MARK ETHERIDGE: Late start to paddling no obstacle to von der Heyde

Back in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic accomplished mountain-trail runner Stephanie von der Heyde found herself looking for something else to do on the long Cape Town summer afternoons.

Four years later, she has quite astonishingly swapped the mountain for the river in a literal sense, but stayed with the mountain theme as she ended up as first woman home in the iconic Berg River Canoe Marathon last weekend.

Amazing too, in the sense that she’s a latecomer to the rather technically complicated canoe discipline, where most of the stars have been paddling since they were less than 10 years old.

“I only started paddling in my late 20s,” says Von der Heyde, now 32 and living in Cape Town since 2010 when she tripped south from her KwaZulu-Natal roots.

“My brother had a friend who was a surfski paddler and I did a bit of Googling... I didn’t even know the difference between canoeing and surfskiing and came across Peninsula Canoe Club [in Lakeside]. I went down to the club and it was just beautiful and seemed like such a cool hobby.

“Then I made the ‘mistake’ of watching a time trial and was simply blown away. A lot of people don’t realise that between the Fish Hoek and Peninsula clubs we have some of the top paddlers in the world and I just thought: ‘This is the sport for me’.”

She soon found herself at the start of her first time trial. “I reckoned that 10km isn’t that far, had a look around and saw an old person there, a chubby person there... and assumed that I could beat a few people.

“But no, no, no... it’s not like that at all, pregnant women, old men, they can all beat you, even though you can be as fit as you like.”

The bubbly brunette freely admits to having a “stubborn, obsessive-type personality” and went back for more.

“Paddling is incredibly hard... until you have the basics of a stroke and balance you simply can’t put 100% power into your stroke, and then the stroke itself is truly technical. It’s all about power-to-weight ratio and the sheer efficiency of stroke.”

She likens it to a golf swing.

“Everything has to be moving at the right time, the right position with perfect synchronicity and all at the same time, and in paddling, while trying to balance on a tiny craft in moving water. And then each stroke follows the next so when you mess up, you carry on messing up.”

And that sheer deliciously frustrating feeling had her totally hooked!

“In the beginning, people said I’d never be able to compete with people who had paddled since they were six, but I did exactly that and it’s hugely satisfying.”

This year’s race was only her second Berg Marathon adventure, having first attempted it in 2022.

“From the very first moment I started paddling it was my own ‘holy grail’... people at PCC [Peninsula Canoe Club] spoke of it in hushed tones and all had their own war stories. But for me, it was just the best, because you could actually paddle with them and get to speak to them etc. It would be much like a schoolboy rugby player getting to train with the Springboks every day and getting to ask them questions.”

Her first Berg saw her ending 44th in a combined time of 24hr 01min over the four stages.

This year her improvement was simply stratospheric as she sealed 26th spot in a time of 21hr 59min, slicing more than two hours off her previous time.

Her day-to-day coach is Ian Trautmann, a Berg River veteran and she also had help in the build-up from yet another accomplished paddler in the shape of Nic Notten.

She shared some of her pre-Berg training.

“Since February I was probably paddling 100km a week. The actual distances translate quite nicely compared to running... so I’d usually do about 14-15 hours a week, but of course that would include some very long paddles at the weekend because with Berg being such a long race, you need that race-specific training.

“So I’d alternate weeks — one week would be about strength and power and then the next a base/distance block.”

Her day job is in marketing management for a company that supplies equipment to her previous sporting passion, trail running, and she was fortunate enough to paddle in her own company’s brand, Inov’8 shoes, which helped heaps.

What’s the next leap of faith for the former St Annes Diocesan College (KZN) boarder, whose first forays into sport were athletics and showjumping?

“Well, Dusi Marathon is obviously on that list, but since I started paddling the water quality has been pretty bad — I’ll do it though... it’s iconic in paddling, much like Comrades Marathon is to SA running.

“I’ve also got a whole heap of local races to do this year, the Breede Marathon and Cape Point Challenge and also the Orange and Fish River events.

“And internationally I simply have to do the Sella Descent in Spain. That will happen, in fact I will make that happen.”

Mention of the Fish River marathon, and that was where her scariest paddling moment to date has come.

“I was doing Fish with Candice Murray last year and we got stuck in Cradock Weir. Now, they have a lifeguard tower to pull people out immediately and it’s usually a quick swim. But on this occasion the lifeguard tower had been damaged in earlier floods and just after we went in, it completely toppled over and we were stuck under the tower of scaffolding and ropes, all in an endless washing machine!

“Because it’s a man-made weir and is very smooth, things get stuck in there for ages before being spat out. We were under there for ages before a lifeguard actually jumped in from the top of the weir, which managed to bump the other lifeguard out and then us!

“Afterwards, we heard that someone’s life jacket had been stuck in the weir for seven days before it was spat out. Still, it was a freak accident and didn’t put me off in the slightest. And the video of us in the weir went around the country.”

When she’s not working, or training, or racing... Von der Heyde sounds like the archetypal girl next door, living alone, not in a relationship, and who enjoys cooking and reading in what spare time she gets.

But nothing could be further from the truth and her Berg win, despite a few of the big names missing from the women’s field this year, must rank as one of the most impressive in recent history.

“My big takeaway is just for people to realise that it’s never too late to start something. You just have to go for it and not be afraid to make an idiot of yourself... keep on learning, keep on pushing.

“Paddling is the best gift I could have given myself, it takes a certain level of skill to just get down the river and it even takes a year to just get the fun stuff right.

“One needs such dedication, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a whole new world.”

She almost waxes lyrical.

“Just the things I’ve seen, the views, the sheer fun I’ve had... it’s so special because on something like the Berg route, only a tiny handful of people are good enough to see and experience it in real life, both rare and beautiful and 100% worth pushing through... in my opinion, paddling is the ultimate high!”

She may have been a late starter, but one thing’s for sure, Von der Heyde has no thoughts of slowing down any time soon!