|
It's 4am in Hong Kong, the paddlers are dreaming of the US$5,000
winner's cheque... and there's a 14-15kt
Northeaster forecast - enough wind to give ideal conditions for the race.
 Hong Kong Sea School - Dawid Mocke and Lewis Laughlin with Oscar Chalupsky and the kids...
So what have the guys
been doing today?
I called Dawid this morning - he answered the phone on a
line so clear he could have been next door.
Turned out he was somewhere off Hong Kong Island, paddling with Lewis
Laughlin and Australian youngster Dave Provan...
Meanwhile Oscar Chalupsky was giving a paddling clinic at
the Hong Kong Seaschool - a school for under-privileged kids.
 Oscar lecturing the theory...
Hong Kong Seaschool
Bill Hutchinson, principal of the school, said,
"The School is a
boarding school for underprivileged boys in Stanley, Hong Kong. All kids in the school have either family or
academic problems and, for most, it is a school of last resort - if they don't
go here, they don't go anywhere.
It has a strong
maritime background and tries to aid in the promotion of sea sports as this
gives additional opportunities to the boys - we raise funds to help the boys
reach their potential in sea sports (sailing, windsurfing and canoeing) and the
goal of the programs is to give them a future by having them reach HK
representative levels in these sports.
The boys in the clinic are members of our canoeing team and the young
man in the Instructor top doing the tango with Oscar is the canoe coach. The school is gradually building a
competitive paddling culture and has received promises of support from the
local surfski community in the donation of used skis for the boys - the only
problem is that many of the boys are very small and simply don't fit the skis the
guys like Rene Appel and Andy Orr are offering us - that is why the adjustable length skis are
a godsend . Still, they are interested
and the goal of the paddling program is to develop HK representative paddlers
at Asian Games level as well as branching out into outrigger canoeing and
surfskis. Don't be surprised if lads
from the School turn up at a race or two next year."
 ...and applying the theory in practise
The Entry List
...looks pretty impressive.
My earlier top 5 predictions were made without the benefit of the list
and probably needs a re-look.
The Aussie contingent includes Dean Gardiner (who's been
doing plenty of training and racing of late); the on-form Ken Wallace; Michael "Gollum"
Baker; Dave Provan (who, I'm told is rated by Dean Gardiner as the best
downwind paddler he knows. He's 19 and
paddles under-23 K1 for Australia).
The South Africans include Oscar Chalupsky, Dawid Mocke,
Bevan Manson and Ken Collins.
From Tahiti there's Lewis Laughlin fresh from victory in the
US Champs.
There are four Japanese paddlers including Masaru Tamura (who
runs a surf ski website in Japan) and several Chinese paddlers are also
competing.
 The Japanese team meets the Big O (left to right): Masaru Tamura, Shun Shirahata, Oscar Chalupsky, Mitsunobu Gohda, Fumito Kan
Live Coverage...
Will be starting from around 10h00 Hong Kong time (04h00 SA
time!) See you then!
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed