A good ol’ fashioned hoedown!

I am always aware that a blog can become mind-numbingly tedious if it simply an account of “what I did at the weekend”, but sometimes, the best things happen at weekends!

Shudder Rudder on the Old Skool Wave

This weekend saw the National Student Rodeo 2007 take place at Holme Piere-Point slalom course in Nottingham. Threatened by high levels on the Trent early in the week, the water dropped off, leaving warm sunshine and a course ready for all and sundry from the nations finest centres of academia to strut their freestyle stuff.

 

Friday night is a time for arriving, pitching camp and uttering the infamous line “I’ll just have a couple this evening, got a long day tomorrow“. I don’t why, but we always seem to lie to ourselves. A plate of chips, some pasta, and far more cider than is healthy later we stumbled from the River Legacy marquee, and through the ditch to slip merrily into slumber.

Tom Parker, Saturday morning

Saturday morning came far too soon, and as top freestyle judges, we were expected to be at our stations ready to dish out marks for performance at 8.30am sharp! Dave Fairweather and I were left in charge of the old skool wave, where we awarded points for all the coolest moves including shudder rudders, pop outs, and being a German in a Microbat.

Dave Fairweather, Judging beard firmly attached

The afternoon strolled in, and it was time to go squirting. For those of you not familiar with the term, rather than being a fight with water pistols or a gentleman’s interest production, it is actually the subtle art of going underwater in a perfectly serviceable craft. Ben White and Claire O’Hara were on hand to give us some pointers before the competition got under way. A 10 minute jam format in the looping pool decided who was in the final, and thanks to an lovely smooth long head under ride, I made it through along with Dave, Oli Brown, and an eclectic selection of craft.

With this done and dusted, it was back to timing and blowing my whistle for the intermediate and advanced heats, before polishing off a quiche and getting all cowboy’d up for one of the best parties of the year so far. 500 students in a large tent, with to tunes laid down by Lincoln’s finest DJ. Truly excellent.

Roused at an ungodly hour for “up-time” Topo Duo was followed by the squirt final. After a run each on the eddy above Twin Waves, it came down to a sudden death final between myself, Dave, and Max Bilbow. After far more rounds than my already sore head could handle, it was decided that Dave could win, I would be allowed second place, and Max should come in a close third.

Ms Wall racking up the frequent flier miles

Ladies Expert was the usual cat fight between Lowri and Emily. In the end Lowri did more loops than Emily, or something, anyway, she was decided to be the winner.

Mens expert was hotly contested as usual, with Adam Spooner just pipping Tim Trew for 1st place in the looping pool. I missed the Intermediate, Novice and Open as I was squirting.

Tim Trew, Wizard of the West,

All that remained was to dish out the vast prizes, rumoured to include One million pounds and a Liquid Satisfaction guided trip to the moon. Full results and whatnot will appear at www.nationalstudentrodeo.org.uk soon!

Adam Dumolo ripping the looping pool to bits in the expert final….

….then dishing out the prizes!

An enormous thanks to everybody who made the event happen, particularly Adam and Sara. Also special thanks to the Leeds girls for keeping us in tea and toasties all weekend. Heroic! See you all next year for the NSARRRR!

P.s. Well done to Sara for winning the Des Mes sponsorship this year!