That afternoon...

Feeling a little bit bad for Josh, I opted to surf again with him in the afternoon so we descended onto our local spot - Dunfanaghy.

Josh redeems himself by sneaking into the belly of a nice right. Image by Mark Patterson:


This little spot isn't renound for it's surf but on a solid swell and offshore winds - it was firing!

It reminded me a lot of freshwater east - my old local haunt in Pembs. A beach break with attitude serving up nice hollow waves in shallow, knee height water.

The waves were howling offshore and 2-3ft and clean with plenty of hollow close-outs on offer. Some however held up and allowed Josh and I to squeak in and out of one or two.

Mark had gone off road in the Landrover so chauffeured us along the beach to our chosen peak and offered to take pics (once I'd shamed him into it). ;)

As the tide pushed in, the waves grew. I paddled down to a right I'd first spotted when we surf checked it earlier, but was too lazy/tired to paddle down for!

Bottom turning on a nice right. Image by Mark Patterson:


After about an hour, I'd grown tired of watching a perfect right unload all the way down the beach, throwing the lip over as it went, so decided to paddle down give it a go. It was worth it!

I was a bit knackered after the earlier 3hr session but was determined to get inside at least one and exit.

The first few came through and were a perfect bowl shape, allowing for a nice easy take off, followed by a hollow lip which I was trying to get to grips with.

The board I was on was fine for pulling in on but I was finding it hard to lay down any manoeuvres on so just stuck to bottom turning and trying to get covered up whenever possible.

I took off a little late on a 3-4ft right, dropped down and squeaked a turn in, just as the lip threw over in front of me.

It literally went into slo-mo for me and felt like I had all the time in the world yet was over in a split second. No matter how many times you get under that lip, even if it's just your head, it feels special.

Pulling in. Image by Mark Patterson:


Sticking my hand into the wave, I stalled just long enough to get in and out before kicking out into a close out sandy haze.

Mark managed to capture the moment just before and just after but I had the view from inside and was howling like a howler monkey after that one :)

Josh was styling on his quad and for a big guy, did well - pulling into some nice cover ups. He's been watching far too many retro surf movies me thinks! ;)

After an hour or two we called it a day. I'd had a good 4 hrs+ of surf that day and was well and truly done.

Radical rivermouth

We all woke with that familiar taste of stale Guinness on our breath but the heads were clear despite the last round of shorts...courtesy of Neil - one of the bar owners @ McGrorys.

Jon and Nicola had kindly lent Mark and I the use of their house in Culdaff which was much appreciated. You can't put a price on a hot shower after surfing a cold northerly swell in Ireland!

Mark disappeared south for a christening leaving Josh and I to go and hunt out some waves. The swell had yet to kick in so we were mainly just scouting places out.

The forecast of 15 feet @ 12 seconds with W winds meant that a mystical river mouth break I'd been hearing whispers about for years, was finally going to break!

We checked it, knowing it would be flat on the Sunday just out of curiosity as I was keen to see what it looked like.

A tranquil scene of cormorants and still, clear waters greeted us - with woodlands and an old harbour, but no sign of the open ocean anywhere...

I won't be saying where it is but the swell has to wrap in at an insane angle to reach this spot.

Looking at the map you'd never believe any surf could get in there but I can report that it most definitely does.

As the light faded we headed East and booked ourselves into a nice hostel for the night. A full dorm and empty hostel to ourselves for 17 Euros a night which wasn't too bad. It gets cheaper the longer you stay...

Josh whipped up a nice red Thai curry and I went to work on getting a hearty fire lit - with plenty of peat to burn.

The following day we met up with Mark fresh from his christening duties and arrived at the x spot.

The tranquil estuary had been transformed and replaced with what appeared to be a fast, freight training, left hand barrel - reeling it's way along the point at warp speed.

My initial call was 4ft+ but we were a long way off and the tide needed to drop back a bit more.

The paddle out wasn't obvious and after a trek through woodland, we came to the jumping in point.

One lad in front of us called Rory, had already gone in, paddling up the side of the peninsula before cutting back across the bay towards the break.

I decided to reduce paddle time and jump in further upstream via a small, sandy cove which worked out nicely - no point in paddling more than you have to.

