Yorkshire Tour: Flow House at Xscape Yorkshire
The conversation went something like this:
Paul: So you get up to much last night?
Me: Yeah, I went surfing actually
P: *Blank face* What, like over on the Yorkshire Coast?
Me: Nope, in Castleford actually
P: * Blanker face* Eh?
Me: Over at Xscape Yorkshire…
P: But don’t they do skiing there?
M: Ah, yes…yes they do. Come, gather round whilst I regale the tale of the Flow House and how I had the most fun I’ve had in a wetsuit for a long time.
It was a dark night in December as we made our way from Leeds to Castleford for the opening of Flow House not really knowing what to expect apart from we were going to be surfing at some stage.
Registered, we donned a wet suit and walked the 12 steps of apprehension up to the lip. After a quick briefing from Jonny and Adey, our amazing instructors, we held our body boards and leapt in down a incline and into a lot of water being blown up it (we later discovered that over 40,000 gallons of water are pumped up the ramp per MINUTE!).
So we leapt…and it was good. We were even floating!
After the initial adrenalin rush and realising that we weren’t going to ‘stack it’ (I may or may not have used many a surfer term like radical, sick and cowabunga during our hour stint), it was time to step up and try and do some tricks. First up was doing a barrel roll, then we graduated on to flinging the board away from your body where you took on a sense of Biblical pride by floating on the water waiting for it to fling back.
Then you generally get too cocky and fall off.
Kneeling up is the next stage…and when you reach this stage, you then think you’re the Lionel Messi of body boarding so you show off…
And then, quelle surprise, you fall…schadenfreude was designed for watching people at Flow House!
On the section next to us, some chap with exceptional balance was surfing on 11(!) body boards, but alas, he too fell like the proverbial show-off at an indoor surfing attraction.
Next, we had a try on mini surf boards which were a bit like skateboard decks but without the wheels. Having tried skateboarding in my youth, I wasn’t hugely optimistic about this, but nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.
ZOMG!! I could do it!!!!!!!!!!!1
For about 5 seconds…
Annoyingly, Emily mastered straight away and was surfing away like she’d popped over from Venice Beach to show everyone how to do it. BUT, (and I’ll probably get in trouble for this, but it’ll be worth it!) she did finally fall and I got it on camera.
So here she is looking all confident…
Bit of worry across her face here…
Uh-oh…
SPLASH!
So to summarise, it’s amazing! The floor is more like a trampoline so it’s actually quite good fun when you fall as you just bounce and then get whisked up to the top by water. The instructors talk you through every stage even literally holding your hand when you try the surf/skateboard. Give it a try…bet you love it!
More indoor attractions in Yorkshire
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