Far North
Windsurf|Issue 373 - March 2018

The Faroe Islands are an archipelago between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic that lie 200 miles north-northwest of Scotland and about halfway between Norway and Iceland. Self governing but part of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Faroes are little known for windsurfing but Jamie Hancock, Nic Hibdige and Kenneth Danielsen made an explorative trip to discover more about the islands of the far north.

Jamie Hancock
Far North

DISCOVERY - JAMIE HANCOCK

“The Faroe Islands are one of those places I was always interested in but never really knew too much about. Looking at the position of the islands on the map it certainly looked promising. I never really like to go on wild goose chases, which can often lead to wasting days searching for something that could lead to nothing. But for this trip it was more about a voyage of discovery. From all the research, everything I saw was that it was breathtakingly beautiful. So no matter what we would get to at least spend some time in a place that as a windsurfer or not, would be a great experience.

The other focus of the trip was for video and photography. As I recently became an ambassador for Lumix, I set out with another filmmaker / photographer to capture everything we could in a week. We wanted to put the cameras to the test in all sorts of conditions and showcase how well the Lumix cameras and lenses perform.

My research for the windsurfing was done purely from Google and Google Earth, which was a first for me. I spent weeks scrolling through different photographers’ pictures to see if there were any real waves breaking in the background. I even was going through the coastal properties on Airbnb, which showed a few stormy pictures with possible wave locations. We were also helped by the guys at ‘Visit Faroe Islands’ who are some of the most helpful and organised people I’ve ever dealt with. If you are ever wanting to visit the Faroe Islands then check out their website, they have all the information you could possibly need. We rented two vans to carry all our gear from ‘Reyni Service’ who are based in Torshavn, the main city. We also stayed in the capital Torshavn throughout our trip, as it is a nice central place to venture from each day.

FIELD WORK

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