Look, strapping yourself to a baking tray with wheels and careering downhill with little potential for stopping (other than hitting thankfully soft spectators and somewhat less forgiving barricades) is great fun.

Participation in the forthcoming Eastbourne Extreme isn’t mandatory. Indeed, watching other people risk life and limb can be just as rewarding and certainly less life-threatening.

Eastbourne Extreme, 17th & 18th July this year, is officially the biggest free extreme sport festival in the UK, featuring a huge line up of air, land and water-based outdoor pursuits. The have-a-go sessions are mightily recommended!

Powerboating, zorbing, jet-skiing, land yachting, street surfing (what??), kite surfing are all on tap, as is a climbing wall and a knockhatch ski ramp. I did say it was quite a line-up. That’s without mentioning the Battle of the Bands or the surf shack bar.

If you need accommodation in Eastbourne you’ll have to be quick to snap up our last remaining suite for the dates, so give Carl or Sarah a call now on 01323 722774. The double suite costs £90 per night over the Saturday and Sunday. Self catering or B&B is available. Bandages and Germalene aren’t.

I think it’s quite telling that we don’t have a single guest staying here this weekend who’s visiting the Eastbourne Beer Festival. We even have a room free tonight for goodness sake (a rarity on a Friday night). Compare that with the next two weeks when we’re packed to the rafters with members of the Rotary Club, a cinematic production team and runners primed like coiled springs for the Beachy Head marathon. So does that mean we attract creative altruistic fitness fiends? Who’ll be running before breakfast with collection tins whilst wearing King Kong outfits?

I’m thinking the debonair Leslie Phillips. Or Pierce Brosnan at a push. Anyway, we’ll see who turns up this Sunday given that it’s the 19th annual  MG South Downs run. At least the organisers had the foresight to avoid coinciding it with the forthcoming Eastbourne Beer Festival. What a combination that might have been….