Rob Mousley

(By Dale Lippstreu)

Rumours have been circulating in the surfski paddling community for some time that Epic Kayaks was shutting down its operations in SA and moving production to another country. 

Oscar Chalupsky paddling the V10 in Hawaii

 As an interested party (V10 owner) I thought I would approach Oscar Chalupsky and get the information first hand.  Oscar was as communicative as ever and this is what I learned. 

 

 (by Rob Mousley)

For some while rumours have been flying about Epic Kayaks, specifically that they were stopping the manufacture of the V10 Surf Ski in South Africa. Speculation has been rife on the reasons for this and future of V10 surf ski.  The V10  has  made a  huge impact in the short time that it has been in production.

Oscar Chalupsky paddling the V10 in Hawaii

I was fortunate enough to meet up with Oscar Chalupsky, Epic's Sales Vice President (and paddling legend) in Cape Town recently and here's what he had to say...

Through the magic of Skype I caught up with Oscar Chalupsky a few days ago. He’s in China at the new factory where the Epic V10 is manufactured and has been inspecting and testing the first production skis.

 

Oscar is combining the testing with training for the Molokai Challenge – surely the first time an athlete has trained for this event on a tidal river (the Fuchun River) in South East China!

*** Just added a couple more pics - see page 2...

 

At last we have a couple of photos of the new Fenn single ski! We're hoping for a few more soon, but here's what we've got.  They confirm some of the reports that we've had from East London - the single footwell and the curved foredeck.

 

Reports of its performance are sketchy, but I'm told that it's a lot more stable than the Millennium. Along with the Epic V10 I suspect that it will set a trend towards faster, more stable skis that lesser paddling mortals (such as me) will find easier to manage than the current generation of top end skis.

 

Kayak Centre has entered into a license agreement with Epic Kayaks to build V10 skis for the South African market.

 

Oscar Chalupsky, Epic’s Vice President Sales, said he was delighted when Kayak Centre approached him with their proposal to build the V10 and V10 Sport skis for the South African market. Kayak Centre have a long history of building kayaks and surf skis. “People forget,” Oscar said, “Kayak Centre used to build skis for me 20 years ago – remember the original ‘Chalupsky’ skis? And they used make product for my father before that.”  

 

The new Epic V10 Sport has arrived in South Africa… But wait, it’s just one copy, brought back from the factory by Oscar Chalupsky who has spent the last three weeks in China.

 

(I’m told that the factory is in full production – with a current capacity of 100 boats per month. The first batches of production skis are destined for the US to fulfil a huge backlog of orders.)

 

Yep, it’s official, the new Fenn single ski is named the Fenn Mako 6 (6 for 2006).

 

I was up in East London a week ago and called in at the Fenn factory to find out how production of the new skis is faring.

 

*** Updated 16 Feb 2006 ***

 

The new Fenn single ski was tested on the sea for the first time on the weekend of 11 Feb 2006. Keith Fenn said that he was pleased with the handling of the ski, that it performed well upwind and seemed to catch the small runs nicely. "But," he said, "I'm obviously biased! We're going to get some of the top guys to try it over the next few weeks."

 

The new ski, whose name has not yet been decided, is aimed at the top end of the market. It has the following characteristics:

 

• Single footwell
  
• Single plate adjustable rudder pedals.
  
• Narrower than the Fenn Mako Millennium in front of the seat (i.e. in the area of the catch).
  
• Retains the wider seat (than the older Fenn Mako).
  
• Wider at and behind the seat.
  

(by Rob Mousley) 

Epic released the first photos of the V10 Sport today. The photos were taken in the new factory at the "undisclosed location".

 

Oscar Chalupsky, Epic's VP Sales, said that production of the new skis is on track and units should be available in April.

 

The V10 Sport is a slightly shorter, more stable version of the V10 that is touted to be only 4% slower. (The V10L a third model, identical to the V10 save for a lower volume nose, is also expected in the near future.)

 

 

Here's the third in our series on cool paddling kit: a handy juice bag cleaning kit; a new compact set of pencil flares; a dry-bag for those paddlers planning on Molokai and a modification to the Epic leg leash.