Something For The Weekend?

It’s May Day on Monday which means that many of us have a welcome long weekend.  If you’re looking for inspiration then there are a couple of pretty sweet things happening which you could get involved with.

Those of you familiar with the blog will know that a bunch of us have tried to build some rhythms into our weeks and months.  These tend to include doing something social on the first Sunday of the month.  We’ve come to refer to those days as “Soul Sundays” in the hope that carving out time and space with others in places we enjoy creates a bit of rest, a host of good memories and a side helping of stoke.  Because we personally wanted to support the SAS beach cleans we’re replacing this month’s “Soul Sunday” with a more general invite to come and join in at one of these other events that are already running this weekend.

First off, Surfers Against Sewage and Barefoot Wine have teamed up for their 7th consecutive round of annual Beach Rescues.  This year TV presenter and environmentalist Kate Humble will be joining volunteers on a number of beaches.  These afternoons are always very sociable and a fun way to join a wide range of like-minded people in giving something back to the coastlines that so many of us love.  There’ll also be a glass of wine and a free T-shirt in it for you!  There are fuller details here.

SASDunbar

Our family and a few friends plan to be at both events – so why not join us at East Beach, Dunbar (not Belhaven) from 2pm till 4pm on Friday 2nd May or at West Sands, St Andrews from 2pm – 4pm on Saturday 3rd May.  We’ve a couple of spare seats in our car on Friday and are planning on taking Davina the camper-van to St Andrews on the Saturday.  A few of us are talking about finding a camp-site and making a weekend of it up at St Andrews.  In true flip-flop-wearing-surfer dude-style the finer details are currently filed under “TBC”.  Get in touch or leave a comment if you want to camp.  Oh, and there might just be a wave or two to be surfed…

This weekend also sees the return of the annual War Of The Thistles skateboard event.  That means that it is a year since this photo of me was taken…

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The competition kicks off at Transition Extreme in Aberdeen on the Saturday before relocating to The Space in North Berwick on Sunday 4th May.  You can find out more info here  or by contacting either of the venues.  It should be a chance to see some truly rad skating and having the opportunity for a wee sesh if you want to.

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Hope to see some of you somewhere at some point!

B.

 

 

Beach Rescue: St Andrews.

It’s really great to see adventurer and Barefoot Friendly Beach Rescue Ambassador, Ben Fogle, manage to draw some local media attention to the Surfers Against Sewage beach clean at St Andrews yesterday.  42 volunteers gathered 58 kg of marine litter in a matter of hours.  Well done, Dom and the crew!

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sas st andrews beach clean

You can watch a short new report from STV here:

http://news.stv.tv/tayside/238187-ben-fogle-helps-residents-clean-up-west-sands-beach-at-st-andrews/

I’ll post up the dates of the various Cold Water Beach Cleans that Surfers Against Sewage are organising shortly.

Roll up your sleeves!

B.

Beach Rescue.

Fancy a free glass of wine, a good laugh and doing something worthwhile for a few hours?

Surfers Against Sewage and Barefoot Wine have teamed up again to organise their annual round of UK Beach Cleans.  Volunteers have literally been removing tonnes of marine litter in recent weeks.  In one case two Golden Wonder crisp packets from 1967 and 1968 respectively and a pre-1973 can of Coke were found on Saunton Sands in Devon.  Some of that litter has been on the beach for 45 years!  That doesn’t decompose.  There are plenty of other nasties and pollutants that can affect wildlife or get into our food-chains.

So why not get involved?  Some of the Soul Surfers crew will be at East Beach, Dunbar from 2pm on Saturday 23rd June.  We’ll be meeting at Woodrush Road, EH42 1GT.  There will also be a beach clean at the main beach at Elie in Fife, KY9 1BW from 2pm on Sunday 24th June.

These  are not “Soul Surfers” events, but we very much support them.  It’s not just surfers and it’s not just sewage.  Whilst I can personally only make the Saturday event, you will find a warm welcome at each beach clean.  It would be great if you felt that you could join in.  All the info you need is here…http://www.sas.org.uk/news/2012/04/13/ben-fogle-launches-the-2012-sas-barefoot-wine-beach-rescue-project/