The Summer Bubble

Summer Camp. Never Never Land. A Working Holiday…

Whichever way you want to look at it, it’s a funny old place. Where else do you find 50 adults and 200 children living together within communal living spaces and dining upon questionable food? Well, apart from the average British school obviously…


The summer camp setting cultivates a complex environment where the outside world fades to a distant existence as an invisible bubble encapsulates its latest residents in a crazed cauldron of youth, enthusiasm and awkwardness. The summer begins in biblical fashion, no not with Adam & Eve’s nudity (that would be considered ‘camp inappropriate’), but rather more akin to Noah’s nautical antics. 50 random twenty-somethings collectively thrown in the deep end with the expectation of building a raft capable of weathering two tempestuous months of challenging children, dubious dinners and…each other. Team-building exercises suddenly seemed appealing…

But, in truth, the group gels pretty quickly despite the crazed myriad of nationalities, languages, accents, and cultural norms that inevitably go hand in hand with international summer camps. And even though the group is made up of similar-minded people, each individual brings a different set of cards to the proverbial table; whether it be a funny accent, a drinking game, some strange bodily attributes, or a weird sense of humour. Indeed, living amongst such a crowd screams for punchlines to inadvertent jokes as you objectively witness ‘a Kiwi, an American, and a Scotsman walk into a Croatian bar…’ or reinforce pre-supposed stereotypes as an Englishman happily sips his imported PG Tips. Even more amusing is hearing some people’s distorted accents after a summer spent in the company of a newfound foreign friend.


So how does this bunch of individuals streamline into a team so smoothly? This process is definitely aided by the social lubricant of alcohol in combination with the much-anticipated once-weekly 24 hours off duty. That time of week when females look prettier, males make an effort to smell that little bit better, food becomes tastier, and the alcohol tastes sweeter. Night-day trips may include checking out a neighbouring city, cliff-jumping at a national park, group kayaking some white waters, or simply indulging in some late night drunken antics. This is also the day of reckoning for the weekly enthronement of ‘that guy’; the he (or she) that, after a long week of trials & tribulations, decided to have five beers too many and earn oneself a few funny photos and a hefty hangover to remember the weekend by. But we also return to camp with the newly scripted stories, newly founded friendships (aww), newly-purchased matching accessories, and of course the ‘consummated’ romances from that manic day release.

However it then quickly dawns on these new couplings that they’ve now effectively been fast-forwarded to marriage and kids as they are reunited with the campers and the oh-so-intimate camp grounds. This is when the sanctuary of the staff lounge comes into its own, for never has a key for a glorified crack den become such a prized asset as in the wake of a weekend off. And for those romances that managed to dodge the spotlight during this period, they must take their relationship covert once back at camp in order to outmanoeuvre and outlast the inescapable gossip loop. Even the slightest hint of ruffled hair, a love-bite, or a sighting of a male counsellor and a female counsellor whispering to each other arises a suspicion that quickly escalates into some pretty interesting rumours / filthy fabrications; “Russian chaperone retrieves condom supply in a teacup for Welshman” anyone?

Moving on… Aside from the fun and games, what about the work? Well, this would include more fun, and more games. The nature of the work undertaken at camp, at surface level, is very appealing due to it being outdoors, active, social, alternative and liberal in contrast to the 9 to 5 jobs many of your friends may be grinding through at home. You cannot really complain of work-related stress when your prime duties for the day include teaching windsurfing or football to a bunch of kids on the Adriatic coast or in New England, USA. But dig deeper, and you can definitely appreciate the mental and physical demands of the job as the staff are entrusted with the responsibility of supervising, teaching, entertaining, and even parenting these children 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. The job soon becomes a perfect paradox of fatigue and fun, as the counsellors mask their exhaustion with enthusiasm with the aid of some much-needed caffeine and camp depot.

This fatigue and frustration may become too much for some as the quite literal ‘cabin fever’ suddenly sets in, where the bubble becomes a boundary with no escape route from living in close quarters with the same people day in day out. The time continuum warps as minutes drag to hours, hours become days, and days feel like weeks whilst your personal space seemingly dwarfs in the company of these needy kids and relative unknowns. Simultaneously, the outside world’s current affairs become secondary to the internal disputes and discrepancies that make mountains out of molehills amongst the staff ranks. Yet, just as suddenly, the fever will cool off alleviating your anxiety levels and downgrading your stress to that of questioning which mystery meat will be served at dinner or which boardies to wear with this t-shirt.

