v10

Anyone who's had the sales pitch from the Big O, knows that "the plug for the V10 was CNC machined - that's why the hull has such accurate lines."

Oscar always goes on to point out the myriad of other features - the computer design, the venturi drain, the cockpit design, and so on.  One thing's for sure: the guys at Epic are not shy about their achievements - and when I asked, I was presented with a range of fascinating photographs and information about the development of the V10 ski.

What's the fastest ski on the market?

Ask any six paddlers and you’ll likely get six different answers… And you can bet that the answer will likely be: “the ski that I own”!

A group of Cape paddlers got together on Sunday to try to answer the question objectively. This article describes the method used, the results and conclusions…

Hear Oscar talk about the Epic surf skis and the message is clear: "The V10 is the fastest, most stable, best designed, best built ski in the world and the V10 Sport comes a close second!" It’s more stable and slightly slower but, “On the V10 Sport, I could still win the Molokai against anyone on any ski (except the V10)”!

But there is only one Oscar – what do lesser mortals think of the ski? Said lesser mortals had the opportunity to try out the V10 Sport this weekend here in Cape Town...

Early in 2005 an outspoken manufacturer told me, “90% of paddlers can’t cope with top-end skis and shouldn’t be on them.” He was referring to the then current crop of tippy high-end surf skis.

Then the Epic V10 burst onto the scene – and here was a fast, fun, top-end ski that could be handled by paddlers with less than perfect balance.  (Click here for our review.)

And last week a demo Fenn Mako 6 arrived in Cape Town. Reports from Durban and East London spoke of its speed and stability.

How would it compare with the other new skis? Would it be as stable; as fast; as comfortable? Could it be even better?

To my delight, I got hold of it last Saturday, and this review is the result…

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.”  

Towards the end of 2005 a distinctly different ski made its appearance in Hout Bay in the hands of Tom Thring, and it made an immediate positive difference to his race results… Knysna Kayaks, the ski’s manufacturer, is known more for their river craft, but they seem to have scored a hit with this design.

It’s been a long time in the making. The design was started in the late 1980’s by the late Daniel Conradie but was shelved when he died. Hubby Sandberg took it on and the final result is the culmination of years of iterative prototyping and testing.

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.)

V10 Sport

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!

Exciting times are with us...

I've been talking to a number of manufacturers (Epic, Fenn, Red 7, Knysna Kayaks) and it seems that there's a wave of new model skis just around the corner.

Look out for articles on each of these manufacturers in the coming weeks, here's a snippet on each of them...

(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.