Event: Fish River Rodeo (2007) <br>

The much anticipated revival of the Fish Rodeo is upon us. A small hole on the Fish river which allows a good paddler to throw all the hole moves. Come and strut your stuff, whether you're a South African or a travelling paddler from abroad. This event promises to be a bash. With Pro, intermediate, junior and beginner categories it doesn't matter what skill level you're at good fun and sportsmanship is the name of the game.

All you South African Paddlers, after nearly 3 years the Fish Rodeo is back. Happening on the 28-29 September, thought i'd get word out early so you guys can make plans early coz i know you want to make it. Rodeo and big trick contest for all skill levels.
We're organising lights so the fun can go well into the night.
Adrian and Phillip i know you boys will be there.......

Check out the Playak Events page and keep checking the LifeByWater.com Events page for updates (maps, rules, party,etc...)

Hope to see you all there,
Scotty R

Too bad the weekend before that is a long weekend. It seems it's the same situation as the comp in the Cape in August. The weekend before that festival is also a long weekend. Don't you guys realise that long weekends are ideal for these types of events? hehe. Pity about that.

I'm not sure about the Fish. 1000km to drive for a rodeo is pretty far! I'm taking it easy anyway for a while. Starting physio tomorrow night... Is there a category for disabled paddlers? I will keep it in mind though. Maybe Vroom will be keen. But I know Philip, Vroom, Bosman and Scheepers are heading to the Nile in September. I'm sure their bosses won't be keen to give them anymore days off...

I hope all goes well for the event. Are you going to post any pictures of the play spot? Maybe a video to get people interested. Good luck Scotty!

I am fully aware of the public holiday, however, we need to tie it in with a water release and the weekend of the 29th is the Fish Marathon - guaranteed water. So you can't blame me, blame the Fish canoe marathon organizors. Sorry. We will change the dates if we can guarantee water.
Anyways, it won't just be a rodeo either. There will be a big air contest and a king of the wave, not to mention a true Rhodes University style party - a whole weekend affair.
C'mon Ades, make an effort:grin: Get a whole bunch of JHB lads together road trip down.

You can talk nonsense about being useless in a hole Looks like these Sasolburghers are quite humble.

Thrombi party you were broken Philip. Hence your quick disappearance Sunday morning..

Thrombi was so bad for me i don't even get flashbacks. Would be great if you boys could make it though.

Are you planning on doing the rodeo on the Friday, Saturday or Sunday?

I'm coming down to do the race, silly idea I know, but I'm planning on bringing my boat down to play on the sunday. If the day1 excitement is too much for me Saturday will be on the cards too.

Anyway, I know Dave Rice is planning on going down. So at least there will be a JHB contingent, even if we ain't much good at playboating. If anyone else is coming keen I'm leaving on either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

Good job on organising the rodeo though, nice one

It hasn't been finalized yet but we're probably gonna hold the comp on Saturday after lunch and hopefully after the Marathon (depends how fast you paddle) we're looking at getting lights so we can go into the night. If not the Semis and finals will be on Sunday morning.

Awesome!

Paddled last year after the race and wasn't too strong, but that's ok because unlike Philip I really don't have skills in a hole even when I'm strong.

Let me know if I can help you out with anything, if there is anything that can be done from JHB.

The party on the Saturday last year was quite a big one, good thing I won't have to worry about making the semis or finals. Although you lads from Rhodes went quite big, put the witsies to shame big time!

One thing though, not sure if it will be an issue. I see this year on the fish website (www.fishmarathon.org.za)( there is no access to Keiths. I assume there was an issue with the farmer? Where is the wave?

Hey SA Paddlers,

Full details of the event are posted on LifeByWater.com
www.lifebywater.com/events/fish07/index.html
Hope to see you there...

Scotty R

p.s

One thing though, not sure if it will be an issue. I see this year on the fish website (www.fishmarathon.org.za)( there is no access to Keiths. I assume there was an issue with the farmer? Where is the wave?

We as kayakers have access to Keiths and the playhole but the farmer has a real issue with canoeists, dunno why, but he does. We're gonna have to stay on our toes to keep him happy.

Is the farmers name Norman by any chance?