I was out quite deep now and in amongst some horrible rips and unsure of where to sit and how big the surf would be. I was also wondering why everyone had gone out and then across?

I paddled across and inside to join up with a few friendly locals who all seem glad of the company. "I thought I'd be out here on my own!" was often mentioned. One lad even had a 'Go-Pro' cam mounted on the nose of his board and I'd love to see some footage from that one day.

Mark stayed deep and I ventured inside for a sniff of the barrel.

As the first set arrived I quickly realised I was now a little too far inside. Huge barrelling left handers flew down the line, grinding their way along from the rocky outcrop we'd paddled out from - all the way along the bay for a considerable distance - 500m or more ending up in a deep channel. Wow!

The actual spot with some quickly done (badly)Photoshop to show you where it breaks:


Some of those pits were absolutely perfect - big clear round barrels big enough to drive a small car through - real surf mag 'front cover' kind of stuff.

It was the sort of wave that sucks your board over, as you peer over the lip for a look so positioning was key. There was no way I was going to make anything from where I was sitting so I paddled down the line, hoping to snag some from the shoulder.

I watched a few of the local guys having a go before I committed. Apparently Tom Curran surfed it 15 years ago and was one of the few to have ever made it all the way along from the inside section - one hell of a ride.

Apparently this place holds treble over head (18ft) and clean so you can imagine how good it gets. It can also turn to sheet glass but was light cross off on this particular day, chopping up the waves ever so slightly.

One of the local guys told me it was a mellow day so go only knows how hairy it gets out there when it's bigger! lol

My first wave was on a borrowed 6'3" Resin 8 courtesy of Josh' mate - Connell.

It was a twitchy wee thing, super skinny and narrow at 18" but did the job and I dropped over the ledge for my first taste of this legendary left hander.

After a steep drop the wave walled up beautifully allowing me to ride high and 'conservatively' bash the lip a couple of times as I made my way towards the inside channel.

The wave reformed slightly allowing for a nice cutback and then kick out, a fair distance from where I'd begun.

We then spotted the familiar shape of Josh on his new orange quad. Josh had been taking his time changing and put the wrong wetty on so we'd gone on ahead, keen to make the most of the dropping tide.

Unfortunately for Josh, he'd not realised where he needed to paddle out from and was too far inside. He ended paddling through the impact zone and barrel! ;0

It could only ever end one way and despite out best efforts at screaming at him to paddle 'out' rather than 'across', he succumbed to the constant barrage of barrels and was washed in - the end.

As I turned, the horizon turned a little darker and we were in for our first taste of a death set.

I saw mark to my right, shouting at me to move over but I was on a bearing of 'hard right' for the shoulder ;) Survival and experience kicking in! I made it. He didn't...

Unexpectedly a solid 8ft wave reared up, broke but let me through. I can only assume the deeper water took some of the power out of the wave as I found most of the set easy to duck-dive? I got caught by one but it nothing like the power of my local spot which often rips my board clean fro my grasp in similar sized waves?

As the set cleared I looked around to see everyone else washed inside so I'd had a lucky escape!

I made a mental note to stay on my toes and watch out for those rogue sets...

One local guy had the place wired, taking off deeper and later than anyone and going on the big ones we all left well alone.

I caught some really nice waves though but in serious waves like that, you really need your own board - maybe next time! My 6'6" pin tailed, single fin would have been perfect but c'est la vie.

I paddled my socks off on more than one occasion as large sets appeared and managed to survive unscathed. The rip was very sly and gradually, ever so slightly - floated you across and inside leaving you at the mercy of the barrel if you weren't paying attention.

You'd be sat there happily chatting away and suddenly realise that a huge wave was about to barrel on top of your head! Being so far away from land - there were no obvious markers on the shore to line up so it was a bit cat n mouse with the barrel.

I caught about 8 or 9 waves so not too bad and there was a good crew out in the water with a few big wipe-outs to boot.

Mark finally got going, stroking into a nice big one - going late and making the drop on his fish.

He was stoked and wanted that elusive "one more wave" before calling it a day. I caught a few more and had a quick run of 3 or 4 waves before finally catching one in. My feet were going numb and the leg felt a bit crampy so it was time to go.

