‘Dusi Duke’ in race for international award

DUSI Duke and founder of the Computershare Change a Life Academy, Martin Dreyer, is one of four South Africans to have been nominated across the seven categories of the 2016 World Paddle Awards to take place in Augsburg, Germany in March next year.

Having claimed no fewer than seven Dusi Canoe Marathon titles – his most famous in 2008 when he and Thulani Mbanjwa set a new K2 race record – Dreyer has continued to make a name for himself through his Change a Life Academy.

He recently duplicated his successful paddling set-up with a grassroots mountain biking initiative, supported by RMB, in the Valley of 1 000 Hills.

His establishment of and ongoing commitment to this academy have seen the sport of canoeing explode amongst the communities of the Valley of 1 000 Hills and it is this work that sees Dreyer named as one of eight 2016 World Paddle Awards Foundation Award nominees.

“I feel most honoured to be a nominee on an international stage. When I first started my Change a Life Academy back in 2008, I did so in the hope of changing the lives of young, previously disadvantaged people who were deprived of the opportunities to get ahead in life by instilling valuable life skills and training these youngsters to become competitive kayakers.

“While I never set out in the hope of receiving awards, my nomination does go to show that the Change a Life programme is well on track, which is very pleasing for all of us involved,” said Dreyer.

While recognising the competition he is up against in his category, Dreyer believes victory would play a significant role in the progress of his academy.

“If I, and indirectly Change a Life, were to win the Foundation Award at next year’s World Paddle Awards, it would be such an amazing, global platform of exposure for my academy.

“Hopefully this would then also see more donations to the Change a Life Trust materialise, which in turn will assist in us being able to change more lives – how awesome would that be?” he added.

Dreyer joins South African paddling icon, Hank McGregor, nominated in the Sportsman of the Year category, as well as Oscar Chalupsky and Steve Jourdan on the list of nominees.

The winners of each category are determined through a voting process that combines the public votes (50 per cent) as well as the input of the World Paddle Awards Academy panel (also 50 per cent), on which South African surfski figureheads, Dawid and Nikki Mocké, sit.

To vote for Martin Dreyer, visit https://www.worldpaddleawards.com/nominees/2015-martin-dreyer-south-africa. Voting is set to close at the end of November.