paddlerprofile JeromeTruran interview by Frank Wolf
You began doing a lot of pioneering trips and explo- rations of the rivers on South Africa’s East Coast in the early 1970s. What kind of boats did you use? All the whitewater boats at the time were down- river or slalom fibreglass boats. In the 1960s we used cedar and canvas kayaks so the fibre- glass boats were a big improvement. We’d bring a four-gallon drum of resin along with us and after every drop someone would’ve ham- mered their boat on a rock and we’d have to stop, build a fire and patch the boat. We thought that was great though, because we could actually fix the boats unlike the old cedar and canvas. It was a big step up in technology.
When did plastic boats come in and how did they open up your expeditions?
Plastic was miraculous! Along with the neo- prene spray deck, it opened up dozens of first descents of rapids and waterfalls we’d never have considered with fibreglass. The first plas- tic I paddled was a Perception Mirage in 1976 and the first one I owned was a Perception Quest in 1978.
Jerome Truran is the epitome of the understated hard man. Originally from South Africa, he used his British passport to compete in international downriver races dur- ing the apartheid days of the late ‘70s. He won gold in downriver at the 1978 European Whitewater Championships and silver in the 1979 World’s. In 1985, he joined the first expedition to run the Amazon from its source and was the only paddler to run all the hard drops in the river’s technical upper section. Jerome is the cover boy busting through a rapid in the classic whitewater book Running the Amazon by Joe Kane. His feats inspired today’s South African stars Corran Addison and Steve Fisher. Jerome moved to B.C. in 1991 with his wife, Morna Fraser, a former member of the Canadian National Whitewater Team. Now a dad, he still finds time to join Tuesday-night flat- water races at Deep Cove, where he kicks butt in his 20-year-old downriver boat.
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You’ve mentioned something about crocodiles lik- ing the taste of plastic. What happened? I was sitting in my boat talking to Tony Hansen above a rapid on the lower Zambezi in the early ‘80s and he suddenly rolls over. I thought, “Gee, that’s a funny time to practice a roll, we just saw some crocs slip in the water off the banks a few minutes ago.” Then I realized a crocodile had the back of his boat and was try- ing to roll the boat around longitudinally like they do when they try to tear a piece of meat off. Tony was trying to roll up at the same time and all I could see was all this thrashing around until the croc swam off, leaving a bunch of dragging teeth marks in the back of Tony’s Prijon. Later on, Marco Begni got nailed twice on one trip we did in Swaziland, one time by a croc that crushed the foam pillar of his Dancer and compressed the front of his boat down to three inches.
You mentioned you helped Corran Addison get started paddling… Yeah, Corran’s dad owned a river outfit. He thought Corran was too young at the time to start paddling and had given Corran money to live on for a week while he took some clients down the river. Corran blew his money in one epic night and showed up at our house broke. He was too young to drive shuttle so we had to take the kid on the river with us. He was keen—
Jerome booming an ender in one of the first plastic boats, the Perception Mirage, 1977. photo Alick Rennie.
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