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 [Editor: The Avon Descent? What’s that doing on a surfski site? That’s a river race!
Well actually it’s a most unusual river race – and surfskis are the favourite paddle craft, albeit with flip-up rudders. Overseas competitors including New Zealanders and South Africans have been participating for years. Check it out.]
Ash Nesbit - 15 Avon Descents
 I have been paddling the Avon Descent now for 17years bar 2. Every one of those years has been on specially developed Kevlar single or double ski with a flip up rudder, for some reason swimming to the edge with my kayak doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling!! There is something about this race that keeps me coming back year after year - sometimes I wonder if I am crazy, most of my family think I am - hurting myself to the point of extreme exhaustion every year. But they just don't get it!
Daryl Bartho and Sven & Deon Bruce have showed their endurance and skills in previous Avon Descents - I am sure Daryl is slightly crazy also!!
 Sven & Deon Bruce
The Multiplex Avon Descent - Perth 2007 is more then just the longest white water event worldwide, it is now one of the richest paddling races in the world, with extra AU$10.000 cash injected into this year's prize pool. The Multiplex Avon Descent now offers a price pool of nearly AU$ 34,000 in cash and AU$ 15,000 in prizes.
 Concentration! (Note the Garmin 305 on the lifejacket!)
The Avon Descent is a two-day race over 133 gruelling kilometres offering competitors conditions ranging from long stretches of flat water that can test the endurance of the fittest athlete through to Grade 2/3 rapids, sure to test the skills of all who attempt to navigate their unknown contours.
The gates are open to competitors worldwide to experience the thrill of this 2 day white water event. Come and visit Perth Western Australia and while you are at it enjoy the race that is the Avon Descent.
There are plenty of people including myself that are willing to host international paddlers over the week or weekend of the race, we might even show you the best lines down the rapids!
And by the way - a double surf ski holds the race record at 7hr.13min.48sec - so come Down Under and have a fair dinkum crack at this awesome event!!
For more info and for a detailed outline of the prize pool visit www.avondescent.com.au
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If you replace your surfski rudder with a flip-up rudder you have a river boat that I think has distinct advantages over the K1.
- When you fall out you get straight back in, while in the water if you can. No lengthy swim to the shore, no draining the boat.
- No fiddling with 'splashy' covers, no pumps
- Less chance of wrapping your boat around a rock or tree - boats usually wrap because they are full of water. A surfski will float around an obstacle or bob on the surface.
- It's safer, you can't get trapped inside like you can in a K1 if it wraps around you.
So, who's going to give it a try here in South Africa? Certainly not me in my shiny new boat.