A week after the debacle that was the club’s Hare & Hounds time trial, in which I was soundly beaten into third place by another club member that I had expected to best, I went for an open match in the Wey Kayak Club’s Hasler event. The Wey KC isn’t in the same group as my own club so any entry I make doesn’t score points, but its a handy intro to the season as it is quite local to me at Guildford and a good practice run. I haven’t competed in this race before but I watched my son and granddaughter do it last year and it seemed like a race not to miss.
I duly turned up and secured one of the last parking spaces. Nearby were a couple of other members of my club and we checked in and prepared for the foray. We had a fairly good leisurely paddle upstream to the start point near the A3 road bridge. This presented a bit of milling about to turn around and organise ourselves into the correct start rankings. Eventually we were organised into the start grid line up and the first sections were on their way. My group, Div 9 k1s sidled up to the start line, and we were off. From the start we had to paddle back the thousand meters to the clubhouse and just beyond to the first turn. All was well but the confines of the river banks and the number of boats had kicked up a chop that made consistent paddling difficult.
As usual I overcooked the first half mile but found myself just trailing my protagonist from the last weekend’s H&H. Once past the first turn we ploughed on and both he and I overtook a couple of others that were slowing Something of a crosswind was beginning to make itself felt, and as we progressed the bow waves rebounding from the banks were making the going quite unpleasant. But if I was feeling it my immediate opponent was having a worse time than I was. As a rule I don’t have too much trouble with windy conditions. If at all possible I usually head the boat as near head-on into the wind as I can get, lower the angle of the paddles and keep to a strong stroke. That usually takes me through the worst of it although having a stable boat under me is a big help.
We progressed and I pulled ahead and started catching other paddlers that were having a trying time. In fact I had made up three places as the finish hove into view and was well ahead of my clubmate. To get to the finish we had to go about 50 meters downstream of it, turn around a buoy and return to pass through the finish. Approaching the buoy there were about four or five other boats heading into the turn and a canoe with two crew stopped on the right hand side. Just at that moment the canoe took off from the bank and cut across the apex of the turn causing the approaching line of kayaks to carry out all manner of inventive avoidance manoeuvers. I had been approaching for a wide sweeping turn as the canoe emerged from the melee and crabbed across in front of me. I had to slam the brakes on to avoid a full on ram into its side an was lucky to just have enough room to pass behind him.
But, I’d lost what momentum I’d had in a turn and had to start accelerating again. Meanwhile my protagonist had taken advantage of the mess and found his way through on the inside. Luckily he was still behind and I was able to get ahead to take the place in front of him. He had made up two or three places around the turn and I had lost one of the places I’d made down the course. Nett result was that I was lucky to keep ahead of him.
It’s time to learn some tactics.
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