FAB TRAVEL: THE TRAVELBUG – Newquay Adventures: Perfect days & weekend fun

Image by Dominic Rodwell

Yes, I am happy in Newquay. Yet I am not known for staying in one place for a long time. It was not different this time around.

I travelled to Manchester via London with my team to take part in the water polo national league. This is always the fixture we look forward most, as Manchester has amazing nightlife. True to form, we lived it up like only athletes can.

Image curtesy Chiara Palazzo

Early next morning we returned to London to watch the ATP World Tour Finals of the tennis. This is the season ending tournament of the 8 best tennis male tennis players in the o2 arena. We have been going for years and I am a huge Federer fan. And into this weekend I even managed to squeeze a little christmas shopping. Talk about mixing pleasure with business! 🙂

But what I really wanted to write about was Newquay and the first Movember Cold Water Classic surf competition. This is a charity event which aims to raise money for men’s health. And probably the most sporting fun I have ever had! The breakdown was like this: We had a practice session in the morning, where I unfortunately had a little accident. Namely, someone ran into my board and my back. So, now I am back to square one: my board needs to be repaired and my wetsuit had to be replaced as it kept on ripping at the seams. I got really upset over my board, as she is my first board, is such a beauty and is special. I was crying.

Image by Dominic Rodwell

My back still hurts, but thankfully my middle name is Chuck Norris, so I will live. Anyway, before this I did some pretty decent surfing in the practice session.

Image by Dominic Rodwell

TravelBug all moustached up
Image by Dominic Rodwell

Then in the afternoon we had the actual competition. The format was a team relay. Everyone had to ride 2 waves and got judged on how long you stand up for, any tricks you perform, how you come off the board, etc. There was a whammy wave that got double the points. Oh and everyone had to rock a mustache. There were 6 people on each team. Team captain Blonde Beast really encouraged me and made me take the whammy wave, which made me really nervous at first. The whole thing happened so quickly in the end I noticed that I laughed so much my face was hurting.

We then took a little break, rested and in the evening we had the charity auction, and the award show. And guess what!? The team (Team Megadeath) won – apparently with my Whammy Wave!!! and I took Wipeout of the Day as well – not that surprising altogether. All this was followed by a slightly booze-y party where some of the surfers busted awesome moves on the dancefloor. Definitely an area I need to improve in.. 🙂