Monday, March 31, 2008

Highveld Hail



My son standing in a haildrift.



Another haildrift.



Mound of hail washed out of a downpipe.





Yesterday afternoon we had a hailstorm.

Some time back I wrote about the wonderful intensity of highveld storms. Yesterday's was a beauty. Black clouds that built up quickly, massive bolts of lightning with thunderous thunder. Yes I wrote it like that intentionally.

And then the storm broke...

Hail on roofs so load you couldn't hear yourself think and about 70mm of rain (about 3 inches) in roughly half an hour.

The hail stones were pretty small compared to some that I have seen in my life - mostly under 10mm in diameter.

The rain washed a lot of the hail away but did leave some hail drifts to give an idea of how much hail fell.

We hardly ever get snow here so this is the closest that my kids get. They and their friends had a great time making hailmen and hailcastles and throwing hailballs at each other.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Driskill Guitars









If you have any interest in musical instruments in general, guitars in particular or just fine craftmanship you will love what Joe Driskill produces.

Go to Driskill Guitars and see.

Each guitar is entirely handbuilt from selected pieces of wood. Each guitar is different. All are absolutely beautiful. The workmaship is incredible, just look how he makes his own truss rods that you never get to see and he even handmakes his tremelo bridges out of billet brass! And they sound great too.

One day when I am grown up and can afford it I will get one for myself.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Beautiful Kayak Technique

Have you ever wondered what really good kayak technique looks like?

Have a look at this slomo of Adam van Koeverden. World Champion and number 1 ranked sprinter in 2007.

More Pics from Campover

















Tripping Weekend and a Wedding Anniversary


Dave, the owner of a riverside property on the Klip river where we often finish races, and his wife celebratedtheir wedding anniversary recently. They invited the paddling community to share the celebration with a party and campover next to the river.
Our club decided to do social trips on the river before and after the party campover and include our development paddlers.






Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Old Posts

No Power to the People

22/01/2008

A year or so back the Western Cape experienced rolling blackouts. These were initially attributed to problems at Koeberg, South Africa's only nuclear power station. Just why there had to be rolling blackouts in a limited area of a national power grid was never explained.

Slowly but surely word began to filter out that maybe there might just possibly be some limited shortfall of electricity supply at some indeterminate time in the future. Nothing to really worry about, just a little occasional inconvenience.

Roughly a year later the truth is becoming painfully more apparent.

South Africa is at the very limit of its current power supply capacity. In fact we are regularly undersupplied.

Whoops! How did that sneak up on us?

As the extent of the shortfall became more apparent Eskom, the privatized national power utility, was initially accused of making gross miscalculations of growing power requirements and gross mismanagement and bad planning.

President Thabo Mbeki grandly demands answers from Eskom.

Now reports indicate that as much as 10 years ago Eskom submitted one or more white papers to government on the growing need for new capacity. Amongst other things it was apparently predicted that, without new capacity, right about now South Africa would run out of capacity.

What happened to the white paper(s)? Who were the bright sparks who knew better and decided that we didn't need to develop more capacity? Why didn't they have the courage of their convictions and say so publicly then and why are they so quiet now?

Now, thanks to the supply shortfall, Eskom is saying that it would be foolhardy to encourage new industrial projects. A quote from Eskom's finance director: 'It would be irresponsible now to aggressively pursue energy-intensive businesses'.

Irresponsible! Irresponsible to grow the economy! Irresponsible to create jobs through new business! What would these wise heads have us do to strengthen the economy, to generate the wealth to address the pressing developmental needs of the country? Let's flood the world's markets with hand made grass baskets. Woe to anyone who calls South Africa a basket case!

Surely it was even more irresponsible to let the situation develop under a cloud of secrecy, to allow the people of South Africa think that our power needs were covered, that while Eskom was making wonderful profits for its shareholders - notably the South African government - we were slowly but surely sliding into calamity.

Considering the revelations about the rejected white paper this is a classic case of not just fiddling but debauching while Rome burns.

Now government is talking with Eskom about setting regulations that will enforce electricity usage quotas.

So when will supply catch up with demand?

Not for a long, long time.

It appears that there is still no re-capitalisation program in place. Eskom has been down rated by international rating agencies and loan finance is suddenly more expensive. Apparently, if new power station projects start almost immediately the earliest any of them would be on stream would be 2012 or even later. If we take Eskom's advice that means we need to put substantial components of the economy on hold for at least another four to five years.

