'Oscar in Sweden' Print E-mail
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Written by Rob Mousley   
Sunday, 10 February 2008

We're considering starting a column on the site called, "The Adventures of Oscar the Paddler"...  Yep, he's at it again.  Oscar Chalupsky is on a European tour to visit the Epic dealers (and to create new ones).  Last seen in Wales, he's re-surfaced (briefly) in Sweden where he joined the local "Dawn Patrol" in a warm (0-2degrees Centigrade) paddle with some of the best Adventure Racers in the world.

Oscar in the dark - Norkopping, Sweden
Oscar sets off with the dawn patrol in Norkopping, Sweden.

Local Epic distributor Erik Wallgren sent us some photos and an update:

Our part of Sweden is experiencing our warmest winter for 200 years, so there is no snow and 0-2° Celsius. Bad for skiing but good for paddling.

No snow means pitch black and Oscar arrived in the dark. He enjoyed a big meal with moose meat, lingon-berries and a couple of beers in front of the bonfire at my place. After a short sleep we went by bicycle to the club to meet the guys in the "Dawn patrol", consisting of a couple of world class adventure racers.

The Dawn patrol trains in Epic surf skis every Tuesday and Thursday morning year round. This morning we didn´t have any ice but water is cold (1° celcius) and sort of thick. We headed out in the dark, icy wind blowing 4 knot from the north, rounded an island in good speed after 30 minutes of paddling. Stopped to take soem pictures (an excuse to rest for me).

On the way back we did some sprint racing between lighthouses and buoys and experienced how fast Oscar is. We had all great fun and got a lot of paddling tips from Oscar who didn´t have any problems with the winter climate.

Norkopping, Sweden
Where the heck is Norkopping?

The Dawn Patrol comprises:

  • Erik Wallgren - Epic dealer in Sweden
  • Erik Wildenstam - Team Nomado
  • Ola Olsson - Kolmården Adventures
  • Henrik Vuorinen - Kolmården Adventures
  • Pär Johansson - Kolmården Adventures
  • Joel Birath - Kolmården Adventures
  • Nicklas Levinsson - Team FJS
  • Johan Hasselmark - Team FJS
  • Daniel Hansson - Team FJS

Apparently Team FJS is the best military Adventure Racing team in the world. (http://www.fjs.se/).

All the photos were supplied by Erik Wallgren:

All I can say is that it must take some fortitude to paddle in such conditions - respect!

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written by Jeff Hegedus, February 10, 2008
Hard core! As a cold water paddler myself, its worth mentioning that when in freezing waters, there is this thing called 'sudden shock syndrome,' and if you go over for any reason, its especially good to have a PFD on.
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Line of the year so far on SS.I
written by Gavin Dickinson, February 10, 2008
He enjoyed a big meal with moose meat, lingon-berries and a couple of beers in front of the bonfire at my place.

You could not make it up & I can just see the big South African munching his way through 1/2 a Moose & making sure there is no beer left over.
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