THE inaugural Zambezi White Water Festival held last weekend was a celebration of the Zambezi River and the rafting community that calls the banks of the river home.
VF24.com
The competition side saw six, six-man amateur rafting teams battling it out to be the champions of the Zambezi.
The event took place over three days, hosted at the Victoria Falls Waterfront by Safari-Par-Excellence.
Designed to be a celebration of the river itself and the white water community lifestyle, the festivities included DJ’s and local and regional bands — DJs Claudous, Shyman, Black Mamba Man and Chicken Bus — all made it an event to be remembered for the spectators.
The Victoria Falls Waterfront also hosted a kiddies play area, craft area and food stands, selling a variety of local and international foods ranging from crocodile skewers to American styled burger “sliders”.
The Livingstone community pulled together and made the weekend epic. A local beer producer who produced a bottled beer called “Mosi,” named after the Victoria Falls, which is known locally as the Mosi-oa-Tunya (The Smoke that Thunders) sponsored a large part of the festivities.
On the river, the teams competed in three main events based on time, with each second used representing a point, least points win. The competitors had a practice day on Friday to get to grips with the formula of the race and too gel with their local guides.
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On Saturday morning, the first event was a timed individual sprint between rapids #1 and #4. This saw teams taking on some challenging lines and one flip from, The Big, the Bad and the Ugly, a team from Bulawayo.
The second event was a mass start race from above rapid #6, which saw teams careening into rapid #6 with some interesting results. Team Montana, a group of travelling Americans with a token Welshman, won this event by a long margin.
The final component of the competition was a slalom race between rapids 12A and 13. This saw teams criss-crossing the river to reach six attainment areas.
Teams were judged on clean lines at rapid #5, #7 and #11, where a dropped paddle or swimmer, or flip resulted in penalty points.
Despite a carnage-ridden practice day in Rapid #7 the race day saw all teams having clean lines and no swimmers.
As an additional event, the Zambezi White Water Festival hosted the Surf and Turf in rapid #18, known for being a big retentive flipping hole.
The event saw the competitors attempting to contrive the biggest most spectacular flip or surf in this infamous rapid.
Despite a very close set of times, Team Montana took the first prize, a “Flight of Angels” trip for the entire team proudly sponsored by Batoka Sky.
Second place was taken by Team Protea/Bushtracks who won seven bungee jumps sponsored by Shearwater Bungee.
The third prize went to the elegantly named Zambezi Seamen, who won a trip for seven with Zambezi Expeditions.
Team Montana also took the prize in the Surf and Turf with a spectacular performance, winning themselves a buffet breakfast sponsored by Avani Hotel.