Julia Evans The Soweto Canoe and Recreation Club aims to provide local youth with a chance to practise canoeing and also be supported in other ways. Frequent paddler Brad Fisher founded it in 2003. The club has 62 members, all from Soweto, recruited through friends and community members. Twenty-year-old Zanentlantla Mbala joined the Soweto Canoe and Recreation Club nine years ago. At first, he found the sport strange, but today he wonders what would have become of him without it. Mbala is one of dozens of young people recruited to the club by other canoeists. The club was founded in 2003 by frequent paddler Brad Fisher, who noticed a lack of black athletes among Gauteng paddlers.