Granddaughter Ellie and her dad decided to take on the rigours of the Wey Kayak Club's Hasler marathon last weekend and myself and Mrs D went down to watch the progress. For Elle this was her second Hasler although her first solo in a K1. For her dad it was his first.
The evening before we loaded my Laance and Vee bars onto dad's car for Ellie to use while he used his own Kirton Tor. I spent the evening googling Guildford for somewhere to park that would be within easy walking distance of the river. I eventually placed a small car park under the arches of the bridge near Dapdune wharf. Luckily it turned out to be a good choice with free parking on Sundays and most of its spaces going spare despite a major event involving several hundred people in cars going on just up the road.
We arrived just in time to see the race forming up as about a hundred kayaks and canoes jostled for places and to get themselves pointed n the right direction, not a mean feat in long 'pointy' boats. Ellie and dad had been split into different classes, Ellie in class 9 and dad in class 8 which meant dad was away first along the four mile course. Both made fairly good starts but as Ellie hadn't paddled a full four miles by herself before she was flagging a bit at the end. Dad however gave a good account of himself and came in twelfth position in his group.
We were able to watch them head off towards the first turn which doubled for the finish line outside the WKC clubhouse and pass us twice more on both the outward leg going towards the second turn, and coming back again towards the finish. Ellie managed a bit of a sprint at the end to overtake one other while dad managed 12th place in Div 8, which was about halfway up the field.
Mrs D and myself had to content ourselves with walking the dog, supporting and taking a few pictures.
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