I arrived on the shoreline not knowing which way to go but eventually decided to paddled across a lagoon back to land, with a large seal following me as I went

What a session

Ireland - Homers

I've just landed with a thump back into a chilly Cardiff airport; after what feels like a tour of the entire north and west coast of Donegal and Bloody in search of that perfect wave.

I arrived on Friday night, chasing a fresh Northerly swell and the first day delivered an unexpected wave at a spot I'd not surfed before.

Clean lines @ Homers on Saturday afternoon:


'Homers' as I'll call it here, is a spectacular spot. A natural amphitheatre consisting of a large bay, river mouth and high cliffs on either side giving it shelter from certain winds.

Even the sun was out - a rare event in Ireland ;) and clean 2-3ft waves were starting to roll in as the tide dropped back. The water was crystal clear and we c oud clearly see the bottom as we paddled out - like the Bahamas only much colder!

Myself, John and Mark grinning lke fools above the cliff tops:


Hospital radio sensation - DJ Mark Patterson, John Fitz I eagerly clambered down a grassy cliff bank to the paddle out spot - a little nook in between the rocks which must require some careful timing on bigger swells!

Mark almost came a cropper on this small day as a wave threatened to smash him onto one of the rocks as he scurried through the gap on his mal.

Initiialy it was too deep to surf so we sat, waited and took in the amazing views.

After about 30 mins or so I switched the Go Pro head cam on and away I went on Mark's 'Gary Linden' quad fish - a bit too much foam for me but it had bags of speed but I found it hard to throw it about but then again it's designed for a guy whose 6'5" and not 5'11" ;0

The main thing however was that it caught waves nice and easily and showed those lads on longboards a thing or two about wave positioning.

A nice barrellig left threatened to deliver perfection but the tide was just too high to make it surable and we watched in envy as each set barreled into and over a large dry rock - guarding the take off spot.



The sun was shining and the craic was high as we enjoyed fun waves on the inside. The rights were holding up nicely and became quite fast and bowly after take off but rides were fairly short. Josh arrived late and missed the best of it but still managed to snag a few on his new quad.

John was picking off some nice long rides and was stoked to be finally getting wet after months of being dry. Our photographer Ailee, John's better half decided to go for a run so we reprimanded her upon our return to the cars ;0

Mark was determined to wait for the bigger set waves which were few and far between and eventually paddled inside with the rest of us and caught a few waves on his Mc Tavish Fireball.

The sun finally gave up and disappeared down, behind the mountains. It was a chilly start to the trip with the water being a few degrees cooler than in South Wales and we were all feeling it as we trudged back to the car.

Me shouting John Fitz into a nice long right:


Mark's feet were a weird blue and white colour and he found the tarmac road, tough going with frozen club feet! ;0

The camera worked pretty well - first time I'd used the head mount but I'd not want to paddle out wearing it in bigger waves as it kept smacking into the bridge of nose (I was wondering why it was sore in the pub that night) or blind folding me when waves knocked it down over my eyes so I'd come up blind only to get hit by another wave!

A good start to the trip though as we weren't expecting surf until late Sunday.

The lads enjoying having some craic in the bar:


We spent the night at McGrory's Bar - one of the best live music vebues in Ireland, sat sharing stories, stout and listening to the owners jamming away on guitars and mandolins next to a roaring fire :)

Irish monsters high on craic

Well, it looks like Ireland is THE spot to be next week as a monstrous 6m swell (20ft+) is set to batter the North coast - exactly where I'm heading :)

I'll be hooking up with me old mate mark patterson, josh, big wave afficienado - al mennie and local shaper and ripper - Rosey.

I'm surfing on a borrowed board - just what you want in big waves...but I'll give it my best shot and see how we get on.

There should be plenty of swell wrapping into the more sheltered the nooks and crannies and we're hoping - no praying, that a certain x spot delivers at first light on Monday morning.

Everything is in place re: swell angle, size, wind and tides so all we need now is a sprinkling of fairy dust from 'Huey' and we'll be sorted - pulling into stand up kegs.

