Whirlwind World Tour (or Oscar's Adventures in Dubai)
Do you ever find yourself with an injury and you have to stop paddling? Does your routine get thrown off and then your training program lapses? Well, who you gonna call to get it back on track?
Why, the world's best paddler, of course! And how do you know that he is the best? Because he tells you, that's how!
That is not exactly how it happened, but certainly close enough from my point of view. A back injury has sidelined me for 2 weeks or so and it just happened to coincide with Epic Middle East flying over Oscar Chalupsky to help review the groundwork needed to expand our focus.
So being opportunistic, we combined our business discussions with an informal downwind paddling clinic and race and a marketing shoot with the reigning world champion! Oscar's enthusiasm is infectious whether he is discussing Epic Kayaks, world domination, paddling technique, the World Series or anything else paddling orientated. Nothing is impossible and in fact everything is easy according to the man - this clearly fits well with the Dubai model.
Friday revolved around business discussions prior to meeting local paddlers at the beach at around 3:30pm where Oscar discussed his view on what was important to remember when paddling downwind. DSKC members looking to do the Molokai were heartened by Oscar's recent beer swilling business trip around Europe where he did two training sessions in a month - maybe the Molokai wasn't that hard after all???? Sadly for them, he set the record straight by drilling all and sundry whilst paddling a V10Sport.
Oscar's view on the four important aspects of downwind paddling are:
- Keep a sharp eye on your destination - too many times we get caught up in the thrill of the "run" and end up way off course.
- Keep an eye on the other paddlers - you should always be aware of where the opposition is going compared to you. Do they have a better line, are they getting better runs, are you or they in a current?
- Keep an eye on your GPS - this feeds into the top two points in terms of knowing your speed and your heading, HR etc.
- Look for runs in your quadrant - you should only be looking for runs in a quadrant based on your heading. If you try and keep a lookout for runs coming at you from 180° you stand a good chance of losing ground to fellow racers, who have remained focussed.
The Dubai paddlers, however were not to be outdone with some fine, and no doubt vastly improved, performances from Rob Klok, Andrew Dunstan, Gavin Dickinson, Richard Howes and Guff “Who is Pulling Me?” Harvey and Carlo Cottino who continues to surprise the establish crew. Everyone always benefits from visits by top paddlers, regardless of who they are, but Oscar has put in a special effort since the first Shamaal. The only frustrated people after the race were those who had missed out on the SMS letting everyone know about the clinic and yours truly, who continued to nurse his sore back and filled the role of official photographer.
More business discussions followed, with Oscar sharing his views and knowledge freely. Child birth, wrestling wild animals, Super 14, accounting packages, sailing and mobile connectivity, not to mention solving the Rubic's cube faster than anyone in the world and making the best use of small terraces for gardening are just a few areas of Oscar's worldly expertise.
Next it was off for a marketing shoot with Oscar in one of the Elite boats in the azure waters of the Arabian Gulf. We were lucky enough to get some wind for the shoot on Saturday afternoon. We were also spoiled to have got the use of Gavin's Crownline 32ft 315 Cruiser, named after his daughter, "Tess Anna". She is fitted with 2 x 5 litre inboard Volvo Penta engines, which equates to 10 litres of pure horse power capable of a top speed of 50 knots on flat water. Oscar thought we may be a little undergunned when we tried to keep up with him for the shoot.
We were also lucky enough to have arranged a photographer, Hywell Waters, for the shoot. He was recently voted as one of the AGFA top 20 young photographers in the World - check out some of his work at http://www.hywellwaters.com/. It is also that time of the year when the Dubai Boat Show is moving into full swing, so the Marina was a hive of activity with some awe inspiring boats moored virtually right next to "Tess Anna".
The wind and weather played ball and Oscar prepared mentally by downing the last three beers in the fridge and donning his new Epic branded paddling kit. We offloaded him and an Elite V10 and started with a shoot into the wind where he managed to comfortably hold us at 16km/h whilst shouting directions to the photographer and crew. We also did a few downwind runs where he managed to get to 25km/h while trying different poses to accentuated his 6 pack - he was reminded by us that a tyre did not count.
Four hundred pictures later . . . and back at the Marina, he managed to talk us all aboard a €10.5 million powerboat and get a tour of how the rich 1% live . . . wow! Absolutely mindblowing!!!
Then a few final i's to dot and t's to cross and the Big O was back on the plane headed home for some training before heading to China to keep the manufacturing side of the Epic business running smoothly.
Gavin's wife Taryn trembled with the aftershock of Oscar's vocal support of the Natal Sharks Super 14 victory at 11pm and the perpetual ringtone of his HTC going off around the clock . . . and like a breath of "exhausted" fresh air, we realise that OC has come and gone yet again along with the entire beer stock both from Gavin's fridge and the emergency rations in the cupboard.
{gallery}2008/03/OscarDubai/litebox:150:120{/gallery}