Several members of the JK Team headed down to Southsea Common on Sunday 7th August to check out Beach Dubbin’, and all came back with big smiles and a range of different intensities of suntan!
Beach Dubbin’ has been going strong since 2018, ‘rising from the ashes of Beach Buggin’, as the show’s organisers put it. Open from 10am to 4pm, the event was put on for charity, with all of the profits going to the Undercover Skate Park Project and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.
We’re still waiting to hear how much was raised over the weekend, but judging by how many people and vehicles were at the event we’re guessing it’s going to be a great total!
As anyone in the UK who went outside this weekend will be all too aware, it was HOT yesterday, and as lovely as Southsea Common is, there wasn’t a scrap of shade which wasn’t cast by people’s awnings, canopies and event shelters. Not a tree in sight!
This wouldn’t have been a problem if our event shelter had fitted into the yellow T2 Bay Microbus we took to the event, but it didn’t. I mean, it did fit, but we couldn’t close the door, which is less than ideal. Our backup canopy was missing some fairly important poles, which meant that the JK Team and our colleagues from Just Kampers Insurance who joined us at the event had nowhere to hide from the sun but inside the microbus itself.
Even after nearly 33 years of attending VW shows as a business, things can still go a bit wrong!
Still, despite the relentless sunshine, we all had a great time, and it was amazing to see so many different people milling about and enjoying the huge array of Volkswagens and other air-cooled cars which were on display across the massive Common.
Mark Reynolds, who founded Just Kampers back in 1989, cruised down to the show in his ’67 Beetle Cabriolet with Casper the dog in his harness in the passenger seat feeling the wind in his ears! Managing Director James headed down in his VW T6.1, Jason popped over in his 1969 Cal Look Beetle (an easy drive for him, as he lives nearby!), while Chet went down early to set up the stand in our T2 Microbus.
Before the show started, Jason and his '69 Bug met up with their friends from the Airsouls VW club so they could all head over together with their awesome array of classic VWs.
There was a huge number of different VWs at Beach Dubbin’, with everything from super early split-window Beetles to fully kitted out T6.1s with really impressive interior conversions. We braved the heat and sun to get a load of photos, which we’ve shared below, but the whole event was so big, and so busy, that we couldn’t have snapped every ‘dub if we’d had all day.
It was a great, laid back show with things going on throughout the day, but it never felt like you had to do anything other than kick back with your friends, catch up with fellow VW owners and try to stay hydrated – we’d definitely recommend checking it out next year, and want to say a huge well done to the organisers who did an incredible job putting everything together.
You can check out even more photos from the Beach Dubbin’ team on their Instagram and Facebook pages. Follow their accounts while you’re there, to make sure you get information about the 2023 show when they’ve set the date!
