“After breaking my leg the previous autumn it was great to be back on the water in the UK after a lengthy recovery time and finally feel comfortable back on the water in spring. So I joined Ross, Timo and Jack for a few days of pretty fun conditions down in Cornwall during March 2014. Rebecca Ashton filmed all the action and beautiful sceneries.” (Jamie Hancock)

 

“Myself , Ross and Jamie have been travelling a lot with each other this winter, we’ve all been in the UK quite a bit as there was no need to travel, conditions were perfect at home!  It’s good to have guys like Jamie and Ross to sail with as we all push each other to try new moves and hit the thickest lips.  I’ve been trying to land forwards of the lip all winter, a move you wouldn’t normally be able to learn in the UK but as its been so good I’ve made good progress, I’ve landed a few now landing my best one just last week at Gwithian.  I was pretty stoked with my efforts until I heard Koster landed a double forward off the lip!!” (Timo Mullen)

 

Watch a beautiful clip about some of Cornwall’s best waves with nice aerial off the lip action and read an additional interview with Jamie plus some comments from Timo Mullen.

 

 

 

Interview with Jamie about his trip to Cornwall:

 

Continentseven: Hi Jamie, how was the 2014 year so far for you. Many great sessions at your home spots?

Jamie Hancock: At the start of the year I was in Cape Town attending the Vandal photoshoot but my main goal was to fully recover from breaking my leg in the previous August. After that I have been in England with a couple of fun trips to Cornwall and Scotland. Now i’m in Morocco doing some video projects and training in some starboard tack conditions.

 

Continentseven: Was it worth spending most of the time in UK?

Jamie Hancock:  I managed 2 months in Cape Town and was nice to travel about a little in the UK’s spring as can get some amazing days windsurfing 

 

Continentseven: How is your leg, which you’ve injured last season?

Jamie Hancock:  Now I’m about 90% I’d say and the remaining 10% mostly mentally recovery after such a large injury.

 

Continentseven: This time you travelled to Cornwall. Where did you score the excellent wave conditions?

Jamie Hancock:  We sailed the same locations as the Red Bull Storm Chase in Gwithian and The Bluff, which is all in the one curved bay.

 

Continentseven: It looks windy on the video? How strong was it?

Jamie Hancock:  Yea the first day was very tricky with 50 knots and a lot of chop. I was stacked on a 3.3m and really was hard to put a nice wave ride together and wasn’t easy to jump either.

 

Continentseven: What kind of weather situation, wind- and swell direction works best at Gwithian and the Bluff?

Jamie Hancock:  Everything from SSE round to Northerly winds and you want an atlantic swell. We had Southerly wind for Gwithain on the first day and WSW wind for the second day at the Bluff.  The Bluff was good fun but Gwithian was more survival stuff. 

 

Continentseven: Are the spots tricky and dangerous? 

Jamie Hancock:  Not really. As a windsurfer you always have to be careful of the tides and what is around you but there are generally no unpleasant surprises there.

 

Continentseven:  What gear sizes were you using most?

Jamie Hancock:  I was on all my sails throughout the 3 day trip (3.3m Vandal Enemy and 3.6m / 4.0m / 4.4m Vandal Riot)

 

Continentseven: You travelled with Timo Mullen and Ross Williams. It was not the first trip with them. Are you the perfect team?

Jamie Hancock:  Yea I’d say so. Those guys have so much experience and bring different qualities to every trip. Timo has the most knowledge of any UK windsurfer for where is good and when and is always charging. Ross brings his shiny world champion state to the trips and always pushes the level in every condition. They are great people to travel with and also long term friends, but I wouldn’t say team, they are far too competitive.

 

 

Continentseven: Any new trips planned?

Jamie Hancock:  I’m in Moulay, Morocco now training some starboard tack with Boujmaa and I plan to travel to the USA for an AWT event or two. I also hope to attend a couple of PWA events but for this year I do not plan to compete on the full PWA tour. Instead I will be focusing on working for Vandal along with some cool photo / video trips.

 

Continentseven: Is it hard to find new ideas where to go next as you probably know most of the spots already?

Jamie Hancock:  We tend to go where the weather takes us, particularly in the UK. But there are so many great windsurfing locations out there in the world that I hope to never get bored of sailing them.

 

 

Comment by Timo Mullen on the trip:

 

“The Winter in Northern Europe this year was easily the best I can remember for wind and waves, we scored so may good sessions this year, spots that have never really worked before suddenly turned into mini Hookipas, the storms had shaped new sandbars and the relentless 60ft swells had made all our usual beaches unsailable!!

 The 3 days that we captured the footage for this video were probably the first almost ‘normal’ forecast of the winter for Cornwall.  Generally with Gwithian you don’t really want it much bigger than mast high as it closes out, so the logo high forecast was perfect, the only problem was the first couple of days it was blowing about 35 knots, not really ideal for cross of down the line, it was a bit choppy on the wave that’s for sure!  Our last day at the Bluff was a lot cleaner and sunny!

I’ve just bought a plot of land about 200 meters from the beach at Gwithian so hopefully I will not be having to do the six hour round trip drive from my current house on the South Coast for much longer, although as you can see the conditions are more than worth that drive!”

 

Share