Imfamous Zambezi Paddlers, still frequent vistors

French pizza chef and video tycoon, Nicolas Chassing, has to be one of the classiest paddlers around. His consistently good placing in the top events and smooth technique have made him one of the paddlers to watch, not only medals wise, but sheer ease on the eye. He won the Camel Challenge in 1996 and most recently took the Bronze medal at the 2000 Pre Worlds.

When not tearing up the monstrous waves on the Zambezi more aggressively then paddlers twice his size, he can be found indulging in his favourite pastimes: Kite flying or Coleman riding (A crude type of wakeboarding, involving a cooler box lid, a fast boat, crocodiles and alcohol).

His sponsors are Riot and Peak UK and his favourite playspots are Fulljames, in NZ and Joinville Dam near Paris. Best rivers, "Ze Zambezi and Ze Dry Meadow Creek".

Paddling wise he reckons; "Ze secret is in eating more Cheese on ze pizza's"

Known as the Baboon, not only for his strong paddling technique, mental ability and bar room antics, Steve Fisher is one of the leading paddlers whose progress should be closely monitored. Trained by Johnny Snyder's Whitewater School, or so Johnny claims, Steve's list of credits include first in the Oregon Cup Series 1999, World Bronze Medallist 1999, Camel Challenge 2000 and many other top events on the US circuit.

Riot, Ropegun, Seven 2, Peak UK and epaddler.com are his sponsors and he rates The Zambezi and The St Laurence as his best rivers, whilst giving 12B and rapid#11 the honours in the playspot division.

Top tip, "never sit down with a light bulb in your pocket"

Englishman Alex Nicks, paddling for Necky and also sponsored by Stohlquist, Teva, Snapdragon and Lightning paddles lifted the European Championship in 2000 to add to his fifth placing at the 1999 World's as his best results.

His favourite rivers are the Zambezi and the Futalafue with 12B and Hurley his best spots for playboating. The Gaireze River in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe was where he last took a swim and says that "thinking I could fart with confidence in Indonesia" was his nastiest experience.

Apart from boiled beef and cabbage (old family favourites at the Nicks household) he enjoys all types of food and alcohol and reckons he is addicted to adrenaline. Filming, climbing, travelling and plotting his next kayak mission are his other interests and he enjoys "travelling to many ports"…most of them in a storm I presume! Any comments Alex?

And, "don't forget to lean downstream!"

Dale Jardine first sprung to recognition whilst knocking over some big names (Dan Gavere and Taylor Robertson among them) on his way to winning the 2000 Jackson Hole rodeo. Same event he also won the girl! He recently added a forth placing at the Zambezi Big Water Invitational to his credit to make his intentions quite clear to some of the more established paddlers.

Riot, theZambezi.com and his mum are his sponsors and he rates The Futalafue equal with The Zambezi as his favourite rivers. He adds that along with 12B, Fulljames is one of his favourite playspots.

His favourite pastime is finding girls with large breasts and he seems to have found that perfecting this particular art is best achieved whilst drinking as much beer as is humanly possible.

French weirdo Olivier Feuillette, the brains behind the strange Ecstasy, 12B and various size Prozac designs, remains one of the most enigmatic paddlers around. His smooth style on the water is matched only by his penchant for off river mischief.

Sponsored by Red Bull, his best results are first in the Zambezi Festival in 1992, fifth at the World's in 1997 and third in the European Champs in 1998. The Zambezi remains his favourite river and playspot wise, #12B, from which he took the name for one of his fibreglass inventions.

Off river he enjoys bread, rice and pasta (that's daring Oli) washed down by amber neck oil (beer) His spare time is taken up between his mad Scottish wife Janice, their twins Emile and Jody and his newly aquired yacht at Hout Bay.

His nastiest experience was spending 24hrs in the same car as Corran and his tip for up and coming paddlers, "don't buy ze Riot boat".