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We downloaded Daryl Bartho's
GPS to download his track from the Perth World Cup race. Did Oscar gain anything by not going around
that buoy? Judge for yourself!
 Perth 2007: GPS Tracks - Oscar Chalupsky (red) and Daryl Bartho (yellow)
Cape
Point Challenge
Daryl is down from Durban to take part in
next weekend's Cape Point Challenge along with Oscar Chalupsky... who is here with his son Luke (15) and his
dad Paul (70) who are also going to take part - not often that you get three
generations in one race. (More about
that later.)
The
GPS Tracks
Daryl, Oscar, Dawid Mocke and Clint
Pretorius were together much of the way from Rottnest to Sorrento - but about
8km from the finish, the paths of the 4 paddlers diverged, Dawid taking a more northerly
line, Clint and Daryl going slightly south of Oscar's line. It would have been interesting to view
Dawid's GPS track but unfortunately he didn't hit the start button so his route
was not recorded.
Oscar was using two GPS units: a Garmin
Forerunner 301 for navigation and a 305 to monitor his heart rate and speed.
 GPS Tracks - Oscar (red) and Daryl (yellow)
The buoy
In the image below you can see clearly the
path that Daryl took to pass around the buoy, about 30m to the left of Oscar's
track.
Did the O gain any advantage?
Suffice to say that the result was
regretted by everyone I've spoken to.
Photos
Here's another batch of photos sent to us
by Ash Nesbit.
Perth
Day 2 - Sprint Race
We've struggled to get reports about day 2 -
could be something to do with the massive hangovers from the party after Day
1??
This from www.sportzhub.com:
The format for Sunday's racing was a lot
different than anything else on the ocean paddling circuit. It was an 8km race
in quite flat conditions from North Cotteslo Beach down to the Sunset Coast,
with four $250 hotspots or sprint gates along the way. The most interesting
component of this race was that the women were given a one-minute head start on
the rest of the field. As Katie explains,
"the first hotspot was 800m offshore and both men and women were
eligible to take $250 each for hitting this hot spot first. There was however
only one $250 prize for the second hot spot which was back on the beach (1600m
mark). I am sure you can all imagine the
speculation/smack talk leading into the race as to whether the women would be
able to hold their one-minute lead and claim the second hotspot. Having done a
few calculations myself prior to the race I knew that it was going to be
close."
Filled
with confidence from her pre-race analysis and upholding the women's honour to
hold off the charging men, Katie stormed off from the start. " I got away
cleanly and claimed the first hot spot by hitting the large buoy with my
paddle, but as I turned back to shore could see the large pack of men chasing
hard. I tried not to focus on them and
just think about moving my boat forward as fast as I possibly could. People who watched from elevated positions
back on the beach said it was quite a spectacle as they could see Daryl Bartho
(SA) and Tim Jacobs (Aus) closing the gap fast, (prior to the race Tim had
teased me that this would be the only time that I would have 70 men chasing
me)."
Katie
gave it her all and her determination paid off. "I had purposely not used
my GPS for this race I didn't want to know how fast/slow I was paddling; all I
wanted to do was paddle as hard as I possibly could,
I
knew about 100m out that they wouldn't catch me and I claimed the second hot
spot with a loud ‘whoop whoop'. Behind me I heard Tracy yell a similar hoot of
support /congratulations. When Tim paddled past me 150m or so later I couldn't
resist giving him a wee ‘oh I wondered when you were going to catch up'
comment. The rest of the race was a bit
of a struggle, but I managed to hold onto the win. I was enormously relieved to
cross the finish line first at City Beach it was a fantastic way to finish of
the weekend."
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While I certainly mean no disrespect to Oscar, and do not for a moment believe he sought, or likely gained any advantage from cutting the buoy, he did improperly leave the course. I have no feelings one way or the other about the size of the penalty, nor the effect on the standings. I wasn't there and can't judge that.
That said, surfski racing is becoming a 'big time' sport. With prize lists large enough to fund traning and travel habits, I can only see good things coming to the sport, particularly when racing is good, well attended and fairly run. On the other hand, the fastest way to ruin a competitive sport, wind up with 'outlaw' leagues and race series is to arbitrarily apply rules, inadequate safety, and bait&switch prize lists, bringing (at least in the US) - lawsuits:-(
I continue to be amazed at the incredible skills demonstrated by so many top competitors, and the willingness to share their expertise (and war stories). Also with the high level of organization and talent involved in promoting these races. Not to mention the investment made by ski designers and manufacturers in growing and promoting this sport. Guys like Oscar and Greg deserve a round of applause just for doing that.
In no small part to the enthusiasm and knowledge found on this site, I have two friends here in the frozen north who have made the investment in skis, having never tried a ski at all, just in anticipation of next summer. Paddle on!
Marsh Jones
Minnesota, US