The Catalan capital was doused in sun, swimmers and sports for the annual Panteres Grogues (Yellow Panthers) gay sports festival and fiesta. At a perfectly pitched 3 hour swim meet in Piscina San Jordi, OTS was represented by the lithe forms of three orcas, Rich "The Boy" Hackney, Nico "Frenchie" Bardon - both first time racers in swimming - and Iarla "How do you say it?" Kilbane-Dawe.

After spending the preceding night diligently rehydrating, practicing rhythmic gymnastics and stretching 'til 5am in local underground buttery Metro, there were PBs for all in the 50m freestyle and good placings in 50m butterfly and breaststroke. Sadly the team won no medals... in the water.

Thereafter the party resumed and OTS/Orcas famous international sightseeing and diplomatic skills were brought into play and many local attractions were visited and international negotiations concluded.

Tentative agreement was made with Panteres Grogues to help them establish a water polo squad. Though there's a lot of work to be done before this will be viable, there's a good group who are keen to do this so there's a good chance of success.

Finally, the most stunning local attraction visited was the newly opened Sagrada Familia Basilica - if you are going to Barcelona the inside of the church is a must see. Truly it is an enchanted forest.

The OTS 'Out To Sea' Channel relay team raised £2,133 which is being used to refurbish the bedrooms used by volunteers after a long night shift supporting callers. The money will pay for redecorating the rooms and buy new beds, sheets and towels which really make it possible for volunteers to spend most of the night on the phones and get a bit of sleep before getting back to work in the morning. With so many people at their most desperate in the middle of the night, we feel proud that our donation will help make sure there is an alert SAM ready to listen 24 hours a day.  More information on the important work that the Samaritans do can be found online at:  http://www.cls.org.uk/

Members of the OTS Channel Relay Team (Guy, Lee, Chris and Mike [absent Chiara and Roberto]), present representatives of Samaritans with a check in the amount of £2,133 outside of their central London offices.

To cap off a summer of Royal celebrations and British sporting achievement, OTS headed south of the River to take part in the GMFA/RVT Gay Sports Day on the Summer Bank Holiday. Sporting some fetching Union Jack pants and Royal Family masks, Mike G, Rich D, Dan M, James L and Rusty competed in a series of gruelling events, such as the 50 metre mince, egg and spoon race, tug of war and the infamous space hopper relay. Competition was fierce but when the final handbag was tossed it was OTS who took Gold, delivering a unrehearsed Rhythmic Gymnastic routine that melded Vogueing and water sports seamlessly. Well done OTS!

Photos of the event can be found here

Sponsorship of the OTS team, to raise money for the GMFA charity, is still open. To give a donation please follow the link here:  http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=OTSWaterSports&isTeam=true

OTS proudly attended UK Black Pride 2012 at the Ministry of Sound on Saturday 18^th August 2012.

It was a sensible choice of venue given that the last two Black Pride events held outdoors were rained out. It was ironic that on the first year that the event was held in-doors, it was one of the hottest days of 2012.

The event was well organised and although OTS were placed in a small room off the beaten track with the other community stalls, our volunteers did an excellent job of working the room and promoting all that OTS has to offer.

We had strong interest in the club’s work in the realm of swimming lessons. Our attendance this year showed us that there are many people who cannot swim, who either want to overcome their fears of the water, or want to improve their technique. Many other organisations expressed interest in our free lessons for people with HIV. It was certainly a wonderful way of tapping into the post Olympic interest in sport.

Once again OTS were the only gay sports team in London who were present at UK Black Pride, interestingly on a weekend that was all about promoting LGBT sport in London. I predict that the Front Runners will be there next year promoting what they have to offer in 2013.

My favourite quote of the day was “Women’s ONLY sessions?! Quick give me a flyer but don’t let my girlfriend see!”.

A thousand thanks to all the volunteers who came out to give their time and energy on a hot summers day. It was a real asset to have women on our stall who could speak from their perspective. Our volunteers were Gareth Johnson, Shih-Ming Yao, Lawrence Springall, Robert Wintemute, Sylvie Zacair, Nadia Atia, Chris Whyte, Ian Armstrong, and Cees Van Dam.