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Cambridge 2008 - Second Core Event of the SWA series |
The weekend of 28th-30th November saw the second core event of the SWA calender hit Cambridge.
On Saturday, the curse of the fens overpowered the promise of winter sun as a thick fog sat over Grafham water, deeming the day un-windsurfable. Reactions seemed a mix between disappointment and relief (it was freezing!) but the day was saved by the foresight of the Cambridge committee arranging alternative entertainment in the form of beach volley ball and sumo suit wrestling. After Team UWE dominated the volley ball everyone decided it was time to retire to the windsurfer's natural habitat of the pub and prepare for the party...
That night, Cambridge was invaded by hoards of bananas and hoola girls for the 'beach party with a banana twist' all in the theme of banana republic. Some crazy shapes were thrown onto the dance-floor and flailing limbs had to be dodged, ducked, dipped, dived and dodged! All in all we know that if you add spice, 2 measures of rum, half a banana, lime, sugar, coconut milk and over 100 students you will have a recipe for a great night!
Sunday morning dawned, and everyone headed to the Cam for a relaxing (?) punt to shake off the sore heads. There was only one reported wetness incident despite some XSWA being seen boarding other peoples' punts complete with pirate hats and rubber daggers.. Unfortunately the punts they boarded were those of non-windsurfer Cambridge city visitors.. We would like to reassure everyone that no(t many) locals were hurt in the making of this event.
It was then straight to Grafham where the relieving sight of good wind and no fog dispelled the fear of this being the first core event with no windsurfing. Super enthusiastic (or still drunk!) banana-yellow-tinged windsurfing students rocked up to the beach bringing a colourful performance and spicy hot entertainment in the form of Techno racing in F5 conditions. A superb performance by the ladies advanced division was witnessed, only surpassed by the extremely tight finishes between James Goody, Seb Willis (both Cardiff) and Dave Williams (Cambridge) who took 1st, 2nd 3rd respectively in a competition that was only decided in the final race- This is leading up to be the closest SWA race series so far!
Later, Judge Beaker arrived with his trusty knight Mark 'Boardwise' Hammond and the freestyle began. With the judges watching and hugging each other for warmth in the safety of their van it was down to the students to wow the crowd and this they did with a display of tricks and variation and left many somewhat confused about what they had just witnessed...
Shove-its, switch geckos, vulcans, vulcan'ts, spock 540s, flakas, upwind 3s, downwind 3s and probably some sideways and upsidedown 3s were impressive enough but the loop landed by Adam Sims only metres in front of fellow contestant and the 2007-08 freestyle champ Joe 'railride' O'Callaghan took him into the lead and left the final results as follows:
- Adam Sims (Portsmouth)
- Joe O'Callagham (St Marys)
- Dave Williams (Camb)
- Alex Arnold (UWE)
With a stirling effort from the girls resulting in:
- Maeli Cherel (Soton)
- Rici Marshall (Camb)
- Beth Sangwine (Cardiff)
Massive thanks to the Cambridge Committee and Rici the president in particular, Cambridge uni is truely back on the SWA map!
Big thanks also go to our sponsors, in particular Boardwise with their van of goodness.
As a final note, you may be interested to hear that plans are being considered to install lake central heating and a de-mister for next year.
