This is a picture of a picture that my long-time racing friend Scott Cummins has in his collection. It was taken at the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race here in Memphis back in 2004, and it shows Herman Chalupsky, Greg Barton, Oscar Chalupsky, and Scott hanging out in the park near the race's finish line.
Every athlete in the photo has a compelling story, but for now I want to focus on Oscar's. A native of Durban, South Africa, Oscar was the first true legend of ocean surfski racing, winning the prestigious Molokai-to-Oahu race a record twelve times between 1983 and 2012. But in more recent years life has dealt him a tough blow: since 2019 he has suffered from a form of cancer known as Multiple Myeloma. He achieved remission once but has relapsed and will undergo more radiation treatment soon.
But this daunting state of affairs has not stopped Oscar from traveling the globe, teaching clinics and sharing his love of the sport, and, of course, paddling his boat. Before he begins his latest round of radiation therapy he'll be up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the weekend of July 14-16 to conduct a clinic in conjunction with the Blackburn Challenge.
I'm not particularly well acquainted with Oscar, but I did get to chat with him a bit when he was in Memphis nineteen years ago and again during my visit to South Africa in 2020. Hopefully I'll have a chance to visit with him a little in Gloucester. Indeed, his is a story I would do well to remember whenever my skeletal/muscular ailments have me feeling discouraged.
Last year Oscar published a book about his experiences as both a paddler and a cancer patient: No Retreat, No Surrender.
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