Surf Trip June 2004
From ICCC
People
- Tim "trolley" Burne
- Rob "sensible(ish)" Tuley
- Ruth "sun block" Loeffler
- Theo "lost in the mist" Petre
- Zun "the ultimate frisbee king"
- Emily "confused" Davies
- Nick "so laid back he's asleep" Farren
- Mark "jordy" Flowers
- Chad "chilled out" Sankey
- Jim "Ralph" Pullen
Trip Report
It all started in the usual way, with almost everyone at stores for 6pm. Three hours of faffing later and we were on our way. Just to explain the three hours. South Ken to load up then off to Paddington to load up more, oh and wait for Mark. West Ken to meet Ruth, which did include a mix up of where to meet her due to a rather interesting text from Rob, something about a vibrator and the bike sheds. Then off to Jon's, I'm not sure why as he wasn't even on the trip. Plus a supermarket stop, at which we acquired a small trolley for which the lads intended to use to break the land speed trolley record, and we were finally on our way to Devon.
We arrived to a very dark and foggy campsite at about 1:30am, of which the only thing we could actually see was one or two dim lights and just to check there were actually tents in the field Mark insisted on driving the diesel powered minibus round the entire area with full beam headlights on. Rob, having got out the bus to take a leak against what he thought to be a hedge in the darkness only to realise it was actually someone's car, and several other people doing similar things, non of who were paying attention to where the minibus was as Mark turned the headlights off, resulting in everyone wandering around in the pitch black.
We all managed to find our torches and pitch some tents, a trolley proved to make a decent seat as we settled down for a few cans, Tim's homemade vodka and the occasional sniff of Jim's tent. It didn't take long for us to loose some of the club to their beds, although I'm amazed no one actually got lost in the fog. A trip to the toilets proved a bit of a mission resulting in Emily coming back to find her tent had been unpegged, pulled forward and twisted round then pegged back down again, causing more than the usual confusion. The giggles continued with Theo's theories of secret agents and conspiracies and eventually everyone turned in at about 3am.
We woke on Saturday to Nick's very welcome discovery of the butty shop at the campsite reception. We then headed down to Saunton sands where the Cambridge uni club were already kitted up and on their way to do some surfing. Cambridge's enthusiasm soon rubbed off on to most of the group with everyone except Nick and Emily getting straight onto the water. Soon that infamous Devon mist that had stolen our ability to see the previous night, descended on the beach. Sight was down to about 50 yards but it didn't stop the surfing with Nick being the only one still dry. Theo's idea of leaving his boat halfway between the sea and the rest of our things raised one or two questions, the idea was that he wanted go back out on the water later and didn't want to carry his boat, however we couldn't actually see the water from where we were sitting nor could we see his boat.
The surf was fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it, (even Nick got on the water later on). It wasn't particularly big, although just the right size for Emily to pull off her first roll on moving water. Zun provided the afternoon entertainment with his Frisbee and informed us that actually Frisbee is a serious sport with rules and a points system, who'd have guessed eh? We'd soon split into teams and drawn out a pitch in the sand, (it might be called a court I'm not sure). The ultimate Frisbee turned out to be quite a hard and tiring game with one or two sporting injuries along the way. We decided the best thing to do was to sit down and chill out with a nice beer. We also thought it might be an idea to introduce ourselves to the Cambridge club as we were due to have a bbq with them that evening.
Regardless of the weird mist by the time we were back at the campsite everyone was complaining of sunburn and as there were only two girls on the trip moisturiser was somewhat scarce. Armed with a bbq, some meat and bread, not to mention the beer bucket (that trolley came in very handy), we made our way over to the Cambridge camp and settled down for a few beers some food and a few more beers. Our bbq soon found a new use as a fire heath and we spent the evening discussing and comparing paddling stories with the Cambridge club. 40ish cans, a bottle wine and a bottle of vodka later we looked up to find that most the Cambridge lot had gone to bed.
We headed back to our field for a couple more drinks at which point Nick fell asleep on the grass and I mean properly asleep. The rest of us making moves towards our beds did contemplate leaving him there all night but it seems as Rob gets older he gets a little bit more sensible, no really, and so we woke him up causing even more confusion the tent-moving trick had the previous night, he actually didn't know where he was.
Sunday started off much as Saturday had, having packed up our stuff we headed back down to Saunton sands and this time everyone except, yes you guessed it Nick, got straight on the water. The surf was much the same as it had been the day before small but fun only without the mist. The weather was hot and clear which gave Mark something to whinge about as in order to protect himself from any more sunburn he actually pitched his tent on the beach and spent all his time off the water in jeans and a jumper.
With an earlier than usual departure time we were packed up and on our way by 4pm, this was due to the necessity to get Mark to Kings Cross by 10pm so he could get a train to Newcastle to be at work the next day. The ride home was somewhat uneventful but with Mark securely on time for his train and all the kit put away and the bus returned by 10pm there was plenty of time for a pint in the union.
Sadly no land speed records were broken with the trolley but a good weekend was had by all with the exception of everyone's sunburn, that's becoming a bit traditional with these surf trips, a good way to start off the summer. Thanks to those people who organised it and thanks to the drivers.
Media
No photographs in database :(
