The first weekend of December is the time of year that most people feel ready to cuddle up on the sofa in the warm, watching Christmas films and eating lots of chocolate. We at Swansea University Windsurfing Club, however, had the mammoth task of hosting a windsurfing competition for the top student wave riders from universities all around the country.
The Student Windsurf Association organises competitions throughout the year and different universities host the competitors, showing them the best places to windsurf and the best places to party – usually involving a lot of fancy dress!
There was lots of interest in our event, with 50 people buying tickets to compete or spectate, not including all our members from Swansea University who also came along to watch. To give them a true Swansea welcome, we took our guests along to Tooters, where everyone was very happily surprised with how cheap the drinks were. We had a great night and danced away until 3am!
The competition was supposed to be held at Trecco Bay in Porthcawl on Saturday December 1st, but the conditions weren’t as ideal as we had hoped. The competition was rescheduled to take place on the Sunday morning and the Saturday was used for free sailing and for people to practice.
On the Saturday night, the fancy dress theme was ‘Memes’ and everyone made a great effort with their outfits, with highlights including the Windsurfing committee going as the blanket dance, and others dressing up as famous memes such as ‘Evil Kermit’, and ‘Salt Bae’.
On Sunday morning, the hosts cooked up some breakfast rolls and made tea and coffee to clear the hangovers from the night before, then headed down for the competition at Trecco Bay. Luckily, the wind had picked up and there were some incredible tricks and moves being pulled by all of the competitors. We were lucky enough to be sponsored by Puravida and ION, who helped to run and judge the competitions. The level of competing was incredible, but Shaun Ashmore from Manchester University took the top spot and won overall.
We had great feedback from the event and everyone seemed to have a really good time. The next competition will be in January and we’re very excited to be heading over to Birmingham for another weekend of fun.
Some of the profits raised from ticket sales will be donated to the RLNI in gratitude of the great work they do to make water sports users like us feel safe when we’re out on the water.
If you are interested in giving windsurfing a go, we run sessions every Wednesday afternoon with beginner tuition available. Contact windsurfing@swansea-sports.co.uk to find out more!
by Eleanor Southwell
