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Surfski.info is proud to announce that the 45 year old surfski paddling icon, Oscar Chalupsky, has done it again: he's the Surfski.info World Series Champion for the second year running...
 Surfski.info World Series: Dawid Mocke (2nd), Oscar Chalupsky (1st)
Oscar - Paddling Phenomenon
Oscar is a phenomenon by any measure - never far from the headlines, at age 45 he's still a top contender at every race, relying on his vast experience of paddling in all conditions.
Although he didn't win any races this season (controversially being stripped of his victory at the Perth World Cup after being awarded a time penalty), he was always in the front pack.
Apart from his achievements in races, we salute his energy and enthusiasm - manifested in the multitude of stories carried on this site about his visits to countries all over the world - Japan, Hong Kong, Dubai, Sweden and Belgium to name a few.
Congratulations, Oscar!
Images from 2007/2008 World Series races by:
- Graham Uden
- Anthony Grote
- Vince Bechet
- Greg Kitto
- Glen Murray
- Robin Greenwood
- Pat Hemmens
- Wouter Kingma
- Ken Findlay
- Alain Jaques
How does the World Series work?
For those who don't know, this year:
- Each World Series race was awarded a star-rating according to a set of criteria based on the type of course and prize money offered.
- At each race, the top 50 paddlers earned points: 50 for a win; 49 points for coming second, and so on. (Except that winners of 1-star races that had fewer than 50 competitors were awarded points corresponding to the number of paddlers in the race.)
- The points were then multiplied by the star rating so that winning a 4-star event would mean 4 x 50 = 200 points.
Finally we took the best 6 results for each paddler to give a total towards the final rankings.
Looking back
From the feedback we've had from around the world, we're confident that we're on the right track - by making this season's World Rankings more inclusive we raised interest in the series; and we can argue fairly convincingly that our top twenty positions are beginning to correspond with the top twenty paddlers in the world. There are some obvious problems of course (for example most of the Aussie paddlers didn't enter enough races to feature), but we're getting there.
We also took plenty of criticism this year, which was great - because it means that people care enough about the series to want to make it better. We've listened to the criticism and the suggestions and a new set of modified rules is about to be published. Some of the highlights of the new rules are:
- The 2009 series will be still more inclusive: every paddler that enters a race will be awarded points for the World Rankings. This means that Joe Average can have a fun tussle with his international buddies even if they don't attend every race.
- We'll be capping the number of points that can be earned from the different star-rated races - which will mean that participation in a 1-star race could be important to a top paddler. It'll also make it fairer for paddlers who can't attend every 4-star race.
- We've made it easier for races to achieve significant star-ratings while still preserving the spirit of surfski paddling (i.e. open ocean/downwind).
We also have exciting news about sponsorship for the series and we'll be making it correspond with the calendar year - details on all of this will be posted in the near future.
The Races
The races for the 2007/2008 season were:
|
Race
|
Date
|
Stars
|
|
Defis Kayak - Guadeloupe
|
2007/09/29
|
1
|
|
US Surfski Champs
|
2007/09/30
|
2
|
|
NY Mayors Cup 2007
|
2007/10/14
|
1
|
|
Dragon Run 2007
|
2007/11/24
|
3
|
|
Dubai 2007
|
2007/11/30
|
4
|
|
Perth 2007
|
2007/12/08
|
4
|
|
CPC 2007
|
2007/12/22
|
1
|
|
Culebra Challenge 2008
|
2008/03/02
|
3
|
|
Plett Easter Race 2008
|
2008/03/22
|
1
|
|
KoH 2008
|
2008/03/29
|
1
|
|
Molokai 2008
|
2008/05/18
|
4
|
|
Durban World Cup 2008
|
2008/06/29
|
4
|
Women's Rankings - the Top Ten
|
Name
|
Country
|
Races
|
Total
|
Pos
|
|
Katie Pocock
|
NZ
|
5
|
115
|
1
|
|
Alexa Cole
|
RSA
|
3
|
64
|
2
|
|
Natalie Veckranges
|
RSA
|
4
|
58
|
3
|
|
Danica Vorster
|
RSA
|
3
|
48
|
4
|
|
Michelle Eder
|
RSA
|
2
|
48
|
4
|
|
Abbey Miedema
|
RSA
|
1
|
28
|
6
|
|
Lauren Bartlet
|
USA
|
1
|
28
|
6
|
|
Donna Winter
|
RSA
|
4
|
25
|
8
|
|
Ruth Highman
|
AUS
|
1
|
24
|
9
|
|
Tiffany Kruger
|
RSA
|
1
|
24
|
9
|
Clearly we need more women to compete in more World Series events!