We as kayakers have access to Keiths and the playhole but the farmer has a real issue with canoeists, dunno why, but he does. We're gonna have to stay on our toes to keep him happy.

Nice work.
I'll try get there early enough for the boater cross on Thursday.

Awesome, Neil glad to hear you're coming. Jurgen's we only know the farmer as Mr. Collete, been trying to stay on his good side.

The internet is an amazing thing. Just Google'd his name and found him... Not sure if he's the guy but there is a Norman Collett going by that name. My girlfriend has the same surname so I changed your spelling to get the result Scotty.

AdrianTregoning wrote:

The internet is an amazing thing. Just Google'd his name and found him... Not sure if he's the guy but there is a Norman Collett going by that name. My girlfriend has the same surname so I changed your spelling to get the result Scotty.

Wow, I thought I spent a lot of time dicking about on the net, you take the cake Adrian

nortis wrote:

AdrianTregoning wrote:

The internet is an amazing thing. Just Google'd his name and found him... Not sure if he's the guy but there is a Norman Collett going by that name. My girlfriend has the same surname so I changed your spelling to get the result Scotty.

Wow, I thought I spent a lot of time dicking about on the net, you take the cake Adrian

No, not really Neil. That took all of 40 seconds to find it and post. I'm sorry you find the information regarding the farmer so useless.

Thanks Adrian, dont know why I did not think of that!

At the very least knowing the farmers name is core to building good relationships between landowners and kayakers.
Norman has been on that farm all his life and as the years go by he has seen it all, canoeists, kayakers and rafters.
When we as kayakers met him 8 or 9 years ago we made the effort to get to know him, bring him beers, invite him along on the rafts and to barbeques at the camp. I would think he is pretty well disposed towards kayakers now.
As a gross generalisation (and I stress gross) , canoeists race through his property kicking up dust, damaging his roads, leaving gates open and scaring his stock. This is probably because they have supporters trying to keep up to their paddlers and thus always in a rush.

As a matter of interest we did some exploratory paddling above Grassridge Dam (this was a long while back) and found a real good playspot. It is approx. 500 m below the bridge above the dam (on the Hofmeyer Road? tried to attach Google pic - the mind was willing but the computer brain was not)
It had a huge car parking area right at the river, wave had an eddy both sides, easy to get back up and was good enough for most moves.
On the downside its a bit out of the way and river levels above the dam are different to levels below the dam (especially marathon weekend).

Jurgen wrote:

Thanks Adrian, dont know why I did not think of that!

At the very least knowing the farmers name is core to building good relationships between landowners and kayakers.
Norman has been on that farm all his life and as the years go by he has seen it all, canoeists, kayakers and rafters.
When we as kayakers met him 8 or 9 years ago we made the effort to get to know him, bring him beers, invite him along on the rafts and to barbeques at the camp. I would think he is pretty well disposed towards kayakers now.
As a gross generalisation (and I stress gross) , canoeists race through his property kicking up dust, damaging his roads, leaving gates open and scaring his stock. This is probably because they have supporters trying to keep up to their paddlers and thus always in a rush.

As a matter of interest we did some exploratory paddling above Grassridge Dam (this was a long while back) and found a real good playspot. It is approx. 500 m below the bridge above the dam (on the Hofmeyer Road? tried to attach Google pic - the mind was willing but the computer brain was not)
It had a huge car parking area right at the river, wave had an eddy both sides, easy to get back up and was good enough for most moves.
On the downside its a bit out of the way and river levels above the dam are different to levels below the dam (especially marathon weekend).

Thanks for the tip on the play spot. One day if I'm ever down there in the rainy season I'll go up and have a look for sure. I go past there every december on my way to Plett so if there's rain this year I'll make a small misson..

True about paddlers VS farmers, no doubt about it. But as you said. It's a generalisation.

Page 34 of this week's Farmer's Weekly magazine is an article on the Collett's farm on the Fish River. I assume it's the same people. There is even a whole family tree with two Norman's. Seems the farm has been through 4 generations and is doing pretty well. Just some useless information from me, again! (if memory serves me correctly there was even some contact information..)

Over and out..