Mark Steeple: Beyond the White Breakers
Title
Mark Steeple: Beyond the White Breakers
Subject
Mark Steeple
Description
For Burmarsh resident Mark Steeple, sea swimming is more than just a pastime - it's a way of life. Listen to Mark describe his life in water sports - from canoeing in Ashford, to surfing in Folkestone, to windsurfing in Sandgate, to open water swimming in Hythe and Lydd - and his enduring love affair with the east Kent coast.
Creator
Michael Romyn
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Contributor
Mark Steeple; Michael Romyn; Oliver Parkin
Collection Items
Mark Steeple Oral History Summary
Summary of an Oral History Recording with interviewee Mark Steeple
Eshe Canoe Club, Ashford
A 1977 Kentish Express article covering the rise of Eshe Canoe Club in Ashford. Club member Mark Steeple, then fourteen years old, is mentioned for his success in the 1977 Dover regatta.
Windsurfing off the east Kent coast, c. 1982
Photographs of Mark Steeple windsurfing off the east Kent coast (possibly Sandgate) in c. 1982.
'You made sure you always drove your car around with the board on the roof': The surfing scene in Sandgate in the early 1980s.
In this excerpt, Mark describes his first (homemade!) wetsuit, the nascent surfing and windsurfing scene in the Folkestone area in the early 1980s, and the chauvinism around surfing and windsurfing at this time. (Transcript attached.)
Mark Steeple: Beyond the White Breakers
A portrait of Mark Steeple off the Dymchurch coast, by Oliver Parkin
Mark Steeple Oral History Transcript
Transcription of an oral history recording of interviewee Mark Steeple