Tues/Weds could prove a bit trickier as we're dodging NNW winds but never say never.

I'll try to get some go-pro video footage and stills to share here once I'm back.

Back next Friday, so enjoy your weekend/week and I hope you get some in Wales (unlikely I'm afraid!) ;0

Gull

Northerly swell

I'll be keeping my eye on this nice little low heading over Northern Ireland this weekend and into next week. I was hoping to score waves out west in Lahinch - Mayo country this trip but I'm not sure that's going to happen now looking at the long range weather charts.

A few spots up north should be firing though and the beauty of Ireland is that there is always somewhere to surf and a new spot waiting to be discovered just around the corner.

Rumour has it, we might be hooking up with Irish big wave legend Al Mennie again - so hopefully we'll get some decent sized waves this time - anything will be better than the 2ft drivel we had last trip back in April.

Local news - the surf comp organised by Steve Horn had some decent swell for the contest on Saturday and Sunday at Rest Bay.

Check out a nice slide show of all the action courtesy of Adie at surftalk.

Nothing much in the way of surf again today as high pressure continues to dominate our weather. This cloud should clear for the weekend though.

Indian summer

Apologies I've been off recently with work, so haven't been near the coast but I hear it's been pretty good.

Friday saw a late swell developing and for those patient enough to wait - 4-5ft and clean waves were delivered on a plate just before sunset.

I returned home late on Friday night, shattered but keen for a dip the following day.

On paper it looked spectacular with a good swell, big wave period and straight offshore - easterly winds blowing all day long.

I was too tired to do my normal dawn patrol so took a leisurely walk down around 9am with sponger Will.

We arrived to find the large tide had already receded a long way back but there were still some super hollow rights reeling off all along the beach.

We paddled out and waited...a set eventually pushed through and Will was off, getting barrelled twice on the same wave.

To say he was happy would be an understatement ;)

My turn next...I'd opted to surf my old 6'6 single fin thinking we'd be dealing with 6ft waves and I'd be glad of the extra paddle power and length required for making the drops on bigger waves.

As it happened I didn't need it but at least the extra weight helped keep the board down in the strong winds.

I paddled hard, headlong into a howling easterly and took off blind with the salt stinging my eyes. I scored a little head dip in the lip as I made the drop; bottom turned and saw before me - a lovely long, hollow wall begging to be pulled up and into.

I stalled slightly and prepared to pull up under the feathering lip and into the barrel but ended up slipping off over the nose of the board into a face plant! :(

Close but no cigar.

Will paddled back out and caught another nice one and I had a longish right and then the unthinkable happened...the waves completely died!

We were left with 2ft and hollow but the wind grew in ferocity and it just became a battle which I didn't have the energy for. After an hour we'd both given up and gone in.

The early birds had caught the worm today - reporting 4-6ft barrels @ first light but there we go - I've had my share over the years and I've finally missed one!

I've learnt an invaluable lesson though - sometimes it pays to listen to your body. My body was saying 'NO' all the way down to the beach on Saturday but I ignored it and went for a fatigue driven surf anyway which proved to be futile.

High pressure is with us for the rest of the week so no surf but at least the sun is shining and we've had a few warm 'Indian Summer' type days. Temps will be cooling though.

I'm off to Ireland surfing on Saturday for a week and it looks promising once this high moves on so fingers crossed.

I'll be on borrowed boards which should prove interesting. Now all I need is a decent weather chart.

Welsh blog awards

Not sure how it happened but my little old suring blog has made the shortlist in the 'sports' category in the Welsh blog awards!

Highly chuffed with that but I doubt I'll win. Nice to be nominated all the same.

So watch this space and fear not - normal blogging service will continue, whether I win or not! :)

Might see some of you down @ Chapter for the awards night next Thursday.

A weekend of two halves

Saturday's conditions:
Wave height: 1.5m
Wave Period: 12.7 secs
Wind: Southerly, decreasing in strength
Tide: Small, around 7.5m and pushing in.

Saturday delivered as promised. I met up with local sponger Will, Doc fresh back from his travels to China and Jon who'd I not seen for ages.

IOur local spot didn't disappoint and as we staggered up the last dune, we found fairly clean 3-4ft waves - maybe a little bigger on the sets.

