Woolacombe 1998

Woolacombe surf, Devon, February 1998

Another TOP trip to Woolacombe took place on 20 – 22nd February. The accommodation was a little different to usual, as the Braunton Scout Hut lost its roof in the storms.

Alternative accommodation was found in the Caen Street School in Braunton, SUPER LUXURY in comparison to the scout hut (if you don’t mind me saying). We had the run of the whole place, including all the classrooms, and the girls had two toilets each…..WOW (well there were only three of us). We also had use of unlimited amounts of bendy javelins, hoops, footballs, netballs….well you know, all the things kids play with at school. So we fitted in quite well.

River Dee tour 1997

River Dee tour, Wales, November 1997

As usual Affinity organised the Student Dee tour. It was held at Llangollen, North Wales over the weekend of the 15/16/17 November.

On both the Saturday and the Sunday we went off and paddled the Dee. We amazingly made it to the river in the morning (Yes that’s right even Kev got up before lunchtime!). The river had little water in it, In fact the river was over a foot lower than when we paddled it the year before. However a few great swims were still taken.

The one swim that springs to mind was the Duo which was being paddled by Jo and Mark. After much persuasion Jo decided that she wanted to paddled town falls. They made the first two drops then on the third disaster struck and the duo was upside down. Everybody watched as Jo swam out and grabbed hold of the boat making sure it stayed upside down. Mark however was still in the back desperately trying to roll the boat. Little did he know, Jo was hanging on the front for dear life preventing Mark from rolling. Finally out swam Mark!

Karen had a superb swim on Town falls on the Sunday. However there was no problem cause Jamie once more came to the rescue. As my memory recalls there was only one other swim the whole weekend, and that was by Nick on Serpents tail.

Written By Neil Hopkinson 14th December 1997

Perranporth 1997

Perranporth surf, Cornwall, October 1997

This was the first major trip of the term – we took two buses to Perranporth in Cornwall, filled with old members, new members and a couple of old gits.

This trip was superbly organised by the President (not that I’m biased or anything) and the buses were ready to leave by 6 p.m. Unfortunately, the first bus got a head start because it took Jamie an hour to drive back to Middle Street and get Kev out of the shower. In the rush to make it to the pub, their bus was photographed by a speed camera on one of the A roads (OK well it was probably someone going the other way – but the ‘Disco Bus’ sign will give the police a bit of a giggle). We arrived at the hut after the first bus to find Neil dribbling into his vodka, and generally being drunkenly obnoxious to everyone (so nothing new there then). Top tip, Neil – not only does Helen Dale date a gorilla, she also has a mean right hook.

We made it on to the surf in good time on the Saturday morning – Joe Lo gave another good lesson on surfing (and another good impression of a wave). The surf was pretty messy but also pretty big out the back, and the wind was strong (i.e. get in at one end of the beach and arrive at the other end a couple of minutes later). Lots of swimmers, including Mr Webb, whose deck-popping excuse is now quite familiar. Several SUCCers decided that canoeing was far too much effort and spent the day body-boarding and building sandcastles. Jo and Kev invested in his ‘n’ hers body boards and spent a blissful day in the surf together.

We were off the surf late in the afternoon, and Christine, Steve and some happy helpers went back to cook dinner while the rest disappered to the tea shop. Herbivore and real chili were followed by a ration of fruit cocktail (about 2 pieces per person) and yummy birthday cake. The washing up was done in record time by eager footie fans, and we were in the pub by 7.30 for the match.

I would report the score here, but I spent the second half on the floor of the pub and had to be taken home soon after. But we enjoyed the usual SUCC Saturday night frolics. Jamie celebrated his 22nd birthday in style by locking himself in the downstairs bathroom and chundering all over the floor. Abellone did one of her disappering acts, only to reappear later having been for a curry. Helen Ford did her bit for club relations by keeping our Cotswolds friends happy. Silly games were enjoyed by all, and the wreckage could still be seen in the morning.

Sunday dawned, and with it a slightly more sober Jamie, whose first task was to clean out his sick bowl so we could put our lunch into it to take to the beach! Ben decided that his wetsuit was just too cold and sandy, and stayed in the hut to do some work (?!?). Surf was better than on the Saturday, although some people still didn’t make it into a boat (Jo B ???). As usual, the sun came out and the wind dropped just as we were leaving.

Back at the boathard in freezing Southampton, someone had stupidly parked their car blocking the bus’s entrance to the boathard, so the trailer arrived back pulled in by all the bus’s passengers.

All in all, a good SUCC weekend – plenty of surf, alcohol, chundering (Jamie), tarting (mentioning no names) and good food ** (if I do say so myself).

** “Hmmm”, says Kev.

Rhossilli 1997

Rhossilli surf, May Bank Holiday, 1997

The Premiere trip of the world famous ‘disco tent’. Really, the tent speaks for itself. ……..”Spacious, luxurious, room enough for TEN people”, said the AU. Cool, we thought, but alas, we had been deceived.

Upon arrival at the campsite, the aforementioned tent was eventually put up – not too taxing a task (even though we’d all had a few beers), as there was only ONE pole……hooray!

The first night passed without too much of an event, and we rose the next morning to a full fry up (?!) and then went paddling. Oh yes, and there was some good surf.

Then came the evening, and the pub was attended for dinner at an early hour. Everyone had far too much beer and Karen and Lou renewed long lost friendships with the tarmac and with some very nice people from Essex university who let them sit on the roof of their minibus and chat for HOURS….poor people didn’t know what they’d let themselves in for.

Upon arrival back at the DISCO tent we had a disco of sorts and then settled down to a night of torturous storms. This was the night of the infamous BEN – “my tongue slipped” incident. Not surprisingly, the tent did not provide a lot of protection from the elements and we all woke up the next morning in a puddle of rainwater that had come in through the ‘air vent’ on the side….mmm nice.

The next morning we again went for a surf and then followed a beach barbecue in the evening. For some reason, no-one wanted to sleep in the disco tent anymore, so we collapsed the thing. Jamie’s roastie toastie expensive tent with ‘non-bendable poles’ seemed like a very appealing option to Karen, Kev and Lou. So they made the fatal mistake of putting it up and then went to the pub.

Everyone else was clever and slept in the bus or found other accommodation, but Kev, Karen and Lou spent a night of veritable luxury in the tent of dreams. Their dreams were shattered the next morning when the tent was taken down to discover BENT non-bendable poles, on Jamie’s spangly new tent…..arse.

We left Rhossilli that afternoon, and headed for home. A bonza trip was had by all.

The moral of the story is…….never sleep in a DISCO tent unless you happen to be MAD and like sleeping in ponds. Oh and if you bottle out, sleep in the bus! (sorry Jamie!)

National Student Rodeo 1997

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.