Despite controversy Oscar still ranked #1 (**Photos & full results**) Print E-mail
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Written by Tim Whitfield   
Sunday, 09 December 2007

Oscar Chalupsky had a hat-trick of victories controversially taken away from him in the Perth World Cup surfski race on Saturday, but he can still take pleasure from the fact he holds his number one spot in the Surfski.info World Series rankings.

Oscar Chalupsky Perth World Cup 2007
Oscar Chalupsky - loving the conditions (Pic: Greg Kitto)

Fellow South African Clint Pretorius was a shock winner of the Rottnest Island to Sorrento Bay race, but his victory only came about when Chalupsky was relegated to third position after crossing the line first. 

After a close race, Pretorius finished 16 seconds behind Chalupsky.

They were followed home by Darryl Bartho and pre-race favourite, Dawid Mocke, with Herman Chalupsky rounding out a South African cleansweep in fifth.

Drama 

But there was drama as Oscar Chalupsky, aiming for a hat-trick of wins in the event, approached the beach. 

The 44-year-old Durban businessman, using all his years of experience took a slightly different line to the finish and managed to eke out a narrow lead. As they headed toward the beach he thought the lead boat told him to go right of the final buoy. Chalupsky followed what he thought was the race boat's orders and raced the final 500m to the finish at Sorrento Beach and, such was his lead, was able to walk up the beach to complete the victory.

Oscar Chalupsky GPS Perth 2007
Oscar's GPS Track showing his approach to the beach

"...right of the groyne" 

A video taken from the lead boat and used as evidence in the hearing after the race clearly showed the race official shouting to Chalupsky.

The exact words spoken to him as the boats approached Sorrento Beach were: "Oscar, there's a boat on the buoy. It's to the right of the groyne."

With the noise from the boat, wind, and his own paddling, Chalupsky misheard the shout as an instruction from the race officials to go right of the buoy. 

It was clear the error was a genuine misunderstanding, and Chalupsky, who was leading, was certain to win, and gained no race-changing advantage, was given a 30-second time penalty that relegated him to third overall.

The race was summed up by third-placed Bartho: "Oscar would have won if he'd gone around the buoy," he told Surfski.info soon after the finish. 

Philosophical 

Chalupsky was philosophical about the race and the decision.

"What can you do?" he said in an interview from Perth. "I know I won and I know on the day I was the best paddler. 

"The wind was blowing, I was 20 metres away with spray flying so it is hard to hear what is being said. The guy says 'go right' as I approach the buoy ... of course I am going to think he is talking about the buoy and so I followed his instructions.

"Even when I first heard the video I thought he said go right of the 'buoy'." 

The photos below were taken by Greg Kitto of  www.x-dream.co.za

World Rankings 

Despite his third place, Chalupsky retains top spot in the World Rankings.

Going into the event Chalupsky held a narrow lead over Lewis Laughlin, who ended 10th in Perth. His third position means Chalupsky increases his lead  to 35 points, while Mocke, who has done one race less, moves into third spot, 80 points behind Chalupsky.

Clint Pretorius 

Pretorius was a dark horse who nobody gave much thought to as a potential winner before the race. He only recently returned to ski paddling after breaking his arm and went out hard in a pre-planned attempt to win the two Fenn hotspots worth $1 000 each.

"I just wound it off the starting blocks and took the first Fenn hotspot," Pretorius said after the race. "Then I thought I'd just hang in there, but about three kilometres from the second hotspot, Daw (Mocke), Daryl and Oscar and me pushed on and I caught a couple of runs on the left to take the second hotspot." 

Bartho was not surprised. "Clint flew off the start," he said. "I'm sharing a room with him and he said he was going to just go for the hotspots."

From the second hotspot it was a tense battle with the paddlers using their wave-riding ability to try and get an edge over their rivals. 

The experience of Chalupsky was the difference and his incredible ablity to use the tail wind and following waves in a downwind race came to the fore. He paddled a slightly different line to his rivals and was able to manufacture a narrow lead which should have given him victory ... if only he had not misheard the instructions from the race boat.

