Summer camp: 26th-30th August 2019

Summer camp was very fun, it had to be one of my favourite camps. With sailing, wobble-boarding, dragon boating and raft building as activities it was very enjoyable and I would love to go again.

The walking journeys there and back were rather nice, not too far, but on the way there it was hot and drinks weren’t easily accessible. On the way back we took a shortcut through some woods so the journey was even shorter. On the train back we had to be shuttled on a coach to Stansted and then got a train from there.

We went to the ESSA water sports centre near Broxbourne in Hertfordshire where we did a range of activities.

Sailing was the main part of our activities. Running over 2 days, we did ‘RYA youth stage 1’. The first day, water almost completely calm. We split up in to two groups, the taller in the 3 man ‘Picos’ and the shorter in the 2 man ‘Toppers’, I was in the shorter. To start with we had a paddler and someone at the tiller. We had to do some challenges to get us used to the boat and balancing it. In the afternoon we learnt the parts of the boat and did capsize drills.

The second day was all sails out and off we went. We sailed around, some of us on our own and some of us not. We did follow the leader, sail to the buoy, getting out of irons and lots more.

On the third day of activities, we did 3 activities: wobble-boarding, dragon-boating and raft building.  Wobble-boarding consisted of me and Jakob paddling around whilst standing up on a surfboard. We fell in lots of times and the surfboard capsized once when we were trying to get back on. Dragon boating is where you paddle in time to the drum which the drummer is beating. I was the drummer and the seat was very wobbly. Raft building was successful for some but not for my group. Our raft was falling apart on the first race and fell apart on the second.

The food was very nice we had a hot option for breakfast and always cereal and bread, at lunch we had normal sandwiches and at tea we had a range of meals.

Overall I think that everyone enjoyed summer camp and had a wonderful time.

Written by: Micah