Paola takes the cake!

One of the joys of being part of the Harbour Sports team is meeting new and exciting folk from other countries who come to work here as business interns. They bring a special energy to each day and also enjoy birthday celebrations as the picture shows. Kerrie is sharing her borthday cake with Paola! Happy birthday Kerrie and welcome Paola. Paola's placement has been arranged by The Training Partnership in Torquay. But rather than leave it at that we've asked Paola to say a few words!

"I am Paola Marin; I come from Baone, a little village near Padua, in the North-East of Italy. I like doing sports very much; my favourites are skiing and athletic, which I practice 3 times a week. I also like watching matches, especially basketball, so I often go to the gym to watch my friends playing it. I really love almost every kind of music, so I like going to parties or concerts during the weekend. I also love going out with my friends and travelling.

I am 17 and I am attending the 4th year at scientific high school. Now I am working in Paignton at Harbour Sports for 4 weeks. I came here with a group of friends from Padua and I am staying in a host family. I get on well with them because they are very kind and they really like joking and laughing. I like Paignton, I think it is a wonderful place because of the sea and the beach, so I often walk around it and every morning I go running on the beach.

I am sure that my work placement is the best of all my friends`, because the stuff is very beautiful and there are many young people working here."

"Sono paola, vivo a Baone, un paesino vicino a Padova, nel Nord est dell` Italia. Mi piace molto fare sport, soprattutto sci e atletica, che faccio 3 volte a settimana. Mi piace anche guardare gare e partite, soprattutto di basket, quindi vado spesso in palestra per vedere I miei amici. Adoro quasi tutti I tipi di musica, per questo nel weekend vado spesso a feste o concerti. Mi piace uscire con amici e viaggiare. Ho 17 anni e ho finito la Quarta al liceo scientifico. Ora sto lavorando all` Harbour Sport a Paignton per un mese. Sono venuta qui con un gruppo di amici di Padova e vivo in famiglia. Vado veramente d`accordo con la famiglia che mi ospita perche sono persone allegre, a cui piace ridere e scherzare. Mi piace Paignton, soprattutto per il mare e la spiaggia, infatti mi piace passeggiare per la citta eogni mattina vado a correre sulla spiaggia. Sono convinta che il mio posto di lavoro sia il migliore tra quelli dei miei amici, sia perche mi piace la merce che vendiamo e sia perche ci sono molti ragazzi che lavorano con me."

Philipp makes a splash on his first day!

Philipp Stohrer (18) from Ulm near Stuttgart will be spending the next four weeks at Harbour Sports Paignton as a business intern. Philipp’s placement has been arranged by The Training Partnership in Torquay. Needless to say his English is perfect!

Philipp lists his sporting interests as football, knee boarding, personal fitness and, yes you’ve guessed it, kayaking!

Fairy Cove on Good Friday - breathing sea air!

The picture is from an old postcard that shows Paignton’s Fairy Cove at it’s very best! At this time of year parking is a little limited on the harbour (although you can still park for twenty minutes in the marked slots outside our shop) and so I parked the van up on Cliff Road.

My walk to the shop took me down the steps to Fairy Cove and to the sandy beach that had been recently washed by the dropping tide. I love this beach and breathing in the sea air this morning was such a spiritual lift!

Sadly this beach has suffered recently because the Council have allowed the positioning of two ugly containers for the slaughter of crab near the steps from the harbour to Fairy Cove. Family groups last summer were intimidated by the mess and noise. We did have one amusing anecdote to report when the comments made by the factory foreign workers there to a young lady who responded in their own language, knocking them off their lewd pedestal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did have a conversation with Carolyn Custerson (English Riviera Tourism Company's Chief Executive) yesterday about where we were going with tourism in relation to Paignton Harbour and Fairy Cove. The crab killing containers were a temporary measure a year or so ago whilst their fire damaged factory was rebuilt and refitted. But now another planning application has been posted to keep the wretched things here! That can’t be right.

Anyway, enough of all that! We have a new dive school on the harbour and they will be using Fairy Cove for training and filming. How exciting is that? It’s also interesting how many people take our kayaks out and paddle around to Fairy Cove for the first stop on their kayaking journey along the Geo Park coast!

Smell that sea air today! Stunning stuff!

frank

First signs of a warm summer....

Spring flowers, warm winds, the smell of the sea at first light and a delivery of 23 boxes packed full of REEF SANDALS! If you have never had a pair of REEF SANDALS then change your life for the better today........and as I write a truck full of kayaks and body boards is unloading!

Goodness me, what an adventure it all is.

The photograph was not taken this morning on one of the English Riviera beaches!!!......:-)

Live the life with HARBOUR SPORTS!

The end of an era – new Paignton harbour fishing ban

I bumped into a local fisherman at the end of the quay the other day. Mike has been fishing out of Paignton harbour many years and his family have been part of the local community for many generations. He was scratching his head whilst looking at the new high wire fence on both sides of the harbour entrance and said, "Here boy what do they think they're doing? My granddad fished from the end of the quay, as did my dad and my children! How much did that cost and why could the harbour staff just patrol the area?"

We seem to live in a time of not do rather than can do. With one hand we are encouraging folk to use the coastline and with the other we are telling them not to.

Of course the few have once again ruined a good thing for the majority by carelessly flicking fishing weights at passing boats. But did it need this high fence on both sides of the harbour?

The question is whether the English Riviera Tourist Board and Mayor Oliver's Torbay Development Board tourist marketing section will want to use this picture for their new hugely expensive advertising campaigns?

Markus - a man on a chocolate mission!