And whilst on the subject, image and appearance also takes a sharp twist once within the camp gates, with some interesting clothing combinations that will challenge contemporary fashion norms. Tie-dyed shirts and sweatshirts, bandanas, capes, casual cross-dressing, body-painting, optional showers, no make-up, males walking around topless, pyjama bottoms, and customised wife-beaters... Would these really be socially acceptable should you wear them down your local high street? There’s no doubt that they should be, I mean who doesn’t appreciate a good tie-dye, but we’re unlikely to see Armani stock a range for the foreseeable future.

This future then suddenly becomes a reality as the season finishes in a frenzy with the closing night staff party, and is followed by the inevitable farewells of the morning after. Everyone stands around nursing their hangovers as they reflect upon the hectic summer blur of crazy campers, early wake-ups, hilarious night-day trips & in-jokes, and those moments that you can’t quite remember but will never forget. Emotional goodbyes, prospective reunion and visit vows follow amidst the final embrace with those people who you’d only met some nine weeks ago. The very same set of strangers that quickly became a group of friends that hadn’t yet met...


Dan Bowen.

Board, Mast, Sail... Boom!

“A wet and windy weekend”. Possibly the most familiar yet groan-inducing phrase known to the British population having been subjected to a lifetime of pessimistic weather forecasts... But what if it was said with a smile? Or, more specifically, the smile of a windsurfer?

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of windsurfing, it is ultimately a hybrid of surfing and sailing that challenges you to negotiate coastal winds with a sail attached to what resembles a large surfboard underfoot. It is the perfect combination of technique and tenacity, enabling you to take on and convert Mother Nature’s wind-power into a fuel that feeds your very own adrenaline fix. So how do you get started?

The equipment is fairly straight forward; consisting of a board, mast, sail and boom. The board supports the mast, to which you attach the sail, with a boom running across the middle allowing you to hold on to the sail for stability and direction. You then position the sail in relation to the direction of the wind, allowing the gust to hit the sail’s large surface area and power the board along the surface of the water. In doing so, you are effectively combining and testing your delicacy of balance, grasp of wind dynamics, and physical strength in grappling with the wind. And what a battle it can be... In tandem with the speed generated, the prime thrill of windsurfing is the opportunity to wrestle against the wind as a raw force of nature, actively challenging it to further energise your sail’s capacity for velocity. Some pros take this contest to its extremities, progressing to the standard of wave-surfing, speed-swivelling and performing big air jumps that defy all of the gravity laws you’d have thought a board & sail couldn’t possibly breach. Isaac would have been impressed...

So what else do you get from this windsurfing business? Good health and good vibes to name but two. The sport provides you with a full body workout; thoroughly conditioning your legs, back, arms and shoulders whilst you lift, hold and spin the sail according to the conditions (oh and be prepared for some quality swimming time whilst you’re learning). However, you’ll be happy to hear that the adrenaline generated more than compensates for any exerted effort, with the sea air and endorphins combining to create an additive-free high without the hangover. And all of this comes at a minimal cost to the natural environment... Having discounted the initial equipment manufacture and travel fuel to your local beach, windsurfing is an eco-friendly and sustainable sport with zero dependence upon fossil fuels or other parties in contrast to other water-sports such as water-skiing or wakeboarding.

As a result, windsurfing is now a well-renowned extreme sport worldwide, and such is its popularity that there are now specific holiday resorts and inclusive packages aimed at fanatics willing to travel in search of the winds that dwell over warm waters. It has even inspired a new derivative of itself, effectively growing to become big brother of the newborn phenomenon that is kite-surfing, where you capture the wind’s energy via a parachute whilst your feet are strapped into a mini surfboard. Oh and I should mention that you can windsurf on land should you make the perfectly rational decision of strapping your sail onto a skateboard or kart. The possibilities are endless...

So check the forecast... Wet and windy this weekend? Turn off the TV, get down to the beach and you can be the one smiling come Monday morning.

Dan Bowen.

A Society's Surrender to Stimulus

What the f#!k has happened to TV and the media?!

