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Freshview goes surfing

Posted by Mathew Patterson on February 28, 2008 5:15 PM

One of the cool things about working at Freshview is our 'First Friday Fun' - the idea is that once a month we take a Friday afternoon off to do something fun as a team. In the past we've played Lawn Bowls, Ten Pin bowling, seen a movie and had table tennis lessons from a gold medallist.

Last Friday, on a beautiful summers day in Sydney, we all drove the 10 minutes from the office to our local Cronulla beach for some surfing lessons. Freshview founders Dave and Ben are both keen surfers, but the rest of us....let's just say table tennis holds far less risk of drowning.

So it was with some trepidation we all got kitted up and hopped into the water. After a brief, yet embarrassing stint in the safety of the rock pool. we'd 'mastered' the art of paddling and eskimo rolls, and we were allowed in the actual ocean.

Then followed an hour or so of spectacular falls, flailing arms and the occasional moments of surfing glory. The young interns Dan and Toby showed the rest of us up by standing up within minutes and spending the rest of the time cruising past, as if they we're on a travelator.

Meanwhile, Dave and Ben stood at the shore taking photographs and making 'encouraging' remarks. Developers, QA and support team members got there eventually however, and nobody was lost to the sea (good news for Campaign Monitor and MailBuild users).

The final score: Ocean: 378 defeated Nerds: 6.

As we retired for a quiet beer, the stories were already being exaggerated, and it was only the release of photographic evidence several days later that restored the truth. This one is going to be hard to top!