42PROFILEADAM SIMS
about being no.1 in the world. I’m totally not discrediting
those who have achieved that, it’s inspiring and an amazing
accomplishment, but there are so many other routes into a
professional watersports life.
Where does freestyle sit do you think in 2018? Has
it gone too far into the realms of progression?
Freestyle is still progressing, it kind of stagnates every few
years as people play catch up and then suddenly someone
unlocks the door to another level of moves that no one
thought was possible before. For sure it’s radical at the
extreme end, so is wave sailing, but you don’t have to go
that way if you don’t want. I think freestyle is all about you
and your style, choose what you want to learn, create your
own moves and combos. It’s the one thing I don’t like about
competition these days, it’s dictating a more ballet style
routine of freestyle. That’s what I fight hard against, so that
we don’t lose style to robotic routines.
Is it hard to become proficient at modern freestyle?
Where do aspiring sailors begin?
Anywhere! Literally anywhere. Back in the days I was
freestyling any day of the week, if it was windy then on the
water, if not then on the land, even on the dance floor at
university. We were freestyling through the airport terminals.
If you see freestyle and it’s what floats your boat then let the
excitement and overdriving passion take control. Of course
there are things that can help you along the way.
Continentseven has a great catalogue of moves, the
Tricktionary bibles will teach you everything you need to
know. There are some great coaches out there who offer
clinics, or speak to a pro, many of them are happy to give
tips. I even meet a few guys along the way throughout the
year, they go on holiday in the same places I am training and
then we organise a few hours private coaching. It leaves
them with a lot to go home and practice and then the next
time we are already working on the next step up.
We hear you’ve recently set up camp in Cape Town
having purchased a house out there? Is this the
start of a wave orientated period of your career?
Ha, the rumours are true. Yes, I do love wave sailing. I find
myself in the waves more than freestyle now but nothing
beats a good power freestyle session. I get excited combining
what I know in freestyle into the waves when it allows, and
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when it doesn’t then it’s probably down the line heaven. A
bit like where I am now, in Mauritius. I used to compete on
the BWA back in the UK. I have my eyes set on one or two
IWT events next year and I just now sent a wildcard for the
PWA wave comp in Sylt. So let’s watch this space.
Tell us about the work you’re doing for the EFPT and
what that entails.
Well, I’m filming and producing highlight reels for the
European Freestyle Pro Tour. We’ve even just begun
livestream production as well with a 4 man team. That’s 2
cameras and a drone. I’m left in the booth to do the
camera switching and commentate. It’s a bit much but
whilst budgets are small on it then that’s how it works. We
often get other competitors in to say a few words, it’s nice,
everyone is behind it and want to see more of it. So whilst
the live side doesn’t really make anything right now, it’s
hopefully an investment into getting windsurfing into the
public eye more.
I really enjoy this work and it has opened the door to many
other jobs already. Let’s see what the future holds there.
In the future do you see yourself doing more
media related work?
Certainly my production career side has taken off now. I’d say
I’m as much a Creative Director as I am a Professional
Windsurfer. The two go hand in hand for me at the moment.
And have lead me to produce ‘A Shot In The Dark’ which has
had significant outside of industry interest and will be launched
publicly end of November. It’s a documentary about this very
injury and coming back from that. Amongst some other
cinematic shoots we did. It’s very much a documentary style
however and opens the door to the next project.
Any other projects you can tell us about?
Well the next one is already planned and happening. I took
part in a trip to the Lofoten Islands nearly two years ago, the
outcome was a super cool movie you can find on iTunes now -
Chasing The Elements. It was an epic trip but the group was
large and covered a wide range of sports, I feel a lot of what I
wanted to show was lost, despite how awesome this whole
time was. I’ve organised my own trip to the Arctic Circle now,
we will be travelling with a custom built winch to access some
super unique places that I previously scouted and combining
freestyle with our tow-in skills to fill out the days between the