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 #JamieHancock, #NicHibdige, and #KennethDanielsen made an explorative trip to discover more about the islands of the far north.

Words  Jamie Hancock, Nic Hibdige & Kenneth Danielsen  //  Photos  Jamie Hancock & James Sharp

Originally published within the March ’18 edition.

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 Faroe Islands is one of the most beautiful and stunning places I have ever been . ”  JAMIE HANCOCK

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
Our team was small. There was myself, James (our camera guy), Kenneth Danielson and Nic Hibdige. As this was a fixed week booked and not on a forecast we felt freestyle may end up being a priority as there wasn’t really any guarantee that we would get any wave conditions.The first few days we didn’t have a ny wind so we set about seeing the tourist stuff. I had arrived a week earlier with my girlfriend to spend a week travelling around with our cameras and for me to also check out all the islands for us to have a better idea in our second week with the crew on where to go.
So we travelled up mountains, across fjords and I showed the boys around some of the favourite places I had seen. We also got a bit of surf in Tjornavik, which is the main surfing spot in the north of the Faroe Islands.The Faroe Islands consists of 18 main islands. Most are accessible through tunnels but we also had to get the ferry service on a few occasions which is pretty straight forward. It takes about a maximum of one and a half hours to travel from the city to anywhere you would like to go and the roads are all fast and empty. The ferries range from 20 minutes to about an hour, so you will eat up quite a lot of time in the day if you want to venture to the other islands. The ferries also don ’t really go from island to island, so you would need to return back to the mainland to then go to another different island, so really it is one ferry trip per day if you want to spend some time on the island you visit.

For the last part of the week we had some wind and waves coming in. So we got started with shooting some freestyle with Nic. The wind can be strange there as it funnels through the different mountains, so we really needed to drive about and find the most consistent and windy spot. We found somewhere nice and Nic had a fun pretty fun session. However, Kenneth and I were gagging to get some wave conditions, so we set off on the ferry to the southern islands to try and find somewhere. Unfortunately for us it just didn’t quite happen at any of the spots with the forecast we had, but given a bit more swell I think we may have got something. Kenneth however was happy with the 500 panoramic shots he managed to take with his phone!

On the Friday night it was Nic’s birthday. No trip would be complete without one night out and this was the perfect excuse. The nightlife in Torshavn is great with live music and full of friendly people. During the night we even saw the northern lights, which was obviously amazing, but from a photographer’s point of view, being drunk and without the camera it was a disaster. But on a trip full of amazing experiences it was another moment that we won’t forget.The Faroe Islands is one of the most beautiful and stunning places I have ever been and somewhere I would recommend to anyone to go. As a windsurfer it is certainly somewhere where the normal freerider or freestyler would love. Every direction you look in the water you are  surrounded by stunning scenery. Plus it is also a very windy place being in the middle of Scotland and Iceland. When we travelled in September it wasn’t that cold. If you’re into SUP’ing and surfing then it is also great for that. But as a wavesailor I would see it as a bonus to get a wave session. Overall it was one of the best trips of my life. The images we captured were incredible and is somewhere we all would like to travel back to again sometime soon.”

NIC HIBDIGE
“I was invited on a trip to the Faroe Islands by Jamie Hancock as I was coming home from Fuerteventura last summer, as soon as I heard the possibility of going there for a week of exploring I was stoked. I remembered seeing a trip of Tyler Warren and a few other guys from Cali there on a good swell on Surfer mag and when I did a bit more research on the place I knew it was something I had to make happen. I was joined by James Sharp, a professional photographer and film maker along with Kenneth Danielsen, a world class ripper from the cold waters of Denmark. I didn’t really know this group of guys but from the start we all got along well and ended up having a great trip together. I left early Sunday morning via Portsmouth to pick up James and his camera gear then headed straight to Edinburgh airport. We chose to fly from there as it was easy enough to leave the van at the airport and we didn’t have to mess around with excess luggage on connecting flights. Atlantic airways hooked us up and fly direct which is nice and easy. They were very friendly at check in but questioned why we would even go to these islands, apparently there was nothing but sheep and mountains! When we arrived ‘Uncle Jamie’ was waiting in a hire van ready to take us to our hostel.

ROCK & RIDE
The Faroe Islands has the craziest landscapes I’ve ever seen! It’s a huge mass of volcanic rock, everywhere you look you just want to stop and take a picture as it’s so extraordinary. Each small town is so remote and untouched, it’s a whole other way of life there. For me the uncertainty of what to expect is what made the trip so appealing, I always dreamed of going on trips searching for any kind of possible lakes and breaks to sail or surf. We scouted out numerous spots in Google Maps and tried to find something that would be suitable for wave sailing which proved more difficult than expected. The landscape is just so different and raw, most of our hopes were shut down as a lot of the time all we could find were vertical drops of cliffs into the North Atlantic Ocean. There were plenty of spots for freestyle scattered over the islands so we managed to get some good sessions in different lakes and reservoirs. We did score a few days of small waves to surf, nothing world class but being in those seas was so captivating for me I just wanted to swim around even if there was just a ripple. It’s mind blowing to see those landscapes from the water.

LIGHT SHOW
We didn’t actually score any wind until Friday which happened to be my birthday so that was a nice treat, what more could you ask for! Sailing a new spot in the middle of an incredible location with no one else around. The rest of the day unfolded perfectly, we got some amazing shots, hiked a cool mountain and then headed back to our hostel for some cold brews and dinner. After a few drinks we were more and more stoked on what we had experienced here and we were happy with the content the guys had produced in just that single day. Near enough midnight we headed outside to grab a taxi to go into Torshaven to celebrate and I kid you not a solar flare appeared right in front of James and I across the northern horizon. At first I thought I was dazed from the long day and amount of beer I had drunk but as it brightened we ran up the hill trying to get the best view possible, it really was one of the most astonishing things I have witnessed in my life and definitely one of the experiences I wanted to have whilst I was out there. The locals I spoke to in town said we were really lucky to see it at this time of year as it’s normally too cloudy and not dark for long enough so early in the autumn. There were a few real cool local bars dotted around the capital, everyone knew everyone there but there was a super friendly vibe and people were genuinely interested in finding out what we were doing there.”

KENNETH DANIELSEN
“I was stoked to get the chance to go on this trip to the Faroe Islands. The Faroe Islands is not normally a place I would associate with windsurfing so I was excited to go and discover new spots. The Faroe Islands is one of the most beautiful and breathtaking places I have ever visited. The nature seems unreal and the beauty continues endlessly. We moved around the islands, searching for spots and found some with potential, but the wind and waves wouldn’t play along. The scenery though more than made up for the disappointment – one of those trips which despite not getting any wave sailing we still felt like we had ‘scored’!”

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