KNYSNA NEWS - Nothing could stop Knysnarian Radie Dippenaar from completing the 2023 Dusi Canoe Marathon. He overcame a broken paddle, a damaged canoe and even cracked ribs to finish first in the grand masters category.
A member of the Knysna Yacht and Canoe Club, 61-year-old Radie tackled the recent Dusi – the "Comrades of canoeing" – from 16 to 18 February, once again covering 120km of treacherous waters between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
There was a fair amount of drama in this year's race, not only for Radie personally, but also for the race overall.
"Due to polluted water they started the race at a different venue and from the second day they had the highest water levels ever on the race," Radie said. "The river was dangerous and they even forced us to portage around some of the bigger rapids, for safety reasons."
Things really got tough for Radie on the last day as, with 18km to go, his paddle broke in a big rapid and he capsized. "I grabbed my boat and the next moment hit a huge rock where I badly damaged the boat and cracked a few ribs."
Determined to not give up, Radie made his way to the shore where he conducted some repairs.
"I lost half an hour trying to get to the side in the full river, applying duct tape around my boat with help from another canoeist and borrowing a paddle," Radie said.
Incredibly, he still managed to finish the race in 11 hours. This meant he was the 111th single canoeist over the line and 156th overall with the K2 teams included – a total of 390 canoeists/teams managed to finish the race.
Radie's efforts ultimately proved to not be in vain, as he earned a gold medal in the grand masters category.
After the race, Knysna Racing Kayaks helped to replace the broken shaft of his paddle when they heard what happened during the race.
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