ARB Surfski World Cup winner Oscar Chalupsky sent us his race review, below are two extracts, click the 'read more' link for the full review. - Alain.

"The runs were perfect and I conserved my strength for the first hour. I never saw another paddler after the first 20 minutes into the race. I could see the helicopter but nothing else. At 1 hour, I said to myself, “I will push hard until the harbour wall.” I knew I was going well but I never saw a soul"

Once clear of the ship... "I took off on my predetermined route and paddled like hell into the wind. I pushed my heart rate up to 178 bpm which is 99% of maximum."

I had a bad race by my standards because when I jumped into my ski at the start of the race, I got my Garmin GPS and drinking tubes tangled. I wasn’t fast off the beach either and I ended up getting a few waves over my head which pushed me into about 30th position turning around the buoy.

I was told by Len de Beer that when he dived the day before at the Bluff, he had noticed that there was a current going with us, about 2km out. I went on his advice and worked my way out to sea. Once I was paddling down wind, I started to relax a little and started to sort out my drinking system. Once I had untangled it, I noticed that my join had come apart. I had two pieces of tubing to join while screaming down huge runs. I managed to do this.  I settled down to the job at hand.

Upon taking my first hard earned sip of Cytomax juice, I discovered that my bite valve had come off and I ended up with not a single drop to drink. It’s certainly not a big deal to have no Cytomax juice for 1 hour 40 mins, but we were going so fast, I could have a done with a sip or two. The runs were perfect and I conserved my strength for the first hour. I never saw another paddler after the first 20 minutes into the race. I could see the helicopter but nothing else. At 1 hour, I said to myself, “I will push hard until the harbour wall.” I knew I was going well but I never saw a soul.

When I was approaching the harbour entrance, I finally saw the press boat and Hank was about 50m or 3 runs ahead. In no time I had it down to one run and it was very easy to catch him. I think I was a little fresher than Hank. I was catching the same run when the official boat said that the red flag was up.  We both stopped together. We were 3 meters apart. The marker boats were a lot further off the piers than I had hoped as I had my route sorted and mapped out. The officials said Hank was 7 seconds ahead of me, but that depends on when they stopped the clock. I chatted to Hank saying that we could make the entrance. I then asked the official boat and they told Hank and I that we could go. I took off on my predetermined route and paddled like hell into the wind. I pushed my heart rate up to 178 bpm which is 99% of maximum.

Once I was on the other side of the piers, I kept asking the camera boat, “Where was Hank?” One of the sign’s of weakness is turning around and looking for the opposition. They told me 200 meters off and I knew I had it in the bag!  At the finishing line I was totally exhausted and could not breathe.

I shook Hank’s hand and said “Well done” thinking that there was absolutely no problem!  I had no objection to Hank lodging a protest as I felt that I had not breached the race rules in anyway.  The results were upheld by the race committee, which included six independent views, camera and helicopter footage.  The only thing that I am disappointed in is that Hank never attended the prize giving ceremony to accept his medal and prize money from the sponsor of the race, Mr Alan Burke of ARB.  This was a “slap in the face” to the sponsor and fellow paddlers.  In closing I would like to thank the race committee for a well run and successful race. 

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