A Short History of the SuperHunt
For freelancers, January is often a time for staying indoors, filing tax returns and writing treasure hunts. Well, that last one may just be me. For almost ten years now, I've had a little sideline in charity fundraisers called The Matt Hill SuperHunt Challenge. The idea started as a joke between friends, bored the summer after graduating and looking for entertainment. And lo, the SuperHunt was born.
Over the years it has raised quite a whack of money for good causes (we're into five figures now) and has a simple premise: we open the eyes of people too used to their surroundings - rethinking the places they live, work and play.
We've done London a few times, plus Oxford, Lancaster, Newcastle... and even chartered a train to Paris. For the higher-profile hunts we've roped in TV's Jeremy Paxman and, most fittingly, Anneka Rice.
But really, I'm a fan of the ambitious, small scale adventures I do once a year for friends and colleagues. So see below for my favourite moments from ten years of SuperHunt.
SuperHunt: Paris (2009)
My favourite, because there's nothing like taking 56 unsuspecting people on a train to Paris, taking away their phones and giving them a baguette full of clues.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSX4KAKpjW4]
The Crisis Thames to Tyne challenge (2010)
My first event for Crisis involved a convoy across England, completing practical challenges and SMS games with other teams en route.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLlFrPNOl44]
...and here's one of the challenges en route:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MPhez5vvFs&w=560&h=315]
SuperQuiz (2011)
A spin-off, monthly event in North London, where teams would compete in a 'uncheatable' quiz - where you were allowed to use your phones, ask Twitter and search Google (not that many did - it would have been pretty fruitless against the buzzers).
SuperHunt 2013: The Reverse Striptease Challenge (2013)
From this year's 'hunt. Teams that cracked the code arrived at a venue in Hackney - and one member took part in a 'reverse striptease'...