Soweto Canoe club brings huge change

Soweto Canoe and Reaction club founder, Brad Fisher, has revealed how they are debunking the stigma around watersports in the community. 

Fisher, after a bit of reluctance from some in the community initially, founded the club nearly 20 years ago with a specific objective in mind.

He has been able to teach young kids - a few of them now adults - how to swim and take up paddling as a sport in an effort to buck the trend and stigma around watersports in Soweto.

"Really, the objective of the club was to build lifeskills and a life-changing initiative that would help them use the paddling as a base to give them discipline and self-worth, and then using that as support through their careers," Fisher explained to SABC Sport.

According to Fisher, there™s been a shift in Canoeing being a predominantly white sport, though he says there is a rising number of black paddlers embracing the change.

He also expects the Soweto Canoe and Recreation club to dominate upcoming events as they build up to major events like the Dusi Canoe Marathon in February next year.

"It's today, certainly at the top end, not such a white sport. In fact, of the main race in the country - the Dusi Canoe Marathon - I think in the last few years, in the top 20 places, a good 14 of the top 20 have been black athletes," Fisher added.

"So, it's shifted. In the beginning, yes, it was quite a challenge because people were, A - weary of the water and, B - hadn't developed the life skill of having to swim, which is one of the big things of the club.

"Once they get their swimming proficiency, we get them onto the [flat] water, which gets a bit boring and then we get them onto rivers, which is where the excitement comes in.

"Actually, generally I would say the black kids are more athletic [and] outperform the white kids eventually, so that whole stigma has now changed - they are the star performers."

In between, there will also be the South African Marathon Championship, which will be at the Hazelmere Dam in KwaZulu-Natal in mid-June.

By Mazola Molefe