JLC enters Another Place

My first job as a reporter on the UK’s longest-running surfing magazine saw me undertake some pretty tough assignments. As the most junior member of staff, it was inevitable that I would get sent on the jobs nobody else wanted, so my early interview technique was set to develop on a series of aspiring pro surfers who would clearly rather have been spending time in the sea than waiting for me to reel through a list of questions. I would rather have been surfing too, but it was up to me to coax from their uncooperative mouths a sentence that could one day be printed, and repeat this process enough times to hit the magic figure of 500 words.

So when it came to sit down with Justin Lee Collins to conduct an interview for Another Place, the annual magazine produced by The Hotel & Extreme Academy at Watergate Bay, none of my previous experience was any use at all. Verbose doesn’t come close – the man was a dream in front of the microphone. Here’s what he said . . .

Good times at Watergate Bay: JLC gets spiritual
He has interviewed A-listers, wrestled Mexicans and dressed up as Chewbacca, but taming the Cornish surf in a Sky1 documentary proved to be the toughest challenge yet for Justin Lee Collins. Another Place caught up with the hairy Bristolian between waves.

How have you found the experience of learning to surf?
It’s been great. I’ve attempted to surf on my own several times in the past and never been able to do it, but I’ve always loved the idea of it. I think it suits me and I feel at home here in Cornwall, Watergate Bay in particular. I’m a West Country boy, I still live in Bristol, and this is my pace of life, it’s how I like life to be. So everything about surfing appeals, the lifestyle appeals on a spiritual level. Everything about it apart from the actual business itself of surfing, which I can’t do.

You’ve been set the fairly ambitious target of entering a top-level surfing competition for the TV show – do you think that’s possible?
I’m very much an amateur. I’m under no illusions, it’s incredibly difficult and if you have ever tried to surf or had a surfing lesson then you know how difficult it is. So I don’t think I’m going to be walking the board or hanging ten at the end of this journey. But I’m looking for a long ride – that would be wonderful.

So have you got the surfing bug?
I love the beach. I’m a beach bum and I can sit here all day on this beautiful bay just watching waves crashing in, but now I’ve started to look at the ocean in a completely different way. And I’m sat here thinking, would I have gone for that wave? Would I wait? Would I let that one pass? It’s really weird. And then you see the guys who are out there and they just sit out there for 20 minutes, half an hour, just waiting for the right wave.

Is it something you can see yourself carrying on after you finish filming the show?
I think so. This is a very different journey to the other films that we’re making. I think this one could be more personal – this is what I love so it relates to getting away from the hectic pace of life that I’ve grown accustomed to. It’s perhaps more of a spiritual journey to the others.

You could have made this journey in Australia or Hawaii – why Cornwall?
This is where we come for our family holidays. We’ve been coming to Cornwall for a very long time but we only discovered Watergate Bay about three years ago and
we’ve been regulars since then. I come down with my wife and our two little boys whenever we’ve got free time and we just absolutely adore it here, so it made perfect sense to come here to make this film. We really love it.

Good Times by Justin Lee Collins is published by Ebury Press. Out now.