Hi ,

Why is our favourite weekend of downwind paddling named the Pete Marlin Surfski Race?

The Biogen Pete Marlin Surfski Race is held in memory of one of Eastern Cape's well-known paddlers, Pete Marlin, who tragically lost his life while paddling in 1989.

Born in Zambia, Pete was a talented sportsman who went to school in Queenstown and then returned to the Eastern Cape and settled in East London after studying at UKZN.

The charismatic, free spirit loved adventures and was part of a small group of intrepid, pioneering kayakers and paddlers who regularly explored the rivers of the Eastern Cape.

Pete tragically lost his life while competing on the Umkomaas River in KZN. The annual two-day surfski weekend is held every year to honour his life.

Every year we also pay tribute to another popular paddler, Mark Feather, who tragically lost his life while paddling and is sorely missed by all paddlers.

You can read more about "Who was Pete Marlin" here, and about the history of the race here.

Since our last communication, we have received a few more entries and also made a few tweaks to the batching, and all those have now been added to the website.

The updated provisional batches and entries can be found at petemarlin.co.za/singles-day-batches/ for singles and petemarlin.co.za/doubles-day-batches/ for doubles. These batches were updated on October 9th and any changes after that will only be reflected in the next update.

These are provisional batches, so if you want a batch change we will move you.

More importantly, please check you have been placed with your correct partner for the S2 racing (or S1 race if you are paddling a double in that). If there is a mistake, or you have not let the organisers know your partner, please send a mail to info@petemarlin.co.za.

We need your partnerships when we hand over the data to the timekeepers, so please check the website ASAP.

Good luck to all the paddlers taking part in the Fish River Canoe Marathon and 2025 SA K2 River Champs this weekend. We hope you all have great fun at one of the best river races in the country.

The official race WhatsApp group will be one of the primary sources of communication to paddlers. To make sure you are up to date with the event information and updates, please click the following link or click the button below: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HWVKX6xsaOWBtpppyHjZIW.

We are looking forward to hosting you on October 25 & 26