Adventure Magazine Issue 17

2 Adventure Magazine

IntroMotogear.co.za AdSandboardingcapetown.com AdLeatt AdIndustry News - Yamaha XT RallyGs911 AdSandboarding Cape townCape Adventure Bike ChallengeStichedkitten Photography Ad

3Adventure Magazine

Contents


Issue 7t33nWow, what a month. I seriously cant remem-ber when last we had so much to do.

We hooked up with Dylan for Sandboarding Cape Town in Atlantis and he showed us the ins and out of sandboarding. I must admit though that I am not very good at it, but will really want another go at it. Practice makes perfect, so they say...

The CABC has just passed. From the feedback on the forums, I know the guys and gals loved it. The routes were well put together

and the views were spectacular. Check out our feature inside the mag. There are also photos available of the event, so should you want a DVD copy (900 odd photo’s) dont forget to drop Kirsten a mail at [email protected]

Enjoy the issue,

I would like you guys to support our advertisers because without them, we wont be here.Till next month!

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Hot off the pressThe third running of the an-nual Yamaha XT Adventure Rally was held this past week-end at the fantastic Hawane Resort in Swaziland, and more than eighty eager participants came down to enjoy some of the best adventure bike riding Southern Africa has to offer.

Rave reports have been re-ceived from participants that took in the beauty of Swaziland on two days worth of riding. Riders were given the choice of either a long scenic route or a shorter technical route on each day, each of which took up to seven hours to complete. Highlights included having five Yamaha Super Tenere’s tackling Friday’s technical route, two of which had pillions on them!!

New National Off Road Cham-pion Jade Gutzeit and three times Roof of Africa winner and multiple South African Off Road and Enduro Champion Louwrens Mahoney joined in the fun on two Yamaha XT 660

Z Tenere’s, and rode with and imparted rider skill and techni-cal knowledge to those that were eager to learn from the pro’s.

On Saturday night delegates were entertained by the or-phaned children from the Light-house Haven in Hawane, Swa-ziland, with some beautiful and melodious singing. So moving was this experience that almost R10 000-00 was raised through the sale of Yamaha merchan-dise and the auctioning off of Jade and Louwrens’ race jer-seys for the Lighthouse Haven. The money will be put to use providing clean drinking water for the young Aids orphans. Local water tank manufacturer, Oasis Tanks, also donated a 5000 litre water storage tank to this cause. The Yamaha XT Bri-gade came to Swaziland to en-joy the riding, and left behind a legacy benefiting of the local community that was greatly appreciated by the residents of the Lighthouse Haven.


Captain Morgan sponsored the imbibing of copious amounts of their finest nectar on Friday night, whilst Saturday after-noon’s Skills Challenge, consist-ing of slow racing, barrel rac-ing, slalom course and various other obstacles, was sponsored by the local Swazi brew house, Sebebe Lager. After competing

in their individual skills chal-lenges, delegates enjoyed watching riding demonstra-tions from Jade, Louwrens and Hilton Hayward of Hayward Suspension fame, whilst quaff-ing ice cold Sebebe Lagers, in an attempt to wash the dust out of their throats which,

judging by the volumes con-sumed, took some time to have an effect.

Some awesome prizes were handed out via lucky draw and the winners walked away with prizes that included a brand new Shoei Hornet helmet worth R6000-00, a Yamaha Adventure

Riding Suit worth R7000-00 and a Yamaha i-Pod docking station clock radio worth R4000-00.

A new Barrel Race Champion was crowned in the form of Swazi resident Sam Breero, whilst Lohan Heyl showed his bike skill by taking the Slow

11Adventure Magazine

Race Championship.

All in all a fantastic weekend of great adventure riding was had by all. Great food, great camaraderie, awesome riding, eighty Yamaha XT’s (and cold beer) made for a truly memo-rial weekend.


New Rides

SandboardingCape Town

SandboardingCape Town


So our first article which marks the broadening of our horizons (content-wise) and we kick that off with some sand boarding.

Now here’s an activity that makes for a great day out for the whole family during the coming hot days of summer. So we were invited out by Dylan le Roux, who own and runs Sandboarding Cape Town, to participate in this great sport, along with a tour group made up of three travellers, fresh out of Israel, visiting our beautiful country for three weeks.

Our day started off arriving at

Atlantis dunes at 9am on Thurs-day morning, where we met our instructor, Dylan and the other three. We were all driven in to the dunes and unpacked.Between us, there was probably only a small amount of experi-ence combined; what with my rather limited skateboarding knowledge and the other three having done some sitting-sand-boarding in Peru, Dylan, gave us a brief introduction on how to get going. The briefing, only a few minutes long, consisted of finding the right board for you, which stance is most comfort-able (goofy or natural), how to strap in, how to bend your


knees and stay as upright as possible and finally how to turn or carve.Once we were shown how to strap the board to our feet, we were rearing to go... only to be told to take it off to wax first. Bummer.

Unstrapping and waxing wasn’t so bad but we were all clearly itching to get our first runs in.Once shown how to dig trench-es, which helps you strap in easily standing without sliding all over the place, we were all

encouraged to begin while the sky was overcast and a cool breeze was blowing as we were all aware that out in the dunes, you can get horribly sunburnt if you’re not properly covered.Once thoroughly lathered in sun-block, away we went!

We all fell on the first run, which was to be expected, but getting the feel on a small dune worked for us all and we caught on quickly. Dylan was awesome at pointing out how and where we can do things


differently to improve and put-ting that into practice helped us all get the most out of our runs.The more confident one got, the higher the choices of dunes became, and within the first hour, dune heights had doubled and the sun had come out to play, softening up the sand a little more which made it easier to travel faster.Now for those of you who’ve always been keen to try sand boarding out, I have to let you know that as awesome as the

ride is on the way down, en-sure that you’re moderately to pretty fit for the walks or runs back up! Man, those dunes are mean on the calves for the trips back up, especially since you’re so amped at the bottom to have another go, running back up sure takes its toll!

