Raft building activity on Koh Samui with Morgan McKinley
Inspire your team to achieve the unachievable, aim to motivate and increase performance levels by taking on our outdoor with fun, survival style bamboo raft and water fill up relay racing team challenge!
Develop key team building skills, overall team work and the relationships amongst your team and enjoy a great afternoon at the same time; Outdoor with fun, in the sun, on the beaches of the stunningly tropical Koh Samui!
On the 23rd January, 18 delegates from Morgan McKinley Hong Kong, did just this and took up the bamboo raft racing water fill up challenge designed by Beunite. The Morgan McKinley team of many multi-national participants, from around Asia and Europe experienced a half day full of action and, whilst enjoying plenty lighter moments as well.
The Location
The location for this program was the stunning beach front in front of the luxurious Hansar Resort Koh Samui Hotel, located in Bo-phut near to fisherman’s village, it affords a fantastic location for outdoor with fun team building and is a convenient and ideal choice for your corporate accommodation on the island.
The Schedule
14.30 – Meet the team
14.45 – Event briefing
15.00 – Motivational challenge 1 – Group Jump Rope
15.30 – Motivational challenge 2 – Transporters relay
16.00 – Raft Building
16.30 – Raft racing and water pipe fill up relay race
17.00 – Event de-brief
The team building event
A mix of team building games and challenges culminating in a fantastic water racing and splashing finale, designed to foster building Team Spirit!
The event began with the focus on building team spirit and cohesion, with challenges designed to focus on specific objectives which would put them in good stead for the finale.
Group Jump Rope
Group jump rope is an ideal ice breaking activity to begin any indoor or outdoor team building event and was a perfect choice for the Morgan Mckinley team to set the mood for the afternoon, focusing on planning, strategy, communication and problem solving requiring full participation from everyone in the group.
The aim for each team was to get as many people jumping in tandem at the same time over the rope. Various strategies were employed from individual jumpers to starting as a group, and a combination of both or these proved to be successful for the winning team.
Transporters – 5 balls relay race
Next the teams faced a tougher challenge, transport 5 balls of different sizes (one at a time) from one end to the other over a slalom course, using PVC pipes to control the movement. Teams were given a short period to practise and find the technique and team work required to perform the task effectively.
Practice over, now it was time for the race of 5 balls! Each team took to the task with plenty of enthusiasm and showed plenty of communication with each other and fantastic leadership which for this particular activity was just what was called for. It was a close race between all 3 teams and the winning team dropped the final ball into the bucket with seconds to spare.
After an intense hour in the garden, testing their teamwork skills, the teams were present with their final challenge instructions, build a raft from limited resources which will float and hold at least 4 people. The Teams picked up their supplies (bamboo, rope, plastic tanks) and headed to the wonderful beach in front of Hansar Resort Koh Samui, with plenty to discuss and think about in their final survival style adventure team building challenge!
Raft Building (Survivor style)
Once the teams had arrived at the beach, basking in sunshine, they were reminded once again of the first part of their task and handed additional equipment to help them create their craft.
They had 30 minutes maximum to make and test their rafts, and were put under intense pressure to be productive within the time frame. Each team set about their task with full attention and after a few minutes of discussions, designs started to take shape, in front of an every growing crowd of intrigued on lookers. The key to this activity was to find a design that would be able to complete the next task, which was yet to be revealed.
Teams received regular updates on the time left and with 10 minutes to go the first team went to test their craft in the water. Would it float, would it carry 4 people, would it be strong enough to complete the final challenge?
Raft Racing & Water Pipe fill up relay race
The scene was set for the winner takes all event finale, raft racing and water pipe fill up relay.
Teams had created their vessel, tested the design and made final adjustments, ready or not it was time to race out into the sea and collect 4 waiting buckets and return them to the beach a quickly as possible to begin the water splashing final activity.
Paddles at the ready, each team headed out in search of their buckets, designs were holding together for a while, until some of the ballast tanks started to come away from some of the rafts however, the teams were innovative enough to still find ways to keep the craft afloat and moving.
Buckets collected and returned to the beach, team members ran up the beach and starting throwing water from bucket to bucket, splashing each other and laughing with enjoyment, with the aim to be first to see the ping pong ball float at the top of the 2.5M high PVC pipe, which was full of holes!
Each person in the team was in position, throwing water, or clasping on the big tall blue pipe with water pouring out everywhere.
How could they complete this seemingly impossible task, teams had to find a way to block the holes on the pipe, by using their bodies (excluding fingers), to stem the flow of water flowing rapidly to the absorbing sand below. Gradually they found an answer to this problem solving activity, which provided the perfect finale to the event.
With time running out, and water filling (and pouring out) fast, teams were nearing the end, with plenty of intensity and passion being shown, the competitiveness was fully evident for all to see, including the crowd overlooking at the beach.
Finally, the ping pong ball appeared from the winning team’s pipe and they celebrated widely, showing off their delight at being the winning team however, the event wasn’t finished and two teams were still racing for 2nd and 3rd, and the winning team remembered the reasons why they were here …team building with Morgan Mckinley , to be inspirational and motivational and the winning team ran over to help the other teams finish the challenge, which they both did and everyone celebrated and high fived each other together, which was a fantastic end and finale to this outdoor with fun beach rafting team challenge!
Event de-brief
At the end of the afternoon, everyone relaxed and discussed their thoughts about the event and the lead facilitator pointed out various examples of fantastic team work that were shown, reviewing each activity and their importance to building that balance required to be a successful cohesive and motivated team!
Testimonials
We have never done a team building event with our company before, we certainly will doing many more in future!
Fabulous afternoon, great activities, very enjoyable and rewarding for the team
A great event from start to finish, just how we imagined the program to be, thank you for arranging the program and including the raft building activity at very short notice.
