At Boards we are currently working on interviews with title winners from the BWA tour this year, but another well known windsurfer Clyde Waite has beaten us to it and already interviewed the second placed rider in Cornwall, James Cox. In his usual amusing style Clyde talks big boards and beating Ben on his Windsurf Britain blog; here’s a snippet of the fantastic interview.
It’s been entertaining watching one of our local sailors standout on the BWA windsurfing tour this year. Anyone who sails in the Bournemouth area, will know, that when in the right frame of mind Jim Cox (Coxy as he is known) can windsurf as good as the top pro’s. In recent years, I would say that he had always been on too smaller kit in competition. I would always sail a board 10 litres bigger than he was on.
When the quatro quads came out though, you could see he started sailing his 85 like he would a 75 – recently he upped it even further and tried their quite interesting 110 litre wave board. Maybe the biggest board on the market for this type of sailing. Competitions are never held in ideal conditions, well a 6 – 8 minute heat is never ideal and the more volume under your feet the better – unless of course the board cannot turn, which is why most stay on smaller boards.
The other thing about Coxy, which is good for the rest of us aspiring amateurs, is that he spends most of his time sailing here in Bournemouth, with Gregg, myself, his brother Tim and recently Jamie Hancock who has moved here. We sail at, as you may know, a gnarly beach break called Southbourne. It’s generally cross on, has quite a bit of water movement, but can get hell of a wave for a couple of hits. Coxy doesn’t spend his winters sailing abroad every single day. Most of the time he spends every single day in a log cabin at the end of his garden talking to his computer in Binary and PHP, and also trying to answer a million emails at once. If you ever phone him, the first thing he says is, can’t speak right now… I usually just txt, saying when and where – hopefully he will be out for a power session.
Since he came second at the weekends BWA event, narrowly missing 1st place (he couldn’t find a ramp for a second jump), I though’t maybe he would converse with me if I put an interview up on the blog. So here we are.
What kit were you using throughout the competition?
On the Friday I used the 110 litre quad all day with a 5.2, which is an interesting combination. Smallest sail to keep that part of it light. With a board that big I didn’t need a big sail to get planing.
What size boards were other people using?
Most on 95’s and 85’s. I don’t think people usually think about using a wave board so big as a 110, a lot of people are curious.
Why do you think no one uses boards that big?
Because they havent tried them, the other reason is that as well as they turn, they are not as responsive as a smaller board for obvious reasons. Even so I did get one of my best turns the whole weekend. Interestingly it wasn’t that light on the Friday, it was very patchy 5.7 to 4.7, coming through in really long gusts.
What were you using on Saturday?
84 litre Quad LS?
How did that feel in comparison?
Really grippy turning on a wave. felt good to be on smaller board finally and more control, there was a lot of whitewater.
Do you think the big board made the difference in competition
I think it helped me maintain my speed in the turns when others were not.
The final of the first round was run on Saturday morning, it was really cold. (In the final Jim beat Andy Chambers and Ben Proffit – Jamie came first)
What was it like waiting around all day for the double?
After the final finished, I came in got changed immediately, listened to music in the grass sand dune area. I was enjoying watching people windsurfing. I didn’t practise before my heat, I had a bad ankle so had to preserve that. A forward in my heat against Ben made my ankle worse.
What was it like beating Ben?
…..for this answer to this question and many more head to the Windsurf Britain blog right here.
