New Years Day Fancy Dress Dip 2019

What can I say? These events are put together with a vision of what you want to see happen, how you see it play out. The events always go well, every now and then they just work even better than you could of hoped for! The New Years Day Fancy Dress Dip 2019 was one of these....What a wonderful vibe, what energy, colour, smiles, what a turn out and what a splendid team keeping everyone safe.

Event HQ was set up on the top floor of the Fairway Buoy, it was a perfect venue as the PA was loud enough to cover most of the beach and the wireless microphone reached the waters edge at mid tide! This made information sharing and crowd control very easy, plus we had a birds eye view of what was going on. Peter, the organiser, was on the Microphone from 10.15 welcoming the crowds and giving out safety advise. 
The Blue Flagged beach was looking gorgeous, empty and still...This was about to change!

Like all great sporting events a warm up was essential before entering the chilly Atlantic Ocean, there was no better way to warm up than with Woolly the Sheep! Fresh from Britain's Got Talent, Woolly got us all moving...We had shuffles, hops, skips, Gam lang styles, the Twist, Cha Cha slides and of course some Baby Sharks! Woolly is normally found at The Big Sheep adventure park but was kindly led to Westward Ho! by crazy Jack Johns, thanks a lot Jack, entertaining as always. Brilliant start to the event in true Westward Ho! stylieee.

On to the beach to get ready for the main event...A large crowd lined up behind two marker flags and spectators made a human corridor to the Ocean...A last minute check that the lifeguards were in place and ready, 3.....2.....1.....OMG, a sea of people in all manner of fancy dress running into the Ocean on the first day of the year...A sight I for one, will never forget. The thanks here go to Jordan, Paul, Issac and Jack who were our lifeguards/water safety cover for this event. They can be found on Westward Ho! beach in the summer months keeping our waters safe. Spectacular is all that can be said. 

The community spirit was high. The HM Coastguards brought three vehicles to the event as a public relations exercise and as education. Such amazing girls and guys that volunteer to keep our shorelines safe. If you have issues around water always dial 999 and ask for the Coastguard. They are cliff rescue, mud rescue and water rescue specialists. They work closely with the RNLI, today attending the New Years Day Fancy Dress Dip was Sam, Matt, Kay, David, Rich and Duncan. They made the event even more special, thank you for attending our event and being there for the people.

We also had the RNLI at the 2019 New Years Day Fancy Dress Dip too. The inshore lifeboat was keeping a watchful eye out the back of the waves. Simon was at the Helm with Del, Natalie and Robbie onboard. Again these guys and girls volunteer their time and are a valuable asset around the shores of the UK. Without the RNLI many people would die around the coasts each year. We thank you all for the splendid work you do and for attending this event.

This is Cllr Nick Laws, he is our Torridge Councillor and Northam Councillor too. What a legend in Westward Ho! He spends a lot of time working to make the village as good as it can be, he is Westward Ho! through and through plus always participates in the village events. Cllr Andrew Eastmond was also around too, he is our Devon County Council representative...I love to see this, it's not about politics for these pair, it's about making the place they live/love better. Top job fellas.

Thanks also have to go to Jules, Harvey and Barbra...These three were marked in Orange jackets, our Marshals/Bucket collectors for this event. They did a fantastic job, Massive thanks to all three of them. Thank you all for your donations. ALL monies raised at any of our events are added to individual business sponsorship and used to hold more/bigger  free events in Westward Ho!

The other big thank you goes to John and Julie Martin from The Carousel Amusements, Slipway Takeaway and Julies Ice Dream Parlour. These were the main sponsors of this event.  Thank you so much.
We do have one heck of a business community in Westward Ho! and when we all work together look what we can achieve? A big thank you as ever goes to Torridge District Council helping us with the licence applications, advise and the New Homes Bonus Scheme that we applied for and got in the summer. With this grant we purchased a lot of the event equipment we use for every event. This has made our events very professional and much more fun!

Visit Westward Ho! Media team is lead by Alex, he used the drone to get some shots of the Westward Ho! New Years Day Fancy Dress Dip, he also shot this superb video of the RNLI lifeboat that was standing just off the beach while the dip was going on. Brilliant work getting this Alex and thank you again to the RNLI and HM Coastguards for your public relations work today. 

Dine and Dash Batman...Are these the fiends that ran from the Pier House last week?? Thank you also to Robin (Rob Braddick) for the use of the Fairway Buoy. It does make an amazing event area for anything on the beach...Our next event is the National Sandcastle Competition on the 16th June 2019.

Thank you if you attended the NY Day Dip, hope you had as much fun as we did, see you on June 16th armed with a spade, rake and remember to pack your muscles too!