Wintertime -> South Africa Time
Our Teamrider Julian R. visiting SA in Feburary and sent in some nice pictures. Well done JR!
Musso on TV!
A couple of weeks ago the TV channel ‘VKS – Antena 3 Canarias’ did an interview with Alex Mussolini and used action footage by umi from Pozo and Tenerife for the feature. The slot was shown at 7.30pm on a Saturday evening – windsurfing on prime time TV!
If you can understand Spanish you will notice Alex says he won in Gran Canaria when he actually won in Sylt! I guess fame and doing TV interviews takes a bit of practice…
[WE guess he was thinking about his 2010 plans... ] thx to UMI
indian ocean waves
down the line in some really nice waves incl. short whale watching by Joachim Klein
Jamie’s Cape Town [article - UMI]
UK wave sailor and umi editor Jamie Hancock is currently in Cape Town training for the coming PWA and UK wave tours. He proves that with the right attitude Cape Town offers sailing conditions pretty much every day, even when the wind is off… you just have to put in the miles!
It’s a really strange season out here with lots of low pressures and unusual wind patterns. I’ve been staying with Benny van der Steen this year which is pretty much little and large – his high wind board is 93 litres and I think my biggest sail (4.4m) is his smallest! With the dodgy wind patterns there is usually one spot that works at a time instead of when the usual trade winds blow which seems to spread all the windsurfers about a bit across the beaches. Nevertheless we’ve been getting as much time in the water as possible. So far it has been pretty sick, but not without its disasters and putting in the miles!
About a week ago the forecast looked reasonably good for Elands and as nothing was happening in Cape Town we decided to drive out there. On the way we tried to find Swartriet to get some pics for the trip but got lost on some very ‘local’ lady’s farm. After finally making it to Elands we ended up still waiting for the wind to kick in with only two hours of light left in the day – so we made the call to head back to Paternoster which had reports of a little wind. Fortunately we managed to make it out before dark and catch a few logo high waves which ‘just’ about made the 500 km worthwhile.
The next day was down to Cape Point with northwest winds (starboard tack) from a passing low pressure storm. It was somewhere I have always wanted to sail in a north westerly wind but I never really made it past Witsands or Scarborough. There were reports from the new RRD head honcho Mr John Skye that it had been good there so we decided to join him and Flo Jung at the Cape peninsula. This was probably one of the best days since I have been here so far: cross off, clean waves and not mega busy.
After a few days with light wind evening sessions at Sunset Beach, we decided to gamble on sailing a bit further down the coast in front of the shipwreck to get away from the standard crowds and take some photos. It ended up being much better than we expected: the swell picked up and with just me, Skyeboy, Ross Williams, Flo Jung, Peter Volwater and Mart we could pretty much get any wave we wanted. It was also a pretty cool view whilst out sailing with the shipwreck and table mountain in the background. Definitely another one to chalk up on the board as a classic day sailing with chums. The forecast is looking pretty good too, a much more normal looking one – joy.
© all photos by Femke Hoogland – more: umipictures.com
A Few More Shots from Tenerife…
Here’s a series posted up by our peeps at Windsurfing Tenerife. Click the pic to check the series.
The Beach Telegraph gets the Dirt on Jamie
Brian and the folks over at the Beach Telegraph do a great job to make us want to back away from our computers, rig up, and hit the water. Here’s another great magazine for your enjoyment.
We are particularly stoked on the Jamie Hancock interview. We expect more great things from this exploding talent. Right now, he is laying it down with the team in SA. Here’s a couple of screen grabs from the Telegraph… //click the link, or drop it, and head out on the water.
frooooozen V
crazy… how sick is that? this is what we´re talking about.
great action guys and hopefully you have warm feet again….
UMI: North Shore Tenerife
The boyz from UMI deliver yet another STOKER. How’s that? Sick!
UMI //Jamie interview…
….compliments of Brendan and our good friends at UMI…. http://www.umipictures.com …we love these guys.
The British wave sailing champion of 2009 and umi editor Jamie Hancock has joined the international team of Tabou and Vandal Sails. He will compete in the PWA wave events, that is if he has enough time off from putting together some sick vids, and will also take part in all the UK based events. A quick interview with the 25-year-old rascal.
How did this move to Tabou/Vandal come about?
‘I used to be with Gaastra/Tabou on a national level sponsorship a few years back. At the time I had already been talking with Gaastra/Tabou chief Knut Budig and Matt Pritchard about a possibility of representing a new sail brand called Vandal – just at that time it was simply an idea. So it has always been something that was on the cards, perhaps just a bit delayed.’
Do you think your success on the British wave tour helped you sign this deal?
‘Yes I think so. Winning the British title last year was incredible with probably the best conditions in UK competition history. But aside from that, I always had a good relationship with the guys at Gaastra/Tabou and worked hard getting exposure for them as well as winning a couple of events previously. So we have just picked up from where I left off, but this time as an international rider.’
International, so you’re in the money now!
‘Haha, no not quite, but I have much more opportunities to do more in windsurfing which I’m really grateful for.’
Have you been able to try out your new kit yet?
‘Yes, I tried it for about five minutes before my hands froze and the wind died. I’m in the UK at the moment and it is freezing! I’m pretty confident I will like it though, I always loved the Tabou boards and they suit me perfectly as I am a similar size to Thomas Traversa and the boards always work for lighter sailors. For the last two years I have been using customs shaped by Keith Teboul and have kind of missed out on the introduction of multiple fins in production boards. I know that Thomas and Tabou shaper Fabien Vollenweider have worked closely on developing the twin/quad fins for years but I was really surprised how well this year’s production Da Curves worked. They feel surprisingly close to how my custom boards worked and turn amazingly well. Well, at least for five minutes they did! The boards really show how good Thomas and Fabien’s partnership is and it’s great to be with a brand knowing their production boards are the business.
‘The new Riots are simply amazing, like nothing I have ever used before. They are compact and very light. They have four battens and seem to work on less downhaul than normal. I’m not quite sure how they work so well yet, but they just do, and better than anything I have ever used before.’
What are your plans for this year?
‘I will compete on the PWA wave tour and perhaps be able to attend some of the Wave Classic events that Thomas helps to organise. I also want to work with umi on producing better and better film projects. Basically combining the two and doing as much as possible.’
Any plans going abroad?
‘I leave for Cape Town in a week and will meet up with Alex Mussolini and Ross Williams to do some port tack training for this year’s tour. I’ll also be heading to Maui to meet up with Matt Pritchard, check out the new boards and hopefully get some decent conditions.’
Hancock is in the HOUSE…
It’s official, Jamie Hancock has signed with Vandal… The movement continues to bring in new recruits. Join us.
iphony
The home-cooked vandal sails website now works with the mighty iphone….well sorta works. Have you needed to find out the specs of the 4.7 Enemy, and wanted to kill us for using a flash navigation menu on the main page? We now have a work around. If you visit http://www.vandalsails.com from your iphone, or ipod touch, you will now be directed to a iphone specific navigation page with a linked text menu to get you around. It’s not beautiful, but it will get you where you need to go. Check it.
PS. If you bookmark it, you get a swell new vandal shortcut icon on your phone. Wow. I know.