Katie Pocock and Alexa Cole had a close battle in both the races where they paddled together - Molokai in May and Durban in June. Alexa won both, but narrowly in both cases. We look forward to a mighty tussle between the two women in the 2009 series.
But, they'll face fierce competition from a number of other women paddlers who have been busy over the last year preparing for the Olympics - South Africa's Nikki Mocke being a stand out among them.
Open Rankings - Top Twenty
|
Name
|
Country
|
Sex
|
Races
|
Points
|
Pos
|
|
Oscar Chalupsky
|
RSA
|
M
|
6
|
978
|
1
|
|
Dawid Mocke
|
RSA
|
M
|
6
|
961
|
2
|
|
Lewis Laughlin
|
TAH
|
M
|
6
|
915
|
3
|
|
Dean Gardiner
|
AUS
|
M
|
5
|
841
|
4
|
|
Tim Jacobs
|
AUS
|
M
|
5
|
790
|
5
|
|
Herman Chalupsky
|
RSA
|
M
|
5
|
760
|
6
|
|
Barry Lewin
|
RSA
|
M
|
6
|
735
|
7
|
|
Ian Gray
|
RSA
|
M
|
6
|
690
|
8
|
|
Daryl Bartho
|
RSA
|
M
|
5
|
682
|
9
|
|
Hank McGregor
|
RSA
|
M
|
4
|
627
|
10
|
|
Bevan Manson
|
RSA
|
M
|
5
|
617
|
11
|
|
Clint Pretorius
|
RSA
|
M
|
3
|
572
|
12
|
|
Steve Woods
|
RSA
|
M
|
4
|
494
|
13
|
|
Greg Barton
|
USA
|
M
|
5
|
490
|
14
|
|
Brett Bartho
|
RSA
|
M
|
3
|
420
|
15
|
|
Michael Baker
|
AUS
|
M
|
3
|
416
|
16
|
|
Jasper Mocke
|
RSA
|
M
|
4
|
365
|
17
|
|
Dave Kissane
|
AUS
|
M
|
2
|
328
|
18
|
|
Ken Wallace
|
AUS
|
M
|
2
|
286
|
19
|
Open Rankings - Top Five Analysis
For the second season running, Oscar Chalupsky won the Surfski.info World Series. Dawid Mocke came second and Tahitian Lewis Laughlin third.
What made the difference between Oscar and Dawid was that Oscar attended the US Champs, which was a 2-star race; Dawid Mocke missed the race through injury and had to count a 1-star result, his 4th place at the Cape Point Challenge that only gave him 47 points.
The Races that Counted
|
Race
|
Date
|
Stars
|
Name
|
Country
|
Sex
|
Pos
|
Pts
|
|
US Champs
|
2007/09/30
|
2
|
Lewis Laughlin
|
TAH
|
M
|
1
|
100
|
|
|
|
|
Oscar Chalupsky
|
RSA
|
M
|
2
|
98
|
|
Dragon Run 2007
|
2007/11/24
|
3
|
Dawid Mocke
|
RSA
|
M
|
1
|
150
|
|
|
|
|
Lewis Laughlin
|
TAH
|
M
|
2
|
147
|
|
|
|
|
Oscar Chalupsky
|
RSA
|
M
|
3
|
144
|
|
|
|
|
Dean Gardiner
|
AUS
|
M
|
4
|
141
|
|
Dubai 2007
|
2007/11/30
|
4
|
Dawid Mocke
|
RSA
|
M
|
1
|
200
|
|
|
|
|
Tim Jacobs
|
AUS
|
M
|
3
|
192
|
|
|
|
|
Oscar Chalupsky
|
RSA
|
M
|
5
|
184
|
|
|
|
|
Lewis Laughlin
|
TAH
|
M
|
8
|
172
|
|
|
|
|
Dean Gardiner
|
AUS
|
M
|
10
|
164
|
|
Perth 2007
|
2007/12/08
|
4
|
Oscar Chalupsky
|
RSA
|
M
|
3
|
192
|
|
|
|
|
Dawid Mocke
|
RSA
|
M
|
4
|
188
|
|
|
|
|
Tim Jacobs
|
AUS
|
M
|
6
|
180
|
|
|
|
|
Dean Gardiner
|
AUS
|
M
|
7
|
176
|
|
|
|
|
Lewis Laughlin
|
TAH
|
M
|
10
|
164
|
|
CPC 2007
|
2007/12/22
|
1
|
Dawid Mocke
