Student Rodeo, HPP, 7-9 March 1997

This year ten of us went to HPP, Nottingham for a weekend to take part in the annual student rodeo. Those taking part were Steve, Chris R, Chris S, Andy W, Neil, Mark and Karen.

The lads spent fifteen minutes in the looping pool and some time in the muncher while the girls spent fifteen minute in the cheese block and fifteen minutes in the looping pool. The idea was to show off as much as possible in the time allowed.

Then from each heat the best two went through to the main final and the worst two went through to the novice final. From Southampton Karen, Steve and Helen Ford went through to the novice quarter finals whilst nobody made it through to the main quarter final.

Karen and Steve then made it through to the novice semi finals and then Steve made it through to the novice final after some impressive (some say lucky!!) hand surfing in the muncher. Steve then after some more impressive moves managed to come third overall in the novice final.

Nearly everybody that paddled that weekend managed to take a swim……

Fish	Number of Swims	Comment
Steve	3	Done with Style.. The swims won it for him!!
Chris R	2	Another one for the record
Chris S	1	New Whip-It Too Wild!!!
Neil	1	Oh Well – It had to happen sometime
Andy W	0	No Deck Popping incidents this time
Karen	2	In the words of the Judges “Fish”
Jamie	0	Keeping up Tradition – Nobody ever swims out of a Spud
Jo P	1	“It wasn’t my fault – A bloke got in my way”
Mark	0	No Swims – but a great meal!!
Joe L	0	Then again – He never Paddled

As it was a student gathering there was of course lots of alcohol flowing. We made it to the bar on the Friday night before closing time (Thanks to our Luxury Transport) and of course in SUCC tradition were in the bar within thirty seconds of finding the site. Saturday night was a seventies night. There was a disco and a Stunning Band** and so we partied the night away. (For some reason the band got better towards the end of the night)

Never try to climb a 20ft tree under the influence of alcohol – you end up as a hospital case. This was discovered during the weekend by another uni.

Written by Neil Hopkinson 14th March 1997

** The Stunning Band Three old men with beards who couldn’t sing in tune and played old songs which nobody except Jamie had ever heard of.

Woolacombe surf, Devon, 28th February – 2nd March 1997

In usual club tradition this trip started off with the usual faff. As usual everybody turned up late then we had to drive round Southampton to pick up people, boats and spraydecks. We finally ended up leaving Southampton at about 8PM. We then got on the M27 and missed the turning to Salisbury. Over an hour later we made it to salisbury. A quick chip stop and off we went again, finally reaching Woolacombe by midnight.

The next morning was a surprisingly early start. We were in the sea surfing and it was still the morning. The days paddling went well, Loads of swims (Both Jamie and Andy Swam – both blaming their decks for popping). In fact nearly everybody swam that day. We were back at the hut by 3PM in time to head off down the pub and watch the rugby. This was followed by a vegetable curry and then we vacated the hut by 6.30 to make way for the bingo. We headed of down the pub for a nice game of skittles and a few beers.

Sunday was a later start but we still made it to the surf surprisingly early and with hardly any faffing. The afternoon was taken up by surfing and then to finish off (in usual club tradition) we headed for the tea shop. We then headed back and made it in time to carry out boat cleaning.

Not bad for a trip that was nearly Cancelled.