"I was waiting for Clint to burn out, but he's such a talent in the runs," said Bartho. "But towards the end of the race I realised, hey, he's going to win this thing! He was leading until close to the end, Oscar was off to the left somewhere then came across and moved slightly ahead." 

Dawid Mocke 

Surprisingly Mocke -- who was aiming for a hat-trick of his own following victories in Hong Kong and Dubai -- was never able to get ahead of his Durban rivals.

"We went hammer and tongs," said the Cape Town paddler after the finish. "I took a line slightly too far north so I had the runs coming in from the side as I came back over the last stretch. 

"Oscar and Clint were brilliant!"

Photos below courtesy of Rob Dougall

 

 

Full Results:

Pos Name Time Country/State
1 Clint Pretorius 01:26:40 SA
2 Daryl Bartho 01:26:53 SA
3 Oscar Chalupsky 01:27:00 SA
4 Dawid Mocke 01:27:56 SA
5 Herman Chalupsky 01:29:15 SA
6 Tim Jacobs 01:29:15 NSW
7 Dean Gardiner 01:29:28 NSW
8 Barry Lewin 01:29:44 SA
9 Dean Beament 01:30:18 WA
10 Lewis Laughlin 01:30:34 TAH
11 Dave Kissane 01:30:36 NSW
12 Tim Bird 01:31:13 QLD
13 Steve Woods 01:31:32 SA
14 Matt Rees 01:31:35 NSW
15 Dane Sloss 01:32:34 QLD
16 Jasper Mocke 01:33:00 SA
17 Heath Wright 01:33:11 WA
18 Brendan Sarson 01:33:22 WA
19 Brett Bartho 01:34:50 SA
20 Michael Baker 01:34:55 WA
21 Bevan Manson 01:36:10 SA
22 Jamie Stewart 01:37:06 NSW
23 Mark Minchin 01:37:24 NSW
24 Ben Mercer 01:37:25 WA
25 Adam Bloomfield 01:38:02 WA
26 Nick Taylor 01:39:40 WA
27 Tony Bowman
 01:40:32 WA
28 Ian Gray 01:40:41 SA
29 Andrew Stevens 01:40:55 WA
30 Calium Nielson 01:40:58 WA
31 Dean Morgan 01:41:46 WA
32 Kristian Hawkless 01:41:51 WA
33 Shaun Rice 01:42:11 WA
34 Rod Taylor 01:42:17 QLD
35 Stuart Donnelly 01:42:18 WA
36 Brendan Rice 01:42:41 WA
37 Rob Jenkinson 01:42:55 WA
38 Mitch Braun 01:43:13 WA
39 Greg Mickle 01:43:36 WA
40 Brody Baker 01:43:50 WA
41 Bennett Maxwell 01:43:52 Sth Aust
42 karl Treacher 01:44:16 NSW
43 David Kelyanck 01:44:00 NSW
44 Greg Cooper 01:46:25 NSW
45 Michael Pond 01:46:43 WA
46 Brendan Downes 01:46:47 WA
47 Steve Coulter 01:47:00 NSW
48 Mark Lowry 01:47:01 WA
49 Walter Chalupsky 01:47:18 WA
50 Katie Pocock 01:47:29 NZ
51 Rob Doherty and Phil Seaton 01:48:10 WA
52 Stuart Reside 01:48:56 WA
53 Adam Dagg 01:49:46 WA
54 Ben Carrick 01:50:00 WA
55 Daniel Bowker 01:50:36 WA
56 Matt Bowbridge 01:50:43 WA
57 Antoine De Rooster 01:50:53 WA
58 Dale Ponsford 01:51:27 WA
59 Tony King 01:51:45 NSW
60 Jason Wright 01:51:55 WA
61 Lindsay Willard 01:52:38 WA
62 Tim Schlieger 01:53:05 VIC
63 Ruth Highman 01:53:11 WA
64 Todd Brewer 01:53:20 WA
65 Simon Huitenga 01:54:14 WA
66 Natasha Leversuch 01:55:05 WA
67 Jason Cunningham 01:56:02 NSW
68 Ricky Smith 01:56:32 WA
69 Danika Vorster 01:56:53 SA
70 Kobi Simmat 01:57:54 NSW
71 Cam Middelton 01:58:00 NSW
72 Natalie Veckrange 01:58:25 SA
73 Jermey Marsh 01:59:52 WA
74 Craig Sands 02:00:35 WA
75 Peter Framer 02:02:34 WA
76 Ron Clark 02:02:34 WA
77 Mark Nathan 02:03:56 WA
78 Stuart Sliman and Russel Wright 02:04:10 WA
79 Damien Kelly 02:04:10 WA
80 Stephen Ford 02:06:19 WA
81 Darryl Long 02:06:28 WA
82 Richard Eadie 02:07:12 WA
83 Colin Doherty 02:07:30 WA
84 Greg Bayne 02:08:58 WA
85 Kim Bingham 02:09:37 WA
86 Nat Benjanuvaatra 02:13:39 WA
87 Ben Slatham 02:14:43 WA
88 Martin Gunda 02:15:04 WA
89 Julie Jenkinson 02:15:26 WA
90 Ken Vidler 02:16:03 WA
91 Mathew Howell 02:16:16 WA
92 Craig Fisher 02:16:23 WA
93 James Mackie 02:17:39 WA
94 Paul Chalupsky 02:18:02 WA
95 Adam Fahey 02:19:32 WA
96 Dale Welsh 02:20:27 WA