|
RSA
|
M
|
4
|
47
|
|
KoH 2008
|
2008/03/29
|
1
|
Tim Jacobs
|
AUS
|
M
|
1
|
50
|
|
Molokai 2008
|
2008/05/18
|
4
|
Lewis Laughlin
|
TAH
|
M
|
1
|
200
|
|
|
|
|
Tim Jacobs
|
AUS
|
M
|
3
|
192
|
|
|
|
|
Dean Gardiner
|
AUS
|
M
|
4
|
188
|
|
|
|
|
Dawid Mocke
|
RSA
|
M
|
5
|
184
|
|
|
|
|
Oscar Chalupsky
|
RSA
|
M
|
7
|
176
|
|
Durban 2008
|
2008/06/29
|
4
|
Dawid Mocke
|
RSA
|
M
|
3
|
192
|
|
|
|
|
Oscar Chalupsky
|
RSA
|
M
|
5
|
184
|
|
|
|
|
Tim Jacobs
|
AUS
|
M
|
7
|
176
|
|
|
|
|
Dean Gardiner
|
AUS
|
M
|
8
|
172
|
|
|
|
|
Lewis Laughlin
|
TAH
|
M
|
18
|
132
|
The Results by Paddler
|
Name
|
Country
|
Race
|
Pos
|
Pts
|
|
|
Dawid Mocke
|
RSA
|
CPC 2007
|
4
|
47
|
|
|
|
|
Dragon Run 2007
|
1
|
150
|
|
|
|
|
Dubai 2007
|
1
|
200
|
|
|
|
|
Durban 2008
|
3
|
192
|
|
|
|
|
Molokai 2008
|
5
|
184
|
|
|
|
|
Perth 2007
|
4
|
188
|
|
|
|
|
Plett 2008
|
2
|
34
|
Discard
|
|
Dean Gardiner
|
AUS
|
Dragon Run 2007
|
4
|
141
|
|
|
|
|
Dubai 2007
|
10
|
164
|
|
|
|
|
Durban 2008
|
8
|
172
|
|
|
|
|
Molokai 2008
|
4
|
188
|
|
|
|
|
Perth 2007
|
7
|
176
|
|
|
Lewis Laughlin
|
TAH
|
Dragon Run 2007
|
2
|
147
|
|
|
|
|
Dubai 2007
|
8
|
172
|
|
|
|
|
Durban 2008
|
18
|
132
|
|
|
|
|
KoH 2008
|
6
|
45
|
Discard
|
|
|
|
Molokai 2008
|
1
|
200
|
|
|
|
|
Perth 2007
|
10
|
164
|
|
|
|
|
US Champs
|
1
|
100
|
|
|
Oscar Chalupsky
|
RSA
|
CPC 2007
|
7
|
44
|
Discard
|
|
|
|
Dragon Run 2007
|
3
|
144
|
|
|
|
|
Dubai 2007
|
5
|
184
|
|
|
|
|
Durban 2008
|
5
|
184
|
|
|
|
|
Molokai 2008
|
7
|
176
|
|
|
|
|
Perth 2007
|
3
|
192
|
|
|
|
|
US Champs
|
2
|
98
|
|
|
Tim Jacobs
|
AUS
|
Dubai 2007
|
3
|
192
|
|
|
|
|
Durban 2008
|
7
|
176
|
|
|
|
|
KoH 2008
|
1
|
50
|
|
|
|
|
Molokai 2008
|
3
|
192
|
|
|
|
|
Perth 2007
|
6
|
180
|
|
Click here for The Full Surfski.info World Rankings 2007/2008
Country Positions
|
Country
|
Total
|
Pos
|
|
RSA
|
13040
|
1
|
|
AUS
|
8020
|
2
|
|
USA
|
3726
|
3
|
|
TAH
|
1555
|
4
|
|
HK
|
1526
|
5
|
|
NZ
|
968
|
6
|
|
UAE
|
924
|
7
|
|
PR
|
823
|
8
|
|
JPN
|
327
|
9
|
|
CAN
|
239
|
10
|
|
FR
|
226
|
11
|
|
SIN
|
195
|
12
|
|
BUL
|
136
|
13
|
|
UK
|
124
|
14
|
|
St.Marteen
|
114
|
15
|
|
SWE
|
108
|
16
|
|
BVI
|
108
|
17
|
|
HUN
|
106
|
18
|
|
GER
|
93
|
19
|
|
OMA
|
92
|
20
|
|
HOL
|
17
|
21
|
|
SPA
|
2
|
22
|
What do results by country show? More South Africans paddle in more World Series races than anyone else. In the new season, we'll be making the country rankings more meaningful by taking the top 5 results for each country for each race.
It is pretty cool though that no fewer than 22 countries were involved this season - we intend to grow that number significantly in the next year.
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