Cornwall April 2001

From ICCC

People

• Hugh "Haha, body boarders!" Maguire
• Theo "What body boarders?" Petre
• Useless "Californ-e-i-a" Rob
• Simon "mmmn pints" Cooper
• Ruth "naked" Loeffler
• Nicky "sober as a judge, jury and executioner" Convine
• Ross "almost sensible (senile?)" Oldfield
• Tom "What am I doing with these people in my house again" Garthscousin

Trip Report

The trip started well with Hugh turning up in his ruin a little bit late ashe was seeing his Gran off at the train station. Boats piled high on theroof racks the trip went as far as Reading to pick up Ross. The advantage ofthis was clear the moment we got there (eventually) as Ross's car did notappear to have been recently involved in a traffic pile up. Picking Ruth up on the way past Bristol we made reasonable time down toPortreath even allowing for Theo's mapreading. A few whiskies and south parkepisodes and then bed.

The next morning we forced ourselves out of bed and up for breakfast to seeThe deserted monsterous peeling point breaks with a handy rip to take usout. Then we woke up and realised it was all a dream. The surf was small anda bit dumpy, though breakfast was hearty and we made our way down to thebeach and clambered onto the surf. The short sets of larger waves meant forsome pretty reasonable wave riding, Useless showing off his Californ-e-i-askills by demonstrating some reasonable waveriding skills between thetraditional kickings received in the Alien. Theo proved himself as happy asever to ignore other water users, no matter what craft they were currentlyin he seemed happy to join them on the wave. Garth's wave riding style wasunchanged, happily avoiding the critcal section and sitting pleasantly atthe bottom of the wave. By 2pm most had had enough and we sat on the beachdrinking tea and taking the piss out of the oldies. Garth then elected to golooking at the caves, we left him and his belly button to themselves andwent for a shower back at Tom's.

Theo and Ruth cooked a fine chilli andafter some more south park we felt happpily full and beered. A strange gameof Evo, dinosaurs, hair, parasols and horns was played and we let Tom winbecause we were staying in his house after all. Then to the pub, a few pintsdown and we decided a change of venue was in order so we stopped off to pickup muggins on our way to the next pub. Muggins seemed to suit all and weeventually had Garth downing pints having stitched up Rob on the way. Ratherunsteadily we made our way back to Tom's. Some fool mentioned going for aswim in the sea and before we knew where we were Ruth, Theo, Rob and Rosswere in wet suits carrying boats down to the beach. Nicky, Garth, Hugh andTom sauntered after them. Once on the beach suddenly Garth and Hugh werenaked and swimming. Thankfully for all concerned it was dark. After someinept surfing attempts Ruth and Rob were persuaded that it was much betterto swim in the buff than fail to roll in the surf. Some time later allreturned to Tom's and a second game of Evo was played involving someinteresting new rules. (I don't remember tail size comparisons in the firstgame!) This time Hugh won and by that stage we had all sobered up justenough to realise it was bed time. Garth passed out just in time for hughnot to have to speak to him.

The next morning started so much slower... By Midday all had eaten thoughenthusiasm for surfing was not enormous. Finally we had all but Rob andNicky in the water and surfing slightly smaller sets than the day before.Theo ran over more body boarders and Hugh was improving his aim! After ashortish session we packed and climbed back into the cars. Return to Readingwas managed even before it got dark and London in time for a relativelycivillised hour.

Bonzer trip.