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There are so many activities to choose from it becomes difficult to decide which to do. To help you make your decision, here is a list of different water based activities that are available around Southern Africa.
Barefoot water skiing
This sport began in 1947 in Florida, USA. Barefoot skiers soon adapted many of the freestyle moves of traditional waterskiers – spins, backward maneuvers, body drags, and other tricks made barefooting an exciting new discipline. Due to the speeds required to barefoot, the tricks are especially difficult, and dangrous, since the water becomes very hard in a high-speed impact.
Boogieboarding / Riverboarding
The boogieboard, or riverboard, a device fist developed to ride beach surf while lying down, is a new entry into the whitewater-running category. While easier to stay on top of and right after rolling over, the riverboard is far more extreme than rafting or canoeing. The rider is completely exposed to the elements without the protection of a boat’s hull to ward off jagged rocks and absorb some of the shock the rapids can hand out.
Canoeing / Kayaking
Kayaking
Confusion easily and regularly occurs between what a kayak and a canoe is. A kayak is generally a closed-decked paddle boat with a spraydeck, while canoes are usually open boats. Both kayaks and canoes are propelled by human muscle power. In kayaking the boat is propelled using a paddle with two blades. The paddler sits with his/her legs in front of them. With canoeing the boat is propelled using a single-bladed or double-bladed paddle, where the paddler is kneeling or sitting. Both kayaking and canoeing fall under the term ‘paddle sports’.
Cliff Diving
Easily the cheapest extreme sport to try, because there is no need for specialized equipment, but it is one of the most dangerous. Sharp rocks, shallow water, and a wrong landing can provide serious injury. Most of the professional divers are trained Olympic athletes looking for challenges outside their regular regime, thus competition is fierce. Because of the highly skilled nature of the sport and the inherent risk of injuries or even death, there are only a handful of cliff divers on earth capable of attempting the most difficult jumps.
Jetskiing
Jetski
The first stand-up personal watercraft was introduced in 1973, known as the jet ski. The jet ski design uses an internal water-jet motor for thrust. The motor draws water into itself and shoots a stream out again to generate thrust, without exposing potentially hazardous blades that can injure a rider. Although generally used for recreational purposes, it has become a very competitive sport which includes closed-course racing and freestyle riding.
Although sea kayaking is pursued by many as a recreational sport, it also hold a great opportunity to experience nature from a different perspective. Sightings of marine mammals, birds and other wildlife makes it as much a close encounter with nature as it does a physical sporting experience. Sea kayaks are less manoeuverable than whitewater kayaks, but they are designed with improved cargo carrying capacity, comfort for long paddling journeys, and for ease of straight-line paddling into the ocean.
Snorkeling
SurfingSurfing is the original extreme sport, dating back to the beginings of Polynesian society. Modern surfing has progressed tremendously since then. Today’s surfboards vary enormously in size and shape. Shorter boards (1.5 – 2 m) are used primarily in smaller waves for maneuverability and work well with the shape of the faces on smaller waves. Longer boards (“Gun” surfboards) are 2.4 – 3.4 m and used for bigger and more powerful waves. Many international surfing competitions are held annually at different destinations around the globe.
This activity is similar to surfing but kayaks or rafts are used and propelled through the surf by use of paddles and by using the energy from the waves. It requires a mix of surfing and kayaking skills. It has become a popular sport but following standard safety protocol (such as wearing a PFD and helmet, and understanding ocean conditions) and proper experience is a necessity. It is also important to stay clear of other surfers and swimmers as a collision can cause great harm to them.
Tow-In Surfing
Tow-in boards are used to surf the biggest and heaviest waves in the world. It is a short and narrow board that can be towed behind a jet ski. Being towed, surfers can drop themselves into the perfect position on the wave before they begin to crest and break. This enables surfers to get dropped into waves that could never have been ridden before because they were simply too dangerous to attempt to paddle into.
Tubing
Riding an inner tube either on water or snow. Due to their shape, these tubes are also called “donuts” or “biscuits”. On water, tubes can be towed or free-floating. Towed tubing requires a large body of water such as a dam for example, as the tube is pulled by another vehicle such as a motorboat. In free-floating tubing the currents generally guide the tube. At many water parks these tubes can be taken down slides or through specifically designed waterways.Tubing on snow is similar to sledding and can only be done in the few areas in S.A. that have snowfall during winter.
It is a surface water sport and combines aspects of both sailing and surfing, and shared aspects of other board sports. You can almost call it gymnastics on water as the windsurfer performs jumps, inverted loops, spinning maneuvers and other moves. Windsurfers prefer windspeeds to be around 15 – 25 knots, and good sunny weather just adds to the experience. Extreme surfers live on the rush of surfing in high-wind conditions. Best locations - anywhere there is enough water and wind. Generally the coastlines are preferred windsurfing areas.