About us

Based in the leafy and mountainous seaside town of Hout Bay, Leopards is a trail running centric community that brings together people with a shared passion for movement, nature, fun, and adventure. It is a free, volunteer-based community that is open to anyone to join.

We are a diverse and gender-balanced crew, welcoming members across all ages - we have been joined by members as young as 2 years old all the way through to 81 years old.

At Leopards, we have carefully curated the community and culture to ensure your safety and maximum enjoyment, allowing you to explore, connect, and grow in a conducive, safe, and encouraging environment. We promote equity, inclusivity, and diversity, and celebrate the uniqueness inherent in each of us.

With Leopards, you have the chance to explore the mountains safely under the guidance of our dedicated leaders and sweepers. Each pace group has a guide who leads the group, sets the pace, and stops to regroup. The running groups have a guide who sweeps the back of the pack, making sure that no one gets left behind or lost, and who helps anyone injured or in trouble safely off the mountain.

To bring you exciting, novel experiences, we explore a new trail in and around Hout Bay each week, offering you dozens of routes between the different pace groups. We never repeat a starting trail in the same month, and rotate between eight different starting locations, offering a balance between coastal, high-vert, flat and fast, and varied trail running experiences.

Who can join

Anyone! While we are proudly based in the suburb of Hout Bay, Cape Town, and do our best to give back to and empower the community, we welcome anyone from anywhere with open arms. Many weeks, up to half of the runners joining come from areas far outside the Valley, up to an hour's drive away in some cases, and who feel just as at home with us.

Over the summer season, we also serve as a meeting hub for tourists, and have had the pleasure of welcoming hundreds of people from countries around Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia over the years.. We also frequently explore surrounding suburbs and parts of Cape Town, so keep an eye open to see when we are in your neighbourhood and come say hi!

Our origin story

Trail Leopards was founded in the late summer of February 2024 in a coastal town surrounded by a rugged mountain range in Cape Town. For the past two years, Kai Forster had been exploring the mountains of Hout Bay, falling in love with the nature, views, sense of adventure, growth, and history that trail running in the area offered. While he had grown up in Hout Bay, he had spent the first 23 years of his life barely stepping foot on any of the mountains. After seeing how much the mountains offered and how much they taught him, and realising that there was no established and centralised trail running community in Hout Bay, Kai had the idea of starting a club towards the end of 2023, but thought that it would remain another pipeline dream, never turning into reality.

Coming off a fresh heart break over a new year's festival, in early 2024 Kai made a promise to himself - no matter what, he would give this trail running community idea a shot. He discussed it with friends, and onboarded a few of them to join as guides for the first ever run, which was scheduled to take place from Sentinel Ocean Alliance on the 8th of February, and would take people up onto the Chapman's Peak trails, Kai's favourite spot to run.

After a successful marketing campaign, more than 120 people showed up at the first run, split across the same four pace groups that we have today. After the initial hype and successful launch, dozens of people reached out and wanted to be a part of the movement and contribute to the community. Many of them stuck around and are still with us today, showcasing the strength of the bonds and the camaraderie between the initial group that became the founding guides.

Over the years, Leopards has grown and blossomed into a beautiful community and safe space, where people can connect, explore, and express themselves in one of the most beautiful floral kingdoms in the world, situated in one of the most scenic suburbs in Cape Town. Through collaboration, giving back to the community, and learning from one another, we have continued to create and share profound experiences for everyone that joins us.

Our values

They say that your vibe attracts your tribe, so please take a quick look at our values to make sure everyone is on the same page and you know what to expect. If you read through them and none of it resonates with you at all, then that is no problem, then it might be that Leopards isn't the place for you - we understand that not every community is for everyone and we won't be offended!

Our community has been built around these values, and we encourage you to embody them to the greatest extent that you comfortably can. We also encourage you to live in alignment with the values that deeply resonate with you outside of our community too, to enhance your wellbeing, fulfilment, contribution, and health in life.

Rules

To ensure that Leopards remains a safe, inclusive, and enjoyable experience for all, we ask that before joining, you take some time to please read through the rules below.

Please note that we take these community rules very seriously - any breach of these rules that affects the Leopards community or any of its members will lead to disciplinary action, handled by the Ethics Committee, a group of five founding members that deal with any disciplinary-related issues to ensure a fair, unbiased outcome. In severe instances, we have banned individuals in the past, and will not hesitate to do so again should the situation be called for.