviously nicely outfitted to suit them. I decided I’d do this race and give it my best shot. After an incredibly long wait to get a boat, I finally managed to get hold of Stuarts which was a loose fit, but at least it had a bulkhead! Down I went and I paddled as hard as I could. I made two small mistakes which cost me a second or two but otherwise my run was as good as I was going to get it and I managed to beat everyone else in the first round. When I got to the finish line I was finished. 1 minute and 24 seconds of giving it 100% and my heart was beating to its maximum. I sat down and felt like dying. My stomach was still 100% water (it only recovered 5 days later…) and had been like that for 6 days already!!!Now I’d made it to the final round (only 2 rounds) where the top few would be given a second chance to beat their first times. I knew I would never be able to beat my first time but gave it a bash anyway. I went down, and just after halfway I blew pretty badly. Zero energy and I floated to the finish line utterly broken. My time was not good and all that remained was for the others to charge harder in an attempt to knock me down on the list, which they did. Oli came down with a blistering run at 1 minute 21 second, Andrew Kellett second, and then I shared third place with Roche Schoeman. I don’t know why the split seconds were not counted for greater accuracy, perhaps the time keepers were using a grandfather clock :-) Just joking… But still, accuracy to 1 second is not good enough in my opinion.

Me, at the little rodeo we had which I forgot to mention in the text. This is at the top of Judgement Day rapid and very retentive at this level. Deep enough for looping.  Photo by Braam Rademeyer.

Hugh du Preez on the right, judging. He drove down from Parys!! (near to Jhb) Photo by Braam Rademeyer.

Me, trying to rip it up. I seriously suck at playboating. I came 2nd though, out of a whopping 4 contestants, 3 of them male. But this is what happens when Hugh du Preez kind of casually mentions on the Friday night before the time that there will be a rodeo. Most people didn’t know. Photos by Braam Rademeyer.Rowan Walpole smiling as per usual. Photo by Braam Rademeyer.

  Jackie Fourie with her only run of the competition. It didn’t end well… Shame. I told you the hole was sticky…  

We got back to the camp and I ate a wors roll. I still felt ill and the old stomach was very unhappy. I decided not to take another anti biotic tablet (to avoid the possibility of death, or so I hoped) and drank a beer. It tasted good. After prize giving (I won an awesome Cape Storm fleece pullover – they’re great sponsors of the event!) we watched the videos which people had entered. When a video came up by Ant Hoard which I had seen before, I went back to my car to get another beer. I thought one more beer wouldn’t be a bad idea. It was a Black Label quart (750ml). I looked around and there was no bottle opener in my boot, so I took a knife of mine and opened it. The tops are quite thick on those bottles to deal with the extra pressure so I had to really pry it off. Suddenly it came off and the knife cut rotated even more suddenly, the serrations going into my hand with lightning speed. I knew this was bad. I put the beer down and opened the wound with my left hand, I could look into my hand. Damn… I ran back to the tent to get some medical help. Andrew’s wife, Marie-Louise and ‘Max Maximus’ helped me out, Max stopping the bleeding. And also Phil Solomon and Rowan Walpole for morale encouragement. I cannot handle seeing my own blood and soon after that I vomited, feeling pretty ill. Marie-Louise organised me an ambulance and gave me R600 (which I paid back the next morning) for the doctor and soon after that they came to pick me up, Rowan joining for the ride. It was a Chana ambulance, quite funny. It was 20:30 when we arrived at the doctors office in Kleinmond. I thought he may be pissed off to be called out on a Saturday night but he was smiling, a lot. It was obvious he was also having a party of his own… He threw in 7 stitches which he really struggled to put in, saying my skin was extremely thick. Rowan enjoyed watching him and the two of them spoke crap and had some huge laughs while I tried not to pass out. The ride back with the ambulance was fun once again and I had to stop Rowan from playing with the defibrillator! I felt much better. Soon after that I went to bed though, I just was too broken. I believe the party was a big one.

Niell Taylor with a case of beers… 

The party is always good. 

William Binedell going large.

Tribal Echo. Great band that really gets the party going!

Stefano Sessa is the Terminator while William Binedell looks on. 

Kayak slide.  More party time.

And more, very cool lighting!!!

Daniel Barnard up to his usual tricks :-)  Our camp. Very chilled place to be.  

Phil Solomon ilding through the Gates on the Sunday, which was sunny. Better for taking photos anyway.

Rowan Walpole showing his guns. 

Corne van Biljon on a fun line on Judgement Day rapid. 

Three De Waal’s all paddling down. Werner de Waal through the Gates.

Corne van Biljon through the Gates.

Oli’s son on the croc race.

Ant Hoard and Lauren Artus on the croc race, with a croc on board too! 

Random shot from the croc race. For the non-South African readers, a croc is the two man inflatable rafts you’re seeing here.  Stefano Sessa nicely hung over but still paddling.  

At this festival are a LOT of other events. You can read about that on the events website by clicking HERE.

Betty’s Bay, cooking waves.

Caves COOKING as well. What a great spot to surf/bodyboard!!!! The damage, and the knife. I believe I’ll never open another beer with this knife again :-) Or any other knife for that matter!!!!!

I think that this is one of the best festivals of any kind in the entire South Africa. It is really well organised and done very professionally. A huge thanks and congrats to everyone behind the scenes that make it happen every year, a job extremely well done. I apologise again for being so late with the article, and also that my photos aren’t that great but I didn’t take my camera up with me for the races so only got a few shots that my dad took with his small camera and then I took a few on the Sunday, as I didn’t paddle. Although it wasn’t the perfect weekend for me, I still had a really good time and have an ugly scar to remind me about it for the rest of my life. Lesson learnt – bottle openers were invented for a reason!!! (I also hope that Andrew Kellett decides to finally organise a race for the Witte River this year too. That will top anything else done in this country, for sure. Let’s see… )

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