Ask any surf holiday maker about their favourite things about Star Surf’s surf camp in Moliets and, nine times out of ten you’ll get the same answers: the surfing, the atmosphere and the people.  With groups varying in size between small intimate groups of thirty people from all over the world, to mass organized trips like the 180-person strong Oxford and Cambridge Varsity Surf Trip, each week the camp sees a whole host of different characters arrive for a week of smiles, sun and surfing.

More importantly, it also welcomes a whole host of different talents and skills each week, from pro-skaters to professional slack-liners, or, in the case of this week, several highly talented musicians. And so it was that, during this surf holiday week in a surf camp in need of some chilled out entertainment on Thursday evening, that Star surf camp Moliets hosted its first open mic night.

The evening kicked off with guest Aaron accompanying Star Surf’s very own Cameron on guitar for a David Gray cover before Casey picked up the pace a little with one of his own Blues songs.  Then, after Aaron performed some of his own acoustic pieces and a brief outburst of “Jerusalem” from Garth, it was over to Neil, Cameron and Aaron to give the group some renditions of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” and Blackstreet’s “No Diggity”.

Nonetheless, the night wasn’t limited to music and Zach provided another unexpected highlight with several spoken word performances.  Reciting his own compositions on topics varying from the EU and consumerism to poetry-recitals and life in a Moliets surf camp, he set the tone for the rest of the evening to become a free-for-all of contributions from virtually everyone in the crowd, as well as an opportunity for the surf camp’s more seasoned musicians to try out some new songs on the crowd.

In true Moliets surf camp style, a couple of hours soon flew by and, as the sun set, a few vague attempts at bringing the evening to a close were made with Cameron’s cover of “Banana Pancakes” supposedly being the night’s last song.  But, no sooner had Cam struck the last chord than the crowd (which had more than doubled in size from the start of the evening), were clamouring for more.

Keeping the surf camp evening chilled, Cameron successfully met the crowd’s demands with “Eyes in the Back of my Head” and then it was back to Casey with another Blues solo, before the night really got underway, with the musicians powering through after over two hours and starting to take requests from the crowd.  “Save Tonight” saw Paula take to the stage for a solo, “Living on a Prayer” had nearly everyone in the surf camp crowd singing at the top of their voices and, as Star Surf Moliets resident Irishman, Neil had the entire group stomping their feet and singing as loudly as they could with his very enthusiastic performances of “Wild Rover” and “Dirty Old Town”.

Finishing with virtually everyone singing and chanting in time to the guitar, both of Neil’s performances were the perfect way to end the surf camp evening and the night ended with the group buzzing from the music and living up to, Zach’s spoken word piece “The Summer is a Lover”:

“Everything is better when the sun shines,

Trees dance to the wind’s chimes,

Lives become intwined and when the beams

of light break through the emotional brick,

Wall barriers behind which we often hide,

Everything is better when the sun warms

Your face.”

With our first open mic night in Moliets being a huge success, there’ll surely be another one not to be missed. So, join us for your surf holidays in our surf camp in Moliets this summer!

We look forward to surfing with you,

Morwenna & the Star Surf Camps Team Moliets