Our first ever Worthing Birdman in 2012

"I've entered Worthing Birdman" announced Damien one evening, he had previously said he would do it but none of us believed he actually would. "I am doing it for Teenage Cancer Trust" he continued.
We all stopped sniggering at the idea when we realised he was actually being serious and would be doing it for such a good cause.

The idea of leaping dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow was quite an easy one to come up with, what could be more fitting than leaping into the sea dressed as everyone's favourite pirate?

The costume came about quite easily with the help of eBay, a local fancy dress shop, team member Helen's make-up bag and her hair braiding (or wig braiding in this case) skills.

The first tentative step into unleashing our very own Captain Jack Sparrow on the unsuspecting people of Worthing, West Sussex was a collection for Teenage Cancer at HMV in Worthing Town Centre.

They day went well and when we saw people tweeting about 'Capain Jack' being in Worthing we knew that Worthing Birdman was going to be brilliant.




 

The day of Worthing Birdman 2012 arrived and it was a rather hot day so those of us who avoided having to be in costume rather appreciated our white t-shirts worn to show our support!

 

Captain Jack proved rather popular with ladies and most of the time before the actual jump was spent having photos done with said ladies and also for the press that were pretty much everywhere.

 

Once the time for the leap came Damien and Liam (who played the part of Commodore Norrington for us) did the long walk up to the scaffold that stands 40ft above the sea from Worthing Pier.

They had a quick chat with Heart FM'S 'Jack the Lad' and before we knew it, it was time for the fight to begin..

A dramatic 'fight' was staged to the music from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and ending with Captain Jack fleeing via the end of Worthing Pier...

 

 

We all just watched as Captain Jack aka Damien Hodgson went flying over the edge with a mighty splash and comical loss of wig (helpfully retrieved by a Worthing Lifeboat Team) and before we knew it he was zooming back to shore on the back of a jet-ski.

 

At the awards ceremony later that day Damien received a certificate and £250 prize money for 'Best Crowd Reaction' we donated the £250 to Teenage Cancer Trust and in total we raised £538.07, not bad for our first fundraising mission!

For more information about Teenage Cancer Trust please go to https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/

 For more information about Worthing International Birdman visit http://www.worthingbirdman.co.uk/