Hello! If you’ve not met us yet, I’m Flo, and I’m Eddy, we are FlowFree’s mascots. We join the FlowFree coaches & friends on adventures all over the world as well as tagging along on FlowFree courses & trips to cause mischief! So far we’ve been to Scotland, Uganda, New Zealand among other places… (follow our adventures on facebook).
Earlier this month we went along to the National Student Rodeo in Nottingham. We’d heard a lot about it as FlowFree has been attending the event for 10 years and sponsoring it for 6. With over 1000 people in attendance, this is the biggest “freestyle” event in the World, but it’s like no other freestyle event we’ve ever seen.
Almost every university had set themselves up with a shanty-town style base along the grassy banks of the man-made white water course and with some epic team effort fancy dress outfits, wall-to-wall sunshine and awesome tunes blasting out, it is no wonder the whole weekend has a carnival vibe (which incidentally is the theme of next year’s event).
We were on the look-out for awesome on-the-water fancy dress, as the boss had said we could give away a day’s coaching for the one that impressed us the most. With an awesome theme to the weekend of Heroes & Villans, there were some great costumes around. We had special “SuperFlo” and “SuperEddy” costumes prepared and wore them all weekend!
As this is a student event, the party is LEGEN…
…wait for it…
…DARY!
We were keen to experience it for ourselves – our first big party – so we donned our capes and pulled down our masks…
The boss, Lowri, dressed as SuperFlo too!
Our little heads are a bit fuzzy as to the details, but we remember millions of minions, the whole cast of thunderbirds (with ships), many disturbing wonderwomen, generally far too much lycra and then far too little!
Flo recovering from the party!
One of our favourite moments of the event was the novice ladies final… what a spectacle! Most of those girls had barely been on moving water before and there they were chucking themselves into a stopper, dressed in silly costumes and trying to outdo one another in the realms of the ridiculous to impress the crowd (and judges). Massive congratulations to Katy Farmer who finished in 1st place and has bagged herself 2-days of coaching with us! Ooooh, good prize!
Congratulations also to St Andrews University for putting that fabled student procrastination time to good use by turning a plain old red Dagger G-Force into an awesome Spiderman-boat. This photo doesn’t do it any justice as the real art was on the front and hull, but it does involve a shudder rudder! They win themselves a day of FlowFree coaching too.
Thanks to everyone involved for an awesome weekend. See you next year… we are planning our Carnival costumes already! Eddy loves colourful feathers…
Photos with thanks to Lowri Davies, P.Y. Photographic, River Legacy, Amy Brocklehurst and Liz Forshaw.