Got your attention? Good. You’re stimulated. You’re jolted. You’re still reading... Such is the make-up of our contemporary mass-media conditioned society, this is simply an exaggerated example of a common tactic deployed to fix your attention. However our senses are now so overloaded by such stimulatory poking and probing that we no longer see it as an invasion of our privacy and balanced judgement.

A stimulus is defined as “an action, influence or agency that produces a response in a living organism”, whilst to stimulate refers to anything that “incites, instigates or excites towards increased action”. Therefore, a stimulant is effectively engineering a pre-meditated reaction within us in order to capture and sustain our attention upon the rousing source. Modern media and marketing is specifically geared towards unleashing as many of these stimulants as possible in the direction of potential consumers – i.e. you and I - in order to grip our attention and instigate interest in what they have to offer. These stimulants will appear in many different mediums; mainly in television, films and mass media, but also increasingly so in radio, music, games consoles and static advertisements. This is achieved by the inclusion of distinctive sounds, flashing visuals, arresting buzzwords, catchy sales slogans, and sensationalism of controversy, sometimes all incorporated into a single source! Think about it... How often have your eyes and ears been subjected to such stimulus today?

Just consider television for a moment... We now live in era of round-the-clock news channels, a cult-like following of soaps, and a plethora of ‘reality tv’ shows each striving for our attention with their maxed-out inclusion of emotional triggers and stimulants. The 24 hour news channels throw up and regurgitate sensationalist news stories in the form of easily digestible soundbites, carefully condensed into quick-read summaries as to fit into our oh-so-hectic lifestyles. Flick the channel over and we are at the mercy of soaps and reality tv shows that strive to include as many controversial and provocative scenes - ranging from sex & drugs to violence & conflict - as possible into their pre-watershed slots. And, of course, in the scheduled breaks between these programmes, we are subjected to the shameless deluge of slogans, celebrity endorsements and flashy animations that we call adverts in which we are relentlessly encouraged to Buy, Buy, Buy. But whilst you could argue that all of this simply adds up to provide us with absorbing entertainment, ‘stimulating media’ should not always be considered to be a positive description as is commonly perceived...

The real issue lies with the way in which these stimulants are deployed in order to deter us from being distracted by our environment, effectively slapping our faces over and over again just in case we lose focus and take our eyes off the ‘prize’. It is the concept of focus that cements the reciprocal nature of our interaction with modern media, whereby less stimulation would result in reduced viewer focus ultimately leading to poor ratings and low viewing figures. Therefore, tv executives and marketers are eager to fit metaphorical matchsticks between our eyelids by constantly jolting us without a moment’s respite to make judgements upon the quality of the show itself. So what’s the problem here? If this is a virus, what are the symptoms?

The result is that we’re walking around constantly aroused (no laughing at the back...) by our surroundings, with little or no time to digest explosive animations before we are bombarded by the next. This is hitting the younger generation the hardest; as newspapers and books are increasingly judged as boring substitutes for online or televised media, advertisement slogans predominate over parents’ preachings, and iPods are viewed as a welcome buffer for that most uncomfortable of natural silences that arise when in the untainted outdoors. And if you look hard enough, the effects are there for all to see... An increase in nervous energy, anxiousness, fidgeting and restlessness is evident within us all once that stimulation is momentarily taken away, leaving us with no visual or verbal stimulant to hold our focus. Just try asking a teenager to sit still between their marathon Xbox sessions. Furthermore, this discreet form of conditioning seems to have diminished our attention-spans, levels of concentration and focus to the point where Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is now perceived as a common ‘condition’ amongst children in contemporary society. It could also prove to be overpowering for those individuals of an impulsive disposition, who are more vulnerable than most to marketing’s relentless drive in encouraging consumption of their promoted products.

Our underlying relationship with this form of bombardment can therefore be likened to that of the respiratory process... However, as much as we are constantly inhaling all of these stimulatory media, what is being exhaled? All those sales slogans, emotional triggers, violent movie scenes and games console binges... where does it all go? With the only tangible output being that of consumption in response to mass marketing and sales advertisements, what happens to the television & media intake? It all seems to be bottling up inside of us, discreetly fizzing up nervous energy and restlessness until we sit up and take notice of just how badly this can spill over when the cap is lifted. But, what match are we for the media people in trying to avert the gaze of the millions from their television sets...

Yup, those same media people who claim the media doesn't influence people, but are perfectly willing to sell you advertising time.