Bastian Mayer has returned to Germany after two weeks as a business intern at Harbour Sports Paignton. His place has been taken by Markus Bremer (20) from Oschersleben in Germany who will be working on the harbour for the next four weeks. Markus arrived with a big bag of German chocolate which he claims to be perhaps the best in the world. There were no arguments about that from the Harbour Sports staff as they tucked into bars of creamy milk chocolate!

Markus’s placement has been arranged by The Training Partnership in Torquay who constantly seek new employers to offer work experience places to young people from the European Community. It is also possible for young adults from South Devon to be placed on funded work experience programmes in Europe and Ian Smith at The Training Partnership has the information.

This sort of funded programme is a great way of bringing communities together in these troubled times.

The Bilingual Bastian Meyer!

My trip to Torquay

Written by Bastian Meyer

After a very good breakfast on Sunday morning (05.02.2012) I left my home village and drove to the Hannover airport. The ride lasted on hour. Arrived at the airport, my first task was to get my tickets “Air France; Hannover – Paris – London” stamped on them, so we had a short stop in Paris. Both flights were very good; comfortable, quiet and very acceptable. But before we left Germany, we drank a last cold beer, and that was very delicious!

Kevin, the small one with a bald head, was waiting for us (me and my room member) to bring us to our host families. After a five hour trip we arrived in Torquay and he brought us to our host family. A small woman was waiting for us and she welcomed us warmly.

Without enough energy we simply fell into bed and slept till 9 o clock next morning.

My weekly schedule looks like this:

Monday: work at Harbour Sports
Tuesday: work at Harbour Sports
Wednesday: work at Harbour Sports
Thursday: English conversation at the partnership school (The Training Partnership)
Friday: work at Harbour Sports

Last weekend we visited a karaoke bar and the “Mambo”, the Torquay disco.
It was very funny and we had a lot of fun! Most off the English people are very friendly!
On Sunday, we visited the Dartmoor and it was amazing. One has a fantastic outlook over the moor.
In my opinion the next two weeks were just as good as the last. Hopefully!

My work placement, Harbour Sports, is a water sports store with three locations; Plymouth, Paignton and Exeter.
I am very happy to work here, because in my free time I like sports; football and tennis. The first day was very interesting; Kerrie and Chris made me feel very welcome. They gave me an introduction in the store and how the business works. They showed me all the things that will be important for the next two weeks. I had an interesting walk with Frank Sobey , a director of Harbour Sports, around Roundham Head and he told me some facts about Brixham, Paignton and Torquay.
I think I'm going to spend very good few weeks at Harbour Sports.

Meine Tage im Torquay

Geschrieben von Bastian Meyer

Es ist Sonntag 13:00 Uhr und mein Auto, zum Hannover Flughafen, erwartet mich in meiner Heimatstadt Holzminden. Die Fahrt dauerte eine Stunde. Angekommen am Flughafen mussten wir unsere Flugtickets holen. “Air France; Hannover- Paris- London Heathrow” war auf dem Ticket geschrieben. Kurz vor der Abreise haben wir uns noch ein kuehles deutsches Bier gegoennt, wechles fantastisch geschmeckt hat.
Die Fluege ( Hannover – Paris / Paris – London ) waren sehr angenehm und es gab keine groesseren Probleme.
Kevin, ein kleiner Mann mit einer Glatze, erwartete uns (mich und meinen Zimmernachbarn) schon, um uns zu unseren Gasteltern zu bringen. Nach einer 5 stuendigen Fahrt, von London nach Torquay, waren wir endlich angekommen und unsere Gastmutter begruesste uns sehr freundlich. Voellig geschafftt von dem langen Trip bin ich nur ins Bett gefallen und hatte eine hervorragende Nacht auf englischem Boden.
Der Wochenplan in England sieht wie folgt aus:
Montag: Arbeiten bei Harbour Sports
Dienstag: Arbeiten bei Harbour Sports
Mittwoch: Arbeiten bei Harbour Sports
Donnerstag: Englischunterricht, danach eine Gruppenaktion
Freitag: Arbeiten bei Harbour Sports
Samstag und Sonntag frei

Am Wochenende haben wir eine Karaokebar besucht und das Mambo, eine Disco in Torquay unsicher gemacht. Sonntag ging es in das Dartmoor, um eine 2 stuendige Wanderung zu machen. Sehr anstrengend, aber hat sich gelohnt, da man einen fantastischen Blick ueber das Moor hatte! Ich denke die naechsten 2 Wochen werdem genauso so gut wie die letzte Woche und ich werde auf alle Faelle meinen Aufenthalt hier in Torquay noch geniessen!

Harbour Sports, ein Wassersportladen, der seit 1977 besteht und von Frank Sobey und Julian Smith gegruendet wurde. 3 Geschaefte bestehen : Plymouth , Paignton und Exeter.
Ich bin sehr froh, dass ich bei Harbour Sports arbeiten darf, da ich auch in der Freizeit eine Menge mit Sport zu tun habe ( Fussball und Tennis). Der erste Tag war grossartig: ich wurde so aufgenommen, als ob ich nicht den ersten Arbeitstag hatte, sondern so, als ob ich schon 10 Jahre Angestellter war. Ein gute Einleitung bekommen und mir wurde gleich alles gezeigt, was fuer 2 Wochen wichtig ist. Kerrie und Chris, zwei Angestellte haben mir den Tag ueber die Aufgaben von HS erklaert. Frank Sobey, der Chef, ging mit mir in der Mittagspause eine kleine Runde, um etwas ueber die Gegend zu erzaehlen. Sehr interessant!
Ich bin gespannt, wie die naechsten Tage warden, doch ich glaube es warden sehr gute Tage in Torquay bei Harbour Sports!

Bastian Meyer