Monday, November 10, 2008

Busselton Ironman

Sunday 26th October 2008
We were up early and feeling great after losing an hours sleep last night, today was the kids first day at Busselton Surf Life Saving Club and we had to be there early.
We went to the market at 8.30am, did a quick look round, indulged in a sausage sizzle and bought the fruit and veg for the week while the kids played in the park. The last time we had a sausage sizzle at this market it was rank, obviously the art is to get there before the chef gets bored because they were quite nice this time.
By 9am we were down by the Jetty waiting for the chance to sign the kids up for Surf Life Saving Club and the kids were raring to go, we have decided that whether they want to or not, the kids are going to do the complete course as the boys will cop out if the going gets tough and they are given an option.
After signing the kids up, they went off to their different groups, each group wears a different coloured cotton cap, the kind Aussie Surf Rescue people wear funnily enough.
A lot of the training involves races and games and is about building up fitness, needless to say Marisa was in her element, one thing that coming to Australia has done for Marisa is taught her how to compete, in the UK she was to busy taking part to worry about competing and quite often could have done better if only she had that competitive edge. She’s still too British to seek unfair advantage like some of the other kids do, but it will come.
Fraser plodded his way through the class, getting knocked out of everything first and when given the option not to do the one thing he could have done well in, swimming, he took the easy option and sat on the beach watching the rest do the swimming.
Kristian was the star of the day, Kristian is renowned for his lack of stamina, apart from riding his bike he will walk away every chance he gets, to avoid exercise.
Today he was a different boy totally, he took part in all the races, and although he didn’t win any he was still bouncing about from one event to another with a big smile on his face.
Just before the end, the guy in charge of their group said “we are going to do an Iron Man next, who doesn’t want to do it?” virtually all the hands shot up at the same time including Kristians. Now we had made a point of telling the kids that they had to do everything that was asked of them, when Kristian saw Ian watching him he put his hand down again and despite the fact that he didn’t have a clue what was going to be expected of him, he went with the kids who were going to take part over to the start line.
The event consisted of a Swim, a Run up the Beach along the top back to the start point and then a Paddle on what looked like a Mini Surfboard.
By the time Kristian got his swim underway some of the more experienced ones were about to start the beach run, but with a plenty of encouragement from the organisers Kristian did the swim.
As he came out of the water he looked like he was going to cry, but with Ian and one of the other kids parents cheering him on he managed to do the run.
By the time he got to the start point and had to pull his own board into the water he was shattered, most of the other kids had finished the race and nobody had ever asked Kristian to put this much effort into exercise before, but he kept going.
He picked up a board and was dragging it into the water but was heading for the wrong side of the marker, so he had to drag the board further up the beach before he could put it into the water. Eventually he got on the board and with encouragement from Ian, the other parent and the organisers, he slowly made his way to the finish line.
The effort that he had put in had shown up a lot of the kids who though being more experienced, had opted out and when he came out of the water dragging his board with him, all the other kids, Parents and organisers had made a Guard of Honour for him and cheered and clapped him as he crossed the Finish line.
After the course had finished the all had a Sausage Sizzle and drink before we headed off to Waroona to have a look at the Classic British Car Show, one of our customers was showing his car there, a Vauxhall Velux.
Waroona, like everything over here is a bit further than it looks on the map, but we got there in the end and had a look round the old cars.
There weren’t as many different models as we had expected, but it’s not a cheap hobby bringing cars over here and it would have been a lot more expensive when most of these were shipped out.
We had a look round a few stalls there, Carolyn sampled some wine and we all sampled some cheese and then headed for home.
On the way back we stopped at a farm shop to sample some more cheeses and get an Ice Cream, Marisa and Carolyn beat Fraser and Ian at Table Football, but the table was on a slope and left to its own devices the ball would have rolled into the goal of its own accord, which is what happened.
A weather warning: while we were at the counter in the farm shop, the woman behind the counter commented on how sunburnt Ians face was, he said it couldn’t be, but it was.
This morning on the beach it was cold and very cloudy so he hadn’t put his hat on while watching the kids, the cloud did thin a bit but you would still say it was cloudy and not expect to get sunburnt. In the afternoon when we got to Waroona it was sunny so he wore his hat, it therefore stands to reason that the damage must have been done on the beach in the morning.
We had covered the kids in sunscreen but not done ourselves, we will have to be more diligent in future or this getting burnt lark will be a regular feature.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done Kristian.
Did the Vauxhall VELUX have a sun roof ? (It was ox in my young day)

Ganeida said...

Um, yes, cloudy days are notorious for bad sunburn. My Liddy would have loved the nippers thing ~ actually all my middle lot would have but Ditz has designs on getting REALLY *voluptious*, shall we say. Not an exercise fan. In the surf it's like owning a baby mammoth in a tumble dryer. She has other star qualities but being fit & healthy is not high on her priority list.

Sarah at SmallWorld said...

Well, hey! Thanks for visiting and coming out of lurkdom, and voting! Nice to meet you!

The HoJo's said...

OK so a google would have shown us it is a Vellox, nice idea about the extra windows Grandad Hojo :o)

I appear to be gaining a tan for around the 3rd time ever, from not going in the sun mostly! We came home from 2 weeks in India and everyone thought Ian had gone on his own, not a hint of colour on me :o) A sunbather I am not. I have a big pink hat and I'm not afraid to use it.
I would have been terrified of the surf school as a child, even Kristian the smallest and most likely to want to give up has thrown himself into it, yes he has asked if he can quit, sigh, no we won't let him. Learming not to drown is important when there is an ocean behind your back garden.


Hello back at you Smallworld, thanks for dropping in :o)

xc

Mrs. Darling said...

What a fun day. I cant imagine lovely weather like that as here it is cold with a fire in the stove and rain and frost outdoors.

Elena said...

omigoodness, you must have been soo proud of kristian! thats so sweet :)

The HoJo's said...

well hello Mrs D! nice to see you here, I do find it funny when you are talkng about winterising your garden and here I am getting the veggies ready for the summer and watching dh build a bbq (note watching, not helping!)

Yes, very proud of Kristian, our little iron man ;o)
xc