From another perspective it is important for us all to learn to consume less electricity. In fact we need to learn to consume less of all of the precious and finite resources of this earth.

This is a pragmatic, ethical and altruistic issue of immense importance. The need for mankind to leave a smaller, less damaging footprint on earth is long overdue and needs to be strenuously pursued.

How long will it be before Eskom and the government try to convince us that their bumbling was actually done for our own good?

Highveld Storms

18/09/2007

Round about this time of year, up on the South African Highveld, we start looking at the sky. Looking for clouds. And when we see clouds we hope they will grow big and heavy enough to drop rain.

And it is not only canoeists that do this, it is also farmers, gardeners and ordinary people.

By the end of winter the Highveld is really dry. It is a brown landscape except for where the veld has burned, either naturally or due to careless, stupid or malicious human acts.

We long for those magnificent thunderstorms. South African Highveld thunderstorms have to be experienced. The cumulo-nimbus heads climb, pitch black from underneath and blindingly white where the sun catches them, tens of thousands of feet into the air.

They grow as you watch them. And you do watch them because you are hungry for rain. You watch and hope, hope for them to break and release those big fat drops.

The Highveld has some of the highest incidences of lightning in the world. We are blessed with some of the greatest lightning shows anywhere. Massive bolts, sheets reflected in the clouds when the strikes are far away and crashing and rolling thunder that make Phil Spector's wall of sound a mouse peep.

You can smell when the rain is likely to fall. The air is thick with the scent of moisture. And the rich smell of those first fat drop s on the dry red Highveld earth will stay with you forever.

I remember when I was in high school how we would sit in our classrooms overcome with lethargy as the humidity and storm clouds built in the early afternoon. Time and again the bell for end of school seemed to trigger the clouds to release their load and we would pour out of our classrooms to walk home sopping wet with the mouldy smell of wet blazers mingling with the achingly beautiful smell of the newly wet earth.

My Daughter and the Fish Marathon



My daughter wants to do the Fish River Marathon this year.

Here we are practising on the Klip river near Johannesburg.

SA Slalom Champs 2008

The SA Slalom Champs are taking place outside Bethlehem in the Free State this weekend and it promises to be an entertaining event for athletes and spectators alike. The National title and two Olympic berths are going to be battled out by South Africa’s top white-water kayakers and canoeists.

The Olympic berths have already been qualified but who will take these positions depends on Saturday’s result. Siboniso Cele won the African Champs in the Single Canoe and is well ahead of any competition however his protégé, Jabulani Mofokeng and fellow Dihlabeng Slalom Club member, Sbu Ngidi will be hot on his heels should he make a mistake.

In the Double Canoe class Lindelani Ngidi and Cameron McIntosh, World Champs Semi-finalists, will be aiming to continue their unbeaten run for the past two years. Some strong junior teams such as Jaques Brits and Anton Maree as will also be aiming to claim the C2 title.

The National title will also be a hard fought affair, as the overall winner will walk away with this trophy. Cameron McIntosh has won it 8 times in the past 10 years but with him moving in the slower C2 boat it will be between the single paddlers to claim it. Cele will be hard pressed by top KZN kayaker Iain Rennie who has come up to Bethlehem for a week to train on the course and adapt to the Ash River. Gauteng Junior, Gavin Shuter, will be fighting it out for the Junior title against a strong team from the local slalom club headed up by Success Mahlaba who took part in the African Champs in Kenya in January.

A flat-water event takes place at 4pm on Friday at the Bohlokong Slalom Course for Juniors and Development Athletes.

The main event starts at 1pm on Saturday on the Ash river half way between Bethlehem and Clarens. Entries close at 11am at the same time that open practice finishes. Food and drinks will be available for spectators and athletes to purchase. Entry is free. For more information call Cameron McIntosh on 082 879 6762 or visit www.amadonsadonsa.com

Technique Coaching - March / April 2008

Technique Coaching Times at FLCC for the rest of March and April 2008

Unless otherwise notified the coaching will start at 8:00am.
Please remember to bring broomsticks and be warmed up and ready by 8:00am.

March
Saturday 29

April
Saturday 5th, 12th and 19th