The new Epic V10 Sport has arrived in South Africa… But wait, it’s just one copy, brought back from the factory by Oscar Chalupsky who has spent the last three weeks in China.

(I’m told that the factory is in full production – with a current capacity of 100 boats per month. The first batches of production skis are destined for the US to fulfil a huge backlog of orders.)

Yep, it’s official, the new Fenn single ski is named the Fenn Mako 6 (6 for 2006).

I was up in East London a week ago and called in at the Fenn factory to find out how production of the new skis is faring.

For long distance races, most paddlers (in South Africa at any rate) use drinking systems comprising a plastic bladder, a rubber tube and a clip. In order to drink, you’re obliged to stop paddling momentarily in order to insert the tube in your mouth and to undo the clip. And when you stop drinking, you have to pause again to fasten the clip to prevent your juice from draining into the sea.

Clearly you want to minimise breaks to your rhythm – so most paddlers leave the tube in their mouths for extended periods.  And therein lies a problem...

V10 Sport

Oscar is combining the testing with training for the Molokai Challenge – surely the first time an athlete has trained for this event on a tidal river (the Fuchun River) in South East China!