Surfing in Woolacombe

Easter weekend 2013, and some clever/mad individual decided that instead of hunting eggs or eating our weight in chocolate, we should go and play in the sea at Woolacombe. Our numbers diminished but 4 of us (Simon, me, Adam and Ben) manned/womanned up to the task. So we headed off Friday morning after a trip to the supermarket to buy the essentials (beer, hot cross buns and girly plates?). We arrived to find that I had booked the party campsite by mistake; luckily though this proved advantageous as they had a happy hour and an all you can eat breakfast! Friday night started with us successfully pitching the tent, then swiftly losing our Boy Scout skills and failing to make fire. However, we got a nice meal at the campsite bar and headed into town to the only pub (which was an amazing pirate pub) followed by the only club (which had the only rock night in Devon). Chaos ensued in the club with Simon somehow starting a mosh pit that resulted in him making friends with the locals but also breaking his glasses (he'd put them in his pocket for safe keeping) and getting a black eye. Ben was dancing like a pro and trying his luck with some of the ladies, sadly their friends were having none of it. Somehow Ben still managed to be around to pick me up when the mosh pit ploughed through me. So after a crazy night we headed up the road to the campsite and the tent, where I'm pretty sure Ben started snoring before his head even hit the pillow.

The next morning after a lot of cajoling Simon with "It's morning time to get up", "groan", "The sea is calling", "groan" and finally a "Someone else is awake, it's time to get up", we went for a lovely all you can eat breakfast at the campsite restaurant (after reassembling Simon's glasses). We then wetsuited up and headed for the beach. We had some brilliant surf and we all caught some good waves. I was particularly impressed with Ben and Adam, who had never surfed before and picked it up very quickly. Adam also impressed us all by emerging from the sea and proclaiming that he had a "Wettity crotch", sadly the phrase does seem to be catching on. Afterwards, we went for a short walk round Woolacombe and soaked up the sunshine before heading back to the campsite for a barbeque with a few beers at the tent. We had a bit more success with the fire skills this time, with Simon managing to fix the stove and us lighting the barbeque, after Adam used three quaters of a bottle of fire lighter fluid; just squirt on 2 bits of charcoal - I don't think so.

Sunday morning, we woke up slightly fresher and had a mammoth cooked breakfast at the tent using the "Man" pan (after that everything seemed to be preceded by the word Man). We headed back out to the sea for another day of surfing in the sunshine. We also failed miserably at flying a kite, played a game of cricket that just involved Adam running for miles and made some sand castles. Then back to the tent for the world's biggest chilli followed by a walk into town back to the "pirate" pub, where Adam turned into a woman and started analysing the body language and clothing of the guy at the next table.

Monday morning we had another mammoth breakfast before heading home. I had an amazing weekend with some brilliant surf and we managed to trade the snow in Oxford for glorious sunshine. Many thanks to Simon, Adam and Ben for joining me for the weekend and providing some hilarious stories. Hopefully we will do something similarly exciting next Easter.

- Helen W

Photos by Adam