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COASTING Kite surfing and sandcastles on the Isle of Wight July 2004 Our annual trip to the seaside was taken to a new level this year, with a weekend jaunt to the Isle of Wight. Now, in case this sounds a bit ordinary, it'd be worth reminding you that the Isle of Wight has recently established itself as one of the UK's prime adventure and watersports destinations. Suits us. Train For about the millionth time this year, we congregated at Walton-on-Thames station. From here we got a series of impunctual trains to Portsmouth. If the trains were bad, the staff were worse, as South West Trains gave South Central Trains a run for their money in the worst train company in the world stakes. FastCat Wightlink's FastCat service was much better, and a short and choppy fifteen minutes later we were stepping onto terra firma at Ryde. Glad we managed to keep the dinner down. London Underground? Being environmentally responsible citizens we travelled around the IoW by train and foot. The train services was superb - on time, quick and cheap. They'd also nicked a load of old-school London Underground carriages which was fun, even if you need an engineering degree to open the windows. The scouts discovered for themselves that these trains were perfect for 'hang tough', mass bundles and wedgees. 1st Shanklin Big'up the crew from 1st Shanklin who allowed us to stay in their warm and comfy scout HQ during our trip. It was well located, had good facilities and was next to the park. Nice one - and thanks to the leaders there for running us down to the chippy at eleven thirty! Brading Cross-Country We took the 'five' minute walk from Brading to Bembridge across fields and past the airport. Actually it turned out to be more like forty five minutes, but that didn't really matter as we'd allowed an hour and it was a very pleasant hike. Power kiting Mike G, Ben M, Adam S, Ollie R, Richard W and Max F all spent Saturday morning power kiting on Bembridge beach. This was in preparation for our kite surfing session that afternoon. Despite a poor wind forecast first thing, it soon picked up and it took some effort to control ther surprisingly powerful flexifoils. Our instructors, Rob and Clint, were excellent and taught everybody the dynamics of kite-flying before letting us loose on the real thing. Top marks go to all the scouts for flying the kites well, and to leader Matt for sending his kite down onto Ollie's head! Kite surfing In the afternoon we got out on bigger things. This time donning wetsuits, helmets, bouyuancy aids, etc. as we took the kites out to sea. This time we used inflatable kites that were bigger and provided much more power. We all did some body dragging having first learned how to use the kites safely. This involved using the kite to propel yourself fast across the water which is very exciting. Max was so good at this that he ended up being dragged at about 60mph and lost his kite. He thought this was excellent, though his kite had a nice trip in a speedboat having ended up half a mile away! Clifftop hiking Lewis N, Peter C, James C, Alex D, David I, Danny L and Stephen H joined James on a coastal hike along the spectacular coastline. Much merriment was had checking out clifftops, finding crabs and building sand maidens on the beach. They also got a suntan and discovered the world's best cafe. Sunny Once again we managed to catch the sun on a weekend where it was pouring down in Hersham. Ha ha. There's a lesson to be learned here... Food The scouts catered themselves this weekend, and a very good job they did too. Midnight football We found a nice well-lit section of Shanklin beach for a game of night football. Sponge ball on a wet beach worked better than we'd thought, though we never thought we'd see more fierce tackles in a game of beach football! Weather change On Sunday, each group did what they didn't do on Saturday. Or rather they didn't. Unfortunately there was little or no wind, so James' group couldn't really get any kite surfing in. They did have a blast on the beach, played sumo and get a go on the kites however. Matt's group got their hike in, getting a drenching in a morning downpour at the same time. We still had better weather than at home though! So, a cracking weekend by the sea with some excellent activities and an even better atmosphere. Thanks go to all the scouts for being legends across the weekend. We might do this coastal thing more often. Cheers to the guys at X-Isle for sorting out the kite surfing side of things. Check out their website here.