News

Written By Elzette

Louie Greeff is a 62 year old extreme adventurer who has embarked on a second trip to swim 2300kms down the world's most dangerous river - the mighty Zambezi. He is also a renowned travel author and he’s adventures are well documented and worth a read!


Louie will be going through 7 southern African countries, swimming past 180,000 crocodiles, thousands of hippos, killer rapids and Zambezi sharks. On land, he’ll encounter lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, poisonous snakes and landmines.

Although the above mentioned challenges seem insane, the purpose behind Louie’s venture is a heart-warming one and one tends to forget how many ill faced circumstances still exist in our beautiful continent.

Here’s an excerpt from his blog:

“The aim is to raise awareness about children living in abject poverty including numerous health issues amongst children orphaned because their parents have died of either malaria, TB, AIDS or landmines and Louie will also showcase orphans along the way as he was one too. Some of these very young orphans as young as 4 years are complete alcoholics.

They scavenge the land for anything they can eat even though they plant vegetables for prison staff in Lusaka.

These children have been jailed for selling marijuana to tourists and sentenced to 5 years. They serve 4 in jail and the last at the vegetable station. If they eat any of the vegetables, they are back in jail for an additional 5 years. All of them have been raped and traumatized and even though they sleep under makeshift plastic shelters, they are happy to be free.

I did this very same extremely dangerous trip in 2000 raising awareness about soiled water and education amongst the very poor tribal communities.”

Check it out at: www.actiongear.tv
Follow us on Twitter: @actiongearsa
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/actiongear.co.za

Written By Elzette

Saray Khumalo attempted to be the first black African lady to summit Mount Everest this year. Her trip was sadly cut short due to the devastating avalanche that killed 13 Sherpas. We also take a look at the Powermonkey Extreme solar powered charger with the CEO from Wintec Solutions in our product review!

Check it out at: www.actiongear.tv
Follow us on Twitter: @actiongearsa
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/actiongear.co.za

Written By Elzette

We speak to race car driver, Gugu Zulu on being the "Fastest Brother in Africa" and we take an in-depth look at the Suunto Ambit 2 HR sports watch in our review.

Check it out at: www.actiongear.tv
Follow us on Twitter: @actiongearsa
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/actiongear.co.za

Written By Elzette

Throughout the filming of ActionGear.TV we’ve had the privilege of meeting truly inspirational athletes and one of them is triathlon athlete, Pieter du Preez.

Pieter, who represented South Africa at under 23 level in triathlons, was knocked down by a car 10 years ago while on a training ride and his life has never been the same. Since then he’s been a C6 quadriplegic, which means he can only move his head, shoulders and arms.

But this man, who’s wanted to be a professional triathlon athlete from a young age, has not let it get him down. He completed the full Iron Man of 226km in 13 hours and 24 minutes on 8 December in Busselton, West Australia, almost four hours below the strict cut-off time.

 What makes his achievement even more remarkable is the fact that Pieter broke his left arm in three places six weeks before Ironman. The fact that the doctors told him to take it easy with his injury just motivated him to push forward and compete without.

Pieter had to train 5 hours every day, 7 days a week to prepare for the race whilst also retaining his job as an actuarial analyst at Deloittes where he’s also affectionately known as Supa Piet.

Pieter talks to us in studio about what keeps him motivated and his way of living which he so greatly embraces!

Follow Pieter on Twitter @SupaPiet

Check it out at: www.actiongear.tv
Follow us on Twitter: @actiongearsa
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/actiongear.co.za

Written By Elzette

We speak to Ryno Griesel about the inspirational journey towards breaking a record AGAIN with the Drakensberg Grand Traverse and we take an in-depth look at the Salomon Skin Slab 12 Set in our product review.

Check it out at: www.actiongear.tv
Follow us on Twitter: @actiongearsa
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/actiongear.co.za