Day 1 by Samuel, Callum, David and Jake
First day at PGL.
Four hour journey, shortly followed by a one hour swimming session at Barnstable pool. Should have been a two hour session but cut short due to traffic getting there. We had two stops, which during the first stop Sam, David, Jake and Callum bought a box of “crispy creme” donuts (12 in all) – which didn’t take long to eat.
After swimming we got back on the minibus and headed to PGL before settling into our rooms. Had sausage and mash for tea and chocolate sponge & custard (some had seconds) – lovely !
After dinner, we changed into dark clothes ready for “Capture the Flag”. Everyone was split into two teams spread out across a wide field where each team has to try and obtain the other teams flag without getting caught. It was pitch black and a lot of fun and everyone got wet (and a little muddy)
What a day !
Quote of the day from a RYS Swimmer ” is 800m 6 lengths of a 25m pool ?”
Day 2 by Hannah, Ellie, Cat, Livy and Annie.
Dear all,
Today has been amazing ! We’ve all had a great day. But of course we had an early morning swimming session. Even though the pool wasn’t the best out of the two, we got on with it.
After swimming & breakfast, we had our first PGL Activity, surfing. We hit the waves !!! We have never been so cold in our lives. But putting on our wetsuits was hilarious. Seeing everyone trying to stand up on the their boards was very amusing. Doug, Thomas and Andy were definitely the winners.
After lunch we then got split up into two groups (Regional Youth & Regional Age). Regional Age did quad biking first. Annie is shocking at driving. In the first 5 minutes she murdered 4 old ladies (traffic cones). The best driver was properly David & Jake (surprisingly).
In the second hour, we did archery with Ro (she’s really nice). It was really fun. We did some tests first to see how good we were. Then we did a competition to see if we could get gold & go to Florida with Tom Daley on a private jet (different colours on the target meant different holidays / travel options). After we finished that game, we had to aim for the following :
Gold = Knife / Fork & Spoon
Red = Knife / Fork
Blue = Knife
White = Spoon
Miss = hands ?
A couple of people got gold and a miss. It was a good activity. We then blew up some balloons and had to try and pop them for points.
After tea we had swimming and PGL Staff came with us to get in the pool and swim with us. It was so funny. We had a great day.
Day 3 by Eliza, Ella, Danielle, Lucy, Kyle and Jon.
We got up for swimming…again. Dean thought it would be funny to go around the roundabout 7 times to wake us all up.
Eliza and Ella enjoyed their breaststroke set along with Ella having multiple breaks (and the pool tastes of plastic).
We went abseiling & climbing. Lucy was a cheeky monkey climbing up to the top of the wall. Eliza and Ella were being owls in the tree singing songs which they made up about people. Beth was scared and didn’t do it but blamed it on her bad foot.
The other pool (Barnstaple) is really deep and Ella felt like a mermaid diving to the bottom – but no one else is cool enough to do it. Kyle forgot his trunks – most likely on purpose, and sat at the side of the pool like a 3rd wheel of a bike for two hours.
Later we heard some lovely stories by the campfire. Georgie’s a badman and didn’t get scared by the stories – but she really did, and is trying to impress the boys. Sharon hurt her leg by falling over and that’s the end by the beautiful Eliza.
Day 4 by Georgie, Luisana, Andy, Beth and Victoria.
So day 4, we woke up at 1 o’clock because Eliza forgot to turn her alarm off. Swimming was alright. Breakfast wasn’t up to Swindon Dolphins standards as there were no hash browns. Body boarding was banter as most people put their wetsuits on and the beach was closed (hailstones & bad weather conditions on the beach) lol.
Then we did some tent building which Eliza, Georgie, Ella, Andy, Kyle and Beth couldn’t do. Everyone else could do it because they had magical powers as they were bewitched last night. The mud course (Challenge Course) was muddy. Rifle Shooting was good – felt like we were in a rap video. Dinner was nice but couldn’t get seconds on desert as there was no custard left #Gutted.
PS: Please send a taxi to take us home 😉
Day 5 – “Olympic Challenge”…
6am start – 4 teams of 5 swimmers took on the “Olympic Challenge”. Straight forward enough, swim the following :
1500m / 800m / 400m / 200m / 100m / 50m – Freestyle
200m / 100m / 50m – Butterfly
200m / 100m / 50m – Backstroke
200m / 100m / 50m – Breaststroke
200m / 400m – IM
Rules were simple – each swimmer had to swim as many events as possible. Each team could determine the order they swam in, and the rest breaks between events.Total distance 4700m per swimmer or 23,500m per team.
Winning Team
Danielle – 4700m
Lucy – 4700m
Eliza – 4700m
Jake – 4700m
Samuel – 4650m
Total team distance = 23,450m
2nd Place
Andy – 4700m
Ella – 4700m
David – 4700m
Annie – 4600m
Tom – 4400m
Total team distance = 23,100m
3rd Place
Victoria – 4700m
Luisana – 4700m
Georgie – 4700m
Ellie – 4000m
Callum – 3800m
Total team distance = 21,900m
4th Place
Kyle – 3500m
Hannah – 3500m
Catherine – 3500m
Livy – 3500m
Bethani – 3500m
Total team distance = 17,500m
