Tuesday 17 July 2012

Newquay, England - Summer 2012


One of the most famous holiday destinations for the English summer and the unofficial capital of Cornish surfing.  I am here on a school trip with 41 year 9's and a few members of staff for an action packed 3 days.  The first evening was spent on the beach; bathing in the North Atlantic ocean.  Bathing is probably not the right word to use as this conjures up images of relaxing in a hot bath with a good book.  Instead i should use a word that represents wind, rain, screaming children and testicular dystrophy.  Ok so i exaggerate... the kids didn't scream that much. 
The following day was rained on constantly but moods weren't dampened at all during activities like archery, quarry crossing and rock climbing.  Having accepted that we were going to get wet anyway, we had great fun!  I wouldn't really have bothered writing this trip up but it turns out that there's a few things i would like to keep a record of.   For a start, i learnt how to surf! I actually caught a wave and stood up on a surf board!? No longer will i have to be the inferior man that hires a body board instead of a surf board when at the beach.  Catching a wave is actually easier on a surf board but getting up on the damn thing is another story.  There are several parts of the process that all consecutively need to go perfect.  First you need to pick your wave as the wave needs to break just as it hits you; no sooner, no later.  Then you start paddling but you don't want to start paddling to soon otherwise you miss the wave breaking. Once you have caught the wave you need to stay on the wave by leaning your body in the correct direction.  Then you need to know when to stop paddling, get onto your knees, get onto your feet and then stand up.   I regularly got to the knees stage, rarely got to the feet stage and twice got to the stand up stage.  Be it for a fifth of a second or not, i stood up.  
The second day took us kayaking, coasteering (jumping off rocks) and Pico sailing.  So much fun!  The weather held out for us too!  In terms of local delicacies; i had a few Cornish rattler ciders on the beach side and a couple of the all famous Cornish Pasties.  I can't go to Cornwall and not have a Cornish Pasty.  It's like going to the English coast and not eating fish and chips.  I of course, had both.
It actually felt like a proper holiday.  The students were beautifully behaved and so 80% of my being there became redundant.  It's brilliant! Well and truly knackering... but brilliant.  Oh the life of a teacher.  :o)

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