International Bognor Birdman 2007

Hello all! Finally, here is the tale of our day at the Birdman Competition in Bognor Regis on the Saturday before last...

Around midday, we set off for the annual Bognor Birdman, which we'd planned to go to ever since I'd researched English festivals while we were still in Australia! The Birdman is all about human powered flight, and involves people jumping off the end of the pier wearing clever/ absurd/ hilarious flying contraptions and seeing how far they can “fly”! Check out the Birdman website for bizarre sentences you never thought you'd see...

“By 1990 the record stood at 71 metres with the Germans taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, beating a 10 metre Concorde, 4 penguins, 4 Ninja Turtles and an inmate from Ford Open Prison - minus his passport! The jackpot distance was now 100 metres, the prize a cool £25,000.”

Anyway, it turns out that the main day of the two-day competition is the Sunday, and only the serious contestants (aiming for the distance and air time prizes) jump on Saturday as well. No doubt many of the others ruin their costumes after one jump, so they might as well do it on the day when the most people are watching! So despite the fact that we only saw three people in total jump off the pier, and they were all wearing modified hang gliders rather than the giant wings/ bee costumes I was hoping for, there were lots of other things to do and we had a wonderful afternoon regardless!

The drive to Bognor Regis took about an hour and we went through some beautiful country. We even went through the village of Clapham and passed Hamblin Hall! Upon arriving at Bognor Regis, we discovered that there were not too many indications around town that the Birdman festival was currently taking place, and in fact it turned out to be not very crowded at all. The day had quite a “relaxing family day out” kind of atmosphere.

We found the beach and parked in a grassy field where some people were endeavouring to fly a kite. We walked past the “Boat Pound”, a yard filled with colourful tinnies, and onto the beach. There was no sand, just smooth stones of various colours. There were change huts along this end of the beach, only these ones varied in design and colour and were larger than the ones at Brighton. Other than a group sitting on camp chairs in front of their hut, the beach was quite empty.





Once we reached the pier, passing a little passenger train and a skinny but quite friendly cat on the way, we were in time to await the flight of last year's winner, the current record holder. I think he is a hang gliding instructor. We watched from the esplanade, so the action was quite a distance away, but there was a big screen on the shore end of the pier showing close ups of the contestant preparing for his jump, and an announcer giving a running commentary. Anyway, they each have a 10 minute window in which to jump, so they wait on the end of the pier and hope the wind becomes helpful.






That first guy we saw jump went the furthest of the three we saw – 71.5 metres (I think the record is 80-something) – and it was about 12 seconds from when he ran off the pier (only a few metres of run up) until he landed in the water. The waiting boats then went out to collect him and his glider. Unfortunately, I was under the impression that I was videoing this jump; however, due to the fact that my camera was actually set on photo taking mode, my “video” consists of a photo of him running off the pier, and a photo of him getting picked up by the boat (i.e. I thought I was starting and ending the video with those clicks!).

The rest of our afternoon consisted of exploring the local shops and beachfront markets (where we both bought new hats), laughing at the gaudy show-type rides along the esplanade, watching some “Egyptian” dancers (i.e. middle aged English ladies in bright jangly costumes), walking on the beach, listening to a band, and seeing an awesome aerobatics display over the sea! It was one plane, doing amazing stunts such as flying upside-down, shooting straight up until he just hung there, then spiralling downwards and straightening up immediately, plummeting towards the water, etc! Very very good!!!

The worst part of my day was when I ordered an iced coffee (my FAVOURITE drink) and literally received a lukewarm cup of coffee with ice cubes floating in it!!! I had been especially pleased when ordering it, too, since it was 10p cheaper than Ben's tiny glass of orange juice and I thought I had hit the jackpot (or at least the cheap iced coffee shop!). So, as you can imagine, I am quite devastated at the thought that it may be difficult to find REAL iced coffee here... :( Life is tough, I tell you.









We left at 5pm and headed off to Matt and Kat's for tea, taking some detours to fill in time as we were early. We stopped at a muddy little harbour where I took some photos, and we also dropped into a Roman castle complex that was closed for the day (this wasn't as interesting as it sounds, as buildings have been built around it all and we couldn't go inside). And you know how the rest of that pleasant evening went!





Well, I hope that's enough photos for those photo-loving poll voters out there! :) Goodnight!

PS. My favourite (modified) photo from Bognor Regis...