In October 2013, Phil Horrocks sponsored by the Mailing Room, was crowned 2013 British Wave Sailing champion. This celebrates the hard work Phil has dedicated to achieving this fantastic accolade.
Below is a recount, in Phil Horrocks’ own words, how he reached this achievement and what it has meant to him.
‘After a pretty epic year, 2013 has finished off with some delicious icing on the cake!
Winning the Cornwall Wave Classic during what was billed as the biggest storm to hit Britain in 26 years with some truly wild windsurfing conditions.
Winning the Cornwall Wave Classic, the final stop on the British Wavesailing Association tour, confirms my spot as British Wave Sailing Champion 2013!! Yeeeeaaahhh!!!!!!
Going into the Cornwall Wave Classic everything was up for grabs, anyone of a number of sailors had a chance to claim the title, I knew that nothing less than a win was what I needed to realise my ambitions of winning my first UK title.
The conditions lived up to expectations as the headlines confirmed the warnings of the worst storm to hit the UK in 26 years! Cornwall certainly delivered on this occasion! Waves of up to 6m and 30 knot winds provided some epic action over the 3 day event.
In the end it came to a show down with local man and former PWA world cup ripper Andy King for the title. The waves were pretty hectic, there were 4 and 5 metre waves rolling through in the final that were crashing on the sandbar, it was one of the heaviest waves I’ve ever sailed on! I carefully picked my waves and rode them as hard as I could! There was no time to hold back, I came to try and win and didn’t want to give it up easily!
Last year I came so close to winning the overall title, finishing second, that it left a bitter taste as i fell agonisingly short and it was something i wanted to put right! Fortunately everything went well for me this time around, scoring some awesome waves right through the event, I’m super happy to have won the UK Wave Championship in 2013!!
It was a great achievement for me personally, but I couldn’t have done it without the help and support of so many people. To have my partner Maike and daughter Keira there, along with my parents, my brother and his wife and son watching made it all that more special.
None of this would have been possible without the support of George Bevan and the team at themailingroom.com, who’ve sponsored me since the very beginning and stuck with me ever since, so a huge thanks to them!
Big thanks to my board and sail sponsors too, Tabou & Gaastra, they provide me with the best equipment out there and it’s helped me so much this year knowing i’m on the best equipment available, the Gaastra Manic and the Tabou Pocket wave have been used at every event this year!
Thanks too to Chinook and Ed at K-Bay for giving me the booms and bits that pull it all together, the confidence from the quality of product is invaluable.’
Once again The Mailing Room would like to congratulate Phil on his achievement and look forward to continued success in the future.
For more information on franking machines and The Mailing Room, proud sponsors of Phil Horrocks please call on 0800 0192 033 or visit www.themailingroom.com