Surf Trip May 2005
From ICCC
People
- Ralph "Yes Dear" Evins
- Katherine "Marshmallows" Elvira
- Jim "Muthaf*cka!" Pullen
- Mark "Family Campsite!" Flower
- Claire "Girlie-Snore" Browne
- Alistair "The Missing" Cott
- Rachel "4-blokes, 1 tent, no problem!" Fox
- Robert "Shiny Car" Macrae
- Theo "New boat and no where to test it!" Petre
- Ralph "Dave" Clague
- Yuki "I Swim a Very Little" Ishii
Trip Report
An incredibly early get-away resulted in 8 of us leaving the union at the unprecedented time of 6:05pm, in order to catch the campsite before they shut the gate at 11. Traffic was fine, until just after the pit-stop, when we were greeted by three lorries driving side-by-side along the M5. We rang through to the support car to warn them, but confusion resulted in them diving off the motorway too early, and back on again just in time for the jam.
We arrived at the campsite at around 10:30 and the lady behind reception seemed pleased to see us (she'll learn). After negociating the number of tents we were allowed to put up we paid a hefty sum and found our pitch. The support car arrived as we were starting and we proceeded to put up a 2 man (for the presidential couple), a 3 man (for me, Claire and Mark) and a big daddy-tent for Rachel and her admirers ;-)
After a few beers, we headed to bed hoping for 6' waves in the morning.
During the night it started to piss down, with a side-order of hurrican force wind. The people in the big tent got somewhat damp. Once we were all up we noticed a severe lack of the mountain yeti, Alistair had done a strange disappearing act. We left Rob to wait for him and went off in search of breakfast in Braunton.
Fry-ups all round in the cafe led to happy campers, with Rob & Ali turning up half way through. We headed down to the beach, not expecting much surf and found exactly that! Nevertheless we got on anyway and surfed some of the six inch monsters. Sweet(!)
Ralph got Katherine into the duo and she seemed to enjoy herself:
Yuki also seemed to be enjoying his first experience of the British seaside, although I think the Alien was a little different to the sit-on-top he uses in Japan. After a while we got bored of surfing such huge waves, and went for a quick paddle up the coast.
Upon returning to the beach, myself and Claire waited until no one was looking (to avoid expected embarressment) and had a go at rolling the duo. Much to our surprise it worked first time! We then had a go at the ofside, and that worked too! However, after mastering the aerial loop and helix, we decided enough was enough and headed back in.
We got back to the campsite and sent Mark off on a charcoal mission. He returned with a bag of the stuff, and some lighter fluid - for filling lighters, oh well! The mech engineers then set about building a shelter out of paddles, a tent fly-sheet and the side of the minibus, while Ralph (Dave, we had a space for a Dave, but already had a Ralph) and myself practised being Ray Mears. After a mere two hours and all the lighter fluid and surrounding twigs had been used up the barbeque was alight.
Much drinking ensued, with nearly all the cider being finished. I discovered I had a bit of an appetite and slowly worked my way through a dozen or so pieces of Tesco value chicken, before moving onto the sausages, mmmm, meat good! For some reason an impromtu game of football was then held. The evening finished with everyone looking up at the stars, spotting satelites, before retiring to bed.
Sunday morning arrived and was much brighter than the previous day. When I awoke I was glad to see someone had super-glued Alistair to the minibus, to prevent him wandering off again! We packed up and headed off in search of breakfast. We were too early for the cafe, but were pleased to find a sandwich shop, that put at least as much of a fry-up in a bun, and sold it for half the price. Once we were all refueled we headed for Croyde.
We didn't think it was possible for the surf to be any flatter than the previous day, but somehow it was. Most of us decided to go for a paddle around the headland, while Theo, Claire, Ralph and Katherine went off for a walk.
We were pleasently surprised to find some interesting caves and slots along the cliffs that we could paddle around in and entertained ourselves for a few hours. We spotted the others up on the cliff-tops, before paddling round the headland and onwards to Putsborough. At this rate we'll all have to grow beards and double the length of our boats!
Everyone conincided at the minibus, and some mad fools decided it would be fun to go for a swim. Eventually, the bus was loaded and packed and we headed for home. The journey was marred slightly by heavy traffic along the M4, but it didn't detract from an enjoyable weekend away from London - even if there was no surf!
