The Early Days of Questars
To celebrate 25 years of Questars, Martyn Ward, the original founder has written a few words about how it all started and how Questars evolved over the years. Enjoy!
It all started back in 2000, whilst on vacation in British Columbia, Canada, I experienced Adventure Racing for the first time. I thought it was a fantastic concept that we could replicate back in the UK, and which would complement the Quest portfolio of events. At this stage, Quest had been running for four years, delivering corporate team building events and training teams who were competing in the Microsoft UK Challenge.
So, in the Autumn of 2000, we set to work creating Questars – with the intention to launch the series in the Spring the following year, blissfully unaware that there would be an outbreak of Foot and Mouth in 2001. This highly contagious, viral disease was first detected in February 2001. Within a month, public rights of way were shut down by order. The whole of the UK countryside was in lockdown, and our plans to launch the Questars series were in tatters! By the summer of 2001, the outbreak was contained, and the UK countryside began to reopen in stages, which meant we could deliver our first race in September.
This event took place in the Forest of Dean and attracted 25 participants!! The second race took place at Carsington Water in Derbyshire, where just over 50 hearty souls braved atrocious weather. This band of spirited individuals included Robert (Robinson), who you will now see donned in a Questars’ tabard as a key member of Joe and Kim’s team.
On the first couple of events, we used Canadian canoes provided by the host venues for the paddling stage. This arrangement considerably restricted the number of participants that we could accommodate, so we decided to make the dubious decision to invest in 70 two-person inflatable kayaks. What a pain those kayaks proved to be! They made their first outing at the Wiltshire event on the Kennet and Avon canal. It was a bitterly cold Sunday in February! We arrived at the event with 70 virgin kayaks still in the boxes in which they had left the factory. We departed for our long journey home to Bishops Stortford with a van full of wet, filthy, smelly and stiff (with the cold) kayaks, many of which were punctured!
As we drove home, we pondered how we would ever get the kayaks in a fit state to be used again at our next event in March. Faced with such a dilemma and with no one else to help tackle the problem, a quick call was made to my retired dad, who lived close by, to see if he could spare a few hours to give me a hand. Dad arrived early Monday morning, and we spent the whole day and much of the following day (so much for a few hours) sorting out the kayaks. This process involved initially hosing down the deflated kayaks to remove the worst of the dirt, sand and grit, inflating all 70 kayaks, then hosing down a second time to ensure they were thoroughly clean before carrying out any repairs, identifying punctures, drying all 70 kayaks with towels (because they couldn’t be stored in stacks wet). Those which were punctured then had to be fixed with puncture repair kits. This process became a little easier during the warmer summer months, but was a torturous exercise in the remaining three seasons of the year.
This post-event ritual continued for the next four years until we made the decision to invest in 36 rigid double sit-on-top kayaks. Whilst this investment solved many issues we had with the inflatable kayaks, it created significant new challenges: how do you efficiently transport 36 kayaks that are 3.7m long and each weigh 29kg? Standing them vertically on their sterns was the solution, which required us to commission a bespoke purpose-built trailer. The trailer once loaded stood at 4.5 metres (14.8 feet). Consequently, you can’t fit under many bridges! The transporting of the kayaks is only one issue, you also need to find a safe stretch of water with suitable access & portage, within an acceptable distance from the event base and gain permission from the various authorities to put the kayaks on the water. Achieving this complex combination of requirements is no mean feat.
The moral to the story is that delivering two discipline events is relatively straightforward, but as soon as you incorporate a paddling element, you massively increase the complexity of the event logistics.
However, despite these challenges, the number of participants gradually grew over the next few years, and we continued to develop the event, introducing electronic scoring system towards the end of 2003. Enter the ‘Dark Horse’, aka David Hunt. In 2003, David won the inaugural Questars Series. 12 months later, David had decided to take early retirement from Lloyds Bank and contacted Quest to see whether there was any opportunity of joining the Quest team. He joined us in 2004, and we immediately appointed him as the Questars’ Course Director.
The following years were an exciting time for Questars. Along with the new kayaks, catering began being provided at the events, and the chilli nachos became legendary! With these new, improved offerings, Questars’ participant numbers grew year on year. But with this increase in numbers, course planning issues started to arise regarding land access permissions. We had become a victim of our own success!
The format of Questars means that the courses cover large expanses of land, and often this land is owned or managed by many different bodies. National Parks Authorities, Crown Estate, Natural England, The Wildlife Trust, Environment Agency, RSPB, Forestry England, Natural Resources Wales, National Trust, English Heritage, The Canals & Rivers Trust, County Councils and this list is in no way exhaustive!
Sadly, many of these authorities had growing concerns regarding large events and their impact on the natural environment. The consequence of this is that securing permission became an increasingly long-winded, complex and frustrating process. Despite various headwinds, Questars continued to flourish, supported by our loyal participants. That was until the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the country in the spring of 2020. Within days of the lockdown, many of our corporate client contracts were cancelled, and Questars was brought to a grinding halt. This was another very challenging time for the business. Thankfully, our loyal Questars participants stood by us and in May 2021 with considerable restrictions, we were able to get the show back on the road with our first post-pandemic event taking place in a very soggy Worcestershire. The events that followed were all sold out within a few weeks, and normal service was resumed.
Over the years, we didn’t get everything right, but the fact that 25 years later Questars is still delivering great events, whilst many other Adventure Race series have folded, suggests that we got way more things right than wrong. In December 2022, the Questars’ baton was passed into the very capable hands of Joe and Kim, and I am sure under their stewardship, it will continue to go from strength to strength.
Finally, I would like to say to all the Questars’ competitors, never underestimate the colossal amount of ‘behind the scenes’ work that goes into the delivery of these events. Joe & Kim and their team are and will be working their socks off to continue to deliver fantastic events, so I hope you will continue to support them for many years to come.
