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Reviews & Photos | Gower, 21-23 October 2011

The Canoe Club annual trip to Gower started off with a long bus ride to Wales (of course), complete with lots of drinking, terrible singing and Sammy's awful funny jokes. When we arrived, we made a group decision that 2 four-man chalets would be plenty big enough for 38 of us, dumped our kit and settled down to a night of drinking. For the new members of the club such as myself, this meant an introduction to the Jug Of Doom and some rather loud and explicit singing that has probably scarred us Freshers for life, not to mention the poor people next door. After several Jugs of Doom had been passed round, people started doing clever things like climbing into the airing cupboard (mentioning no names... Jen, Ricky, Emily), and vomiting in bushes – Tahir! Finally, after we had finished off the weekend's supply of alcohol, we went off to our respective patches of floor to try and get a few hours sleep before the kayaking began... ***** Saturday began with a lot of groaning, and zombie-like walks towards the smell of bacon and an amazing cooked breakfast in Cabin 28. Then, once we'd all eaten and were looking slightly less hungover, we piled back into the bus, and headed down to the beach by Hills End Campsite in Llangenith, where the waves were quite big, if a bit messy. Once there, the older club members manned up and got wet in order to teach us newbies how not to die in the waves, which was greatly appreciated. After catching a few waves however, the nice 25mph cross-shore breeze meant that we all were majorly spread out, and faced with a massive hike back along the beach with our boats in order to go again. Despite this, we all had an awesome time, and caught loads of waves, even managing not to drift too far (most of the time. After one trip half way down the beach with Simon, to a point where the Canoe Club looked more like surfing ants, and the trek back took about 20 minutes, I learnt to come in sooner!). Another highlight of the day for me and several others was joy-rides out in the Duo, which were an awesome taster for what it's like to catch the “proper” waves out the back, rather than the little ones closer in – I didn't swim, honest! After we were all too tired to go out again, we returned to the chalets for some downtime in front of a rubbishy classic James Bond film, before hitting the local pub for food and drink. This turned out to be yet another opportunity for Lee Super Perve to corrupt the Freshers, by introducing us to Random Shots, and giving us all nicknames (the most memorable being Fire Crotch and Anus). Then most of us walked back to the chalets for more drinking games, with the exception of Sammy, who took a unique route which involved jumping over into a bush of stinging nettles and brambles. Also that night, for some unknown reason, Matt wrapped his head in toilet paper, and I beat Tristan in an arm wrestle :D. ***** We were up earlier the next day, and after watching the rugby and getting the latest gossip, we headed out to Port Eynon beach. The waves there were smaller than the day before but cleaner, with no wind to blow us all away, which made for a much more social kayak. Unfortunately, it turned out the showers there were also very social, which was fine, right up until Dave announced he wasn't wearing anything under his wetsuit. Not a good sight. Then we indulged in Fish and Chips before a sleepy drive back to campus, during which we established Lee's new Super Hero character – Super Perve: A Super Pervert with X-ray vision to see through girls clothing, and the ability to remove bras by clicking his fingers! By Katie Hedgecock