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The Surfski circus moves down under this weekend when the world's top paddlers take part in the Rottness Island to Sorrento Beach race in Perth, Australia, on Saturday, with Oscar Chalupsky under pressure as he aims for a hat-trick.
 Oscar crosses the finish in Dubai (Pic: Wouter Kingma)
The 44-year-old has won the race for the past two years, but the man with the best chance of making it a South African hat-trick may be Cape Town's Dawid Mocke, who has proved himself to be without doubt the world's top ski paddler this year.
The Perth World Cup event is the fourth leg of the World Series and after victory in both the second and third legs in Hong Kong and Dubai over the past two weekends, Mocke is the man to beat.
 Oscar & Daryl Bartho an hour into the 2006 Perth Race
The Cape Town paddler has added a cool $26 000 (about R175 000) to his bank balance because of wins in the Dragon Run in Hong Kong and the Dubai Shamaal last weekend (and hotspot prizes in both events), and at this weekend's race, the richest in Australia, he is likely to give his bank manager a few more reasons to smile.
Chalupsky has been third and fifth over the past two weekend's, but any talk of arguably the world's most successful ski paddler being over the hill is met with typical Chalupsky confidence.
 Oscar congratulates winner Dawid Mocke in Hong Kong as Lewis Laughlin (2nd) looks on (Pic: Graham Uden)
"Dawid has the results over the past few weekend's and he is without doubt the man to beat at the moment, but I will be in Perth pushing him hard all the way," said the Durban businessman. "I won the World Ranking Series last year and am not so far off the lead that a couple of good results will not keep me in contention.
"I love this race and if the surf is big, experience will count and so I may be able to show the young guys a thing or two.
"Perth is the second last major of the year with the Cape Point Challenge in South Africa coming up just before Christmas, so I am aiming for a big effort here and at the Cape Point before I take a break and give this old body a bit of a rest," Chalupsky joked.
"This weekend's race is going to be tough and I reckon the winner will be the paddler who beats Dawid, but Lewis Laughlin is not somebody you can forget about. Lewis had a bad race in Dubai, but that will just make him more determined this weekend, so I think they will be the pair to watch ... and it is a home race for Dean (Gardiner) so he could pull off a surprise."
The only paddler from the top 14 at Dubai who will not be lining up in Perth is Hank McGregor, with the likes of Tim Jacobs, Herman Chalupsky and Darryl Bartho all ready to pounce.
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