Once we’d all found our bal-ance and had gone down a few times, we attempted the highest dune of the day yet! I’m not 100% sure exactly how high, but I don’t think I’d be


far off if I’d guess at close to about 15 meters! The guys had been sitting on their run down this high dune a couple of times, but we were deter-mined to try it standing up.One of the Israeli ladies went before me, standing up, and took it like a pro. What a perfect run down! Next – my turn.In the meantime, Dylan had set up a neat little HD camera on its stand at the bottom of the dune to take a few mo-tion shots as I came down, requesting I try my best to not hit the camera, if possible. Strapped in and ready to go, I descended, motoring down

at a speed. Yes! I’d made it about 80% down the dune, but was ploughing toward the camera – not good. So lean-ing on my heels to avoid it, I’d obviously leaned too far back, resulting in counter-leaning onto my toes to correct myself and that’s where it all when completely wrong. Least to say, sand, arms and legs ev-erywhere as I tumbled, at had I missed the camera!

No injuries to any of us dur-ing our awesome day sand boarding and I think we’ve all walked away with some great stories to tell. I’d definitely recommend this to families or


individuals looking for an awe-some day out. Dylan, who is ac-tually an experienced guide too, will be only too happy to show you how to get set up and get the best out of your maximum or minimum sand boarding experience, as well as how you can better your personal sand boarding skills. He uses only professional equipment for your safety – his sand boards are actually imported snowboards which have been modified for use on sand, with sturdy bind-ings that give your feet a firm grip on the board, vital for com-plete control and safety.


If you need to be collected from your hotel, home or place of work, he offers to do so to get you in to the dunes for your awesome day out, so please smile when you cruise past other people carrying everything in/out!

We encourage each and every one of you to try this sport at least once. This is pure outdoor fun with the greatest people you can imagine spending your day with.Give Dylan a call at 084 665 1314 or drop him an email at [email protected] This e-mail address is being prote He’s available every day of the week and will accommodate all your needs for the day.Visit http://www.sandboarding-capetown.com for any further information you may need.



CABC 2010Van Wyksdorp


This years Cape Adventure Bike Challenge took place on the majestic lodge just outside Van Wyksdorp. We arrived on Wednesday and helped get things ready for the mass ride which was to follow on Thurs-day. Entrants started arriving around 11am on Day 2 and most of the riders popped in around 5pm and then got ready for the evening briefing which helped give the guys some idea of what was lying before them in the up and coming days ahead.

Thursday nights chow was boerewors rolls with some salad and as one has it, they didn’t last too long because some of the riders went hungry… the caterers really had their hands full...

Up nice and early on Fri-day morning, the riders were grouped into their various routes

depending on what they felt like riding that day. We grabbed a cup of coffee and some of us, who were brave enough, had some oats. The red route guys got together and headed up the mountain, hitting the rocky sections and working up a sweat. For the rest of us mere mortals, the orange and green routes were scenic with a couple of hairpin bends that kept you on your toes. The route went past, over the Gouritz River which held some amazing views. We had some issues with one of the farm-ers who got very indecisive as to let us through his farm or not, but in the end he let us through and we saw some amazing views and wildlife. The biggest highlight was the wild black Wildebees performing and giving us a show. There were also plenty of ostrich in the area and when they are in numbers, things can become


quiet intimidating.

We had lunch on the river bank on Friday, vetkoek and ham-burger patties was the flavour of the day and man were they good! We headed on back to the campsite and while most the guys were getting ready for the skills challenge, put togeth-er by none other than Mr Chris “Skills” Hamman of Hamman Motorrad.

Skills challenges always in-trigue me. So many little things to remember and yet some guys perform so well on them. The 1st days challenge was, however, no match for the final round. But more about that later.

Friday night was time for some carbo loading - the guys who were hitting the red route re-ally needed their energy levels to be nice and high - the mac and cheese sorted that out.



We were given some landmarks to ride to which was marked out beforehand on the way to Her-bertsdale. I missed some flags and ended up about 900meters before the N2 before we re-alised that we were no longer on the route. Some of the lads in our group decided to make the best of the situation and went for lunch at the wimpy on the N2 and the rest of us, 3 actually, decided to trek back to Herbertsdale and try and find the farm. The route was actually pretty awesome. I was a little annoyed that I missed the turn off but, secretly I’m kind of glad we did. We rode some awesome roads on the way back to the lunch venue. Once we got to the lunch venue, Bonniedale Ad-venture farm, we were the last to rock up but luckily grabbed the food van on the way out and had some braaivleis and a coke. We then decided to ride further down the road and past the farm onto the 8 Bells Road which eventually leaded onto the Robinsons pass, just outside Oudshoorn. I had a bit of dif-ficulty with my huge knobs on the tar and the bike felt very disappointing … it seemed slip-ping and squirming all over the place.


New Rides

Endless dirt roads.


Endless dirt roads. On top of Pakhuis Pass.

We got back to the venue at about 4pm and the skills chal-lenge finals were on already. A nice mud pit and some even more interesting obstacles were placed to navigate around… it was actually pretty fun to watch.

Later that evening at the prize giving there were plenty of prizes handed out to the guys. Some even worth some big bucks! Andre and Michiel took 1st and 2nd place in the skills challenge and Marchant and Danny with a joint 3rd. The guys partied late into the night and some lekker conversations took place. We unfortunately had to leave early on Sunday morning, but we all agreed on one thing… the 2010 CABC rocked!




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Adventure Magazine Issue 17