97 Glen Orchard 02:20:30 WA
98 Paul Smith 02:21:10 WA
99 Tom Simmatt 02:21:50 NSW
100 Donna Winter 02:22:12 SA
101 Lee Barker 02:22:55 WA
102 Jono Dale 02:26:00 WA
103 Greg Cooper 02:26:30 NSW
104 Dave Walter 02:29:09 WA
105 Antony Mee 02:29:17 WA
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Comments (9)Add Comment
World Rankings
written by Rob Mousley, December 09, 2007
...latest positions will be updated as soon as I receive a full set of results.
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Barry's ski...aerial?
written by Jeff Raymond, December 10, 2007
What's that on the back deck of Barry's ski, some sort of aerial?
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missing the point (perhaps)
written by Joe, December 10, 2007
All of the competitors made it abundantly clear that you were supposed to keep the buoy of your right. What makes this funky and open to debate is that Oscar went quite close on the other side BECAUSE he misintrepreted the instructions shouted to him by the lead boat. Had he been coming 2nd or 5th and no one said boo to him I assume he'd have followed the original instructions and passed as orginally instructed. So, yes, a rule is a rule and should be inforced but if an official tells you to do the opposite -- or you THINK that's what he said -- and you gain no advantage from their error, well, the prudent decision would have been to let the finishing order stick. Maybe the lesson learned from this is to 1. have 2 buoys so that competitors go in between 2. don't shout instructions to the guys in the $ in the howling wind.
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Aerial?
written by Rob Mousley, December 10, 2007
Two of the skis (can't remember who else) were carrying cameras. Apparently the video footage is exceptional.
Some of it will be made available on YouTube after the guys get home.
And a DVD will be made at some point (bearing in mind that the DVD of the ARB Surf ski world cup is still in production).
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Sprints?
written by Ian Hague, December 10, 2007
What happened in the sprint race(s) on the Sunday?
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Sprints
written by Rob Mousley, December 10, 2007
Um... I needed to paddle on Sunday, having missed a race on Saturday. Did a 31km qualifier for Cape Point so it was a bit late to call Aus, they were already partying.
I heard that the (hungover) guys had fun though with the sprints but I don't have a formal report yet. Probably be in the next day or so as the guys get home and I can talk to them.
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Full Credit to Oscar
written by Richard Hart, December 11, 2007
I met Oscar after the race and helped him move his ski from the beach.

Even with the race issue hanging over him, he was still smiling and greeting people, sometimes introducing them to the real Herman if they mistoke him!

Oscar is a great embassador for the sport - perhaps that's why he of often referred to as the "Big O"
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...
written by Ian, December 11, 2007
why was there even a buoy placed there ????? Its obvious from Oscar's GPS plot that the field had a straight shot at the beach finish !!!
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Whay was the Buoy there?
written by Richard Hart, December 17, 2007
The buoy protected the patrolled swimming section of the beach ensuring that swimmers and ski did not meet!
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