With it being the time of year that every man and his dog hits the beaches around Cape Town it seemed a good idea to make this month’s slideshow about this popular winter destination. I had a great time on this trip with British wavesailor John Hibbard back when I was just taking photos. John is a really laid back guy off the water and a total professional to work with on the water – ideal for a good photoshoot. Cape Town, however, isn’t a great place to take photos as you shoot into the sun pretty much all day so we decided to really work on mastmount shots. I wanted to get more than the standard backloop shot with the ultimate prize being a mastmount shot with Table Mountain in it. The mast housing I used was made by the legendary water photographer Rick Leeks who is based in Maui and whilst it looks like something made by a mad professor, it’s a brilliant bit of kit.

We had a good few memorable incidents as you usually do when you get out on a trip. These two both involve the wonderful wildlife of South Africa but thankfully no Great Whites…

We did really well out of this trip and this has as much to do with the professionalism of John as it is to do with any skills I may have behind the lens. I can’t really remember all the exposure from it but I do relish the three covers we scored including one from Japan.

Here’s a cool sequence of Musso working on his wave 360s – thanks to Windsurfing Tenerife for the shots. Given the tour’s port tack bias this year it seems as though moving to Tenerife might have been a smart decision for Musso.

Keep watching the site as we have a great video of Alex and Dany Bruch ripping up a mythical big wave spot coming soon!

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.’

How do you think your chances lie on an international level?
‘I really don’t know. It is hard to know how the pressures and nerves will be a few minutes before my first heat. I also think that sailing with people at the highest level will definitely help me to improve, that is something I think I have lacked over the last few years.’

Move wise, do you think you can keep up with the top guys on tour?
‘Well, I prefer jumping on starboard tack to port which is not so great for this year’s world tour. But it’s no good being good on one tack so I like the challenge to try and ‘catch up.’ I can probably keep up with some of the top guys with wave 360’s, taka’s, tweaked pushy’s and doubles, but it is the consistency of these guys that I definitely will need to work on cause that’s what wins heats!’

Apart from the cold, what else is keeping you off the water?
‘Well, with the worst weather to hit the UK in 30 years, I am locked away in my editing room finishing some clips that will be released by umi while I am in Cape Town. There’s some big wave stuff from the Canary Islands coming along as well as a special project we did with Thomas and Alex called Just Like That, which I think is pretty exciting.’

Finally, is it true that you will be doing some slalom and formula events as well?
‘Haha, no way!’

© Photos by John Carter and Brendan Pyatt – umi 2010

I remember sitting at Dos Niños, way back in the day, watching over mast high rollers smashing into the sand wondering if the pro’s would go out, as I didn’t like the look of it. This time I travelled over there with two of the top guys on the tour and it was great to see how much windsurfing in waves has progressed!

When
Back in August, just before Thomas and Alex went off to Reunion for the Wave Classic event, umi joined them on a trip to Spain. A quickie: three days in Galicia with heavy conditions. Alex: ‘We sailed two spots: Cabo Vilano and Dos Niños, a really famous spot for wave riding. It was the second time I was there and like always: I go to Galicia and I score, so it was sick! We were there for three days only, two days sailing and one day relaxing. A really speedy trip, but the conditions were very good, so it was worth it.’

Conditions
Alex: ‘The first day was around logo high, 4,8 to 4,4 weather. In Cabo Vilano there was a lot of seaweed which made it difficult to sail. In the afternoon the wind picked up though and blew all the seaweed away. It was perfect, glassy, just sick. There were two more windsurfers sailing there, they were quite good, respect to the guys as the conditions were really gnarly! It was very gusty and the waves were very big, it’s really hard to get a good timing on that wave. With Thomas we travel a lot and we know what the waves do. I mean, we are pro’s and we’ve sailed in really crazy conditions before, but for a guy that doesn’t get paid for doing this it was sick.’

Alex: ‘Brendan was filming. But I always say to him, when we are sailing you are also sailing with us, I think he gets into it, I really love it. With Thomas we always try to put on a show for him, so he doesn’t get bored and thinks what are these pussies doing?! We push it a little bit extra, we don’t want him to get bored and fall asleep! It’s great to have him with us… I think Brendan’s wife must hate us though, because we always push him to go on these last minute trips with us, sorry!’

Crashes
Alex: ‘Both Thomas and I had really good crashes, normal I think because when you see the other guy you don’t want to hold back; you cannot go less critical, you have to give it all! My biggest crash was when I hit a massive wave very late and shifted my weight too much to the front. I let go of my sail and when I looked I was completely inside the barrel, I could see the lip going over my kit and got completely destroyed. Thomas had a good one as well. As always he was later than late hitting the lip. As he was coming down he landed too much in the flats and the wave went over him and he got completely destroyed, fucking funny. We didn’t destroy our gear though, our masts are fucking strong, we are super happy with them. We both use 370 now all the time and they are like chewing gum, perfect for this!’

© All photos taken by Sophia Regerbis. umi 2009