My father, who arrived in South Africa from Germany in 1956, was one of the pioneers of paddling in his adopted home land. While I learned to walk before I learned to paddle, it’s fair to say that I’ve been involved in paddling all my life. When I was a nipper my nickname was nipper “Fiberglass”. Simply put, I can never remember not paddling over the course of my 46 years on this watery planet.

in all of those disciplines, I also was the South African Body Boarding Champion, finishing 12th in the world championships in Hawaii in 1983. I also played state junior Rugby Union and have played to as low as a 2 handicap in golf. Sport is my passion but paddling is my obsession.

Throughout my paddling career, I’ve always believed that you can learn from anybody -- no matter what sport or how much they achieved during their playing career. On the flip side I’ve seen that too much advice can often lead to a syndrome I call “Paralysis by analysis”. In other words, too much information leads to brain overload and actually impedes learning.

While I’ve long been known for giving advice to all paddlers and sportsmen - whether they ask for it or not - over the last 10 years as I have got older (and wiser) and have spent more time teaching the nuances of kayaking -- complete beginners who have never kayaked before or world class athletes like Clint Pretorius, the 2006 Molokai Champion or, Hank McGregor, SA’s winningest ski paddler, not to mention the fastest Jewish ski paddler in Brooklyn, NY -- I’ve learned how to most effectively communicate and demonstrate the x’s and o’s of this simple yet subtle art.

After working in the financial industry for years, I left to start my own adventure kayaking business.

For two years I taught paddlers to negotiate rapids in diverse venues like the wild Umkomaas river and out in the big swells of  the Indian Ocean. Once Greg Barton and I launched Epic Kayaks Inc. in 2000, I began giving clinics around the world in places like Tahiti, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Mauritius, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and across America.

Just last year I coached nearly 1000 paddlers world wide and the one common question was how do we receive continuous coaching and advice and technique for the rest of the year. One of the guys I coached was Rene Apple, a former professional wind surfer who is now the National Wind Surfing coach from Hong Kong. It was Rene’s idea to start an online coaching site. “You’ve been paddling for more than 30 years,” he said, “tell everyone what to do anyway, you might as well make it official.”  

I have been working with many people to have a great professional team and also one of the best back end computer programs from a company called Training Peaks.  The site and concepts have been conceptualized since November 2008

Coach Chalupsky will work with a limited number of paddlers to insure that we maintain a personal, cost-effective way of teaching people to improve their paddling as fast as possible. My aim isn't just to get you fitter but to make you a fitter, faster and more efficient paddler. A great way to make this happen is through video analysis. After I analyze your stroke and point

out the flaws in your stroke we'll compare and contrast your style to that of top paddlers around the world so that you are able to see what works best.  In addition, to provide a comprehensive fitness package I've assembled a team of experts in the fields of nutrition, Jimmy Wright, Michelle Saunders and Eric Borgnes who I've worked with for years . (Their experience will be included in the fees.) Your schedules will be e-mailed to you every day and you can monitor your progress weekly, monthly. You will also be able to download all your GPS information, which will be stored on the site.  You can monitor your diet on the site. You can tell the program what you ate at each meal and it will automatically tell you how many carbs, protein, calories etc.

Below are photo's from my scrap book never seen before.  The group photo is of me on my 1st overseas trip to USA, Huntington beach.

Enjoy

Oscar

For a full list of Oscar's achievements, click here...