The tide was pushing in but the banks were nicely groomed and there were a few nice hollow wedges piling through.

Finally we had some decent sized waves with power behind them :) which thinned out the weekend crowd considerably - as most learners were washed in and took up refuge on the beach.

I even noticed a wooden bench above the dunes - normally empty, had at least 6 wet bums on it today - all dressed in rubber. No, it wasn't a gimp convention! They were definitely surfers.

As the tide pushed the waves increased in size and we were all caught out by the first sneaker set - a solid 6ft and at least 5 waves came through.

I was quite far out and trying to get into a position to catch one but alas they all side stepped me but but at least I was far enoguh out to remain unscathed.

I turned around to see the white water and foam left inside and laugh at all the scattered bodies and boards - recovering from nature's version of a steam roller!

Will got into his stride early and seemed to be taking off on everything, scoring a few nice cover ups for his troubles. I picked off one or two but didn't really sink my teeth into it until about an hour later. It seemed as I were an anti wave magnet - perfect waves barreling everywhere I wasn't, so I gave up paddling and waited.

Doc paddled out and sat deep with will hoping to pick off some bigger sets but was struggling to get into them and the rest of us moved onto a nice inside bank and waited.

I decided to sit amongst some groms who will seemed to think were Polynesian?! but they had cardiff accents so I wasn't convinced. Nice guys but lacking in confidence who at times they looked to be crapping themselves as the bigger set waves steamed through.

I attempted to give them a little pep talk, telling them to paddle hard/head down and get stuck in but I've a feeling it fell on deaf ears...Fear is a wonderful thing (providing you can control it).

The upside of this was that a peak with 4 surfers on it only had one actually surfing - me :) so I had the pick of it.

A nice right walled up and began to barrel so off I went. I went flying down onto the inside bank and figured I'd only get one manoeuvre in so bottom turned hard and blasted a kind of cutback/layback snap thing at a ridiculously acute angle and somehow made it?

I wasn't expecting that but my board had other ideas and carried on it's merry way with me hanging on in slight disbelief; lining up another lip bash befores liding up and over the roof - narrowly avoiding the shoredunp inside which was over my head and best avoided. Whooopee!

I'd waited a good hour for that wave but it was amazing. I paddled right back out and the same thing happened again - another fast, hollow right appeared on cue waiting to be destroyed.

I knew it was too good to be true and it was. It didn't last and as the tide moved in; so the rip dragged us down the beach.

Jon hasn't been in for a while but was getting some nice drops - making some and getting pitched on plenty too from all accounts but enjoying himself.

Will continued to snag everything that came his way and poor old doc sat and waited patiently, hoping..Eventually he paddled in to the inside bank and snagged a lovely right hander, milking it through to the inside.

He'd been in China all week on business so that one wave definitely helped him overcome his jetlag and forget all about the poor frogs he'd eaten.

The shorebreak was fast and furious and a solid 4ft and we all took turns at testing ou luck - some waves held up, some didn't but my final cramp inducing right hand wave told me that it was time to go.

I paddled hard into a perfect looking peak only to find my right leg locking as cramp bit into my calf muscle - causing me to squeal in pain, grabbing my leg and falling off mid take off! :(

We'd been in 3 hours and all had some nice waves but will 'the slab hunter' had definitely had the best of it, taking off on absolutely everything and making a fair few.


Sunday, 7.30am
Wave Height 1.3m
Wave Period: 9.7 seconds
Winds: Every which way, starting off strong but easing considerably before strenghtening again?!

I dragged Will out of bed today as punishment and took him to another spot - an ugly industrial wasteland on the promise of 3-4ft barrels. The wind had other ideas though and actually turned from E to NE to SSE to SE to SW in the space of an hour ruining any chance we had of getting a decent surf.

The 2ft dribble didn't inspire so we called it a day after an hour and traipsed back to the van in the pouring rain. The puddles we'd splashed through on the way down were a good couple of inches deeper upon our return!

But that's the beauty of surfing - it's completetly unpredictable. It makes the good times seem so much better abd the bad times...worse and bad as ever!

Sat 10am

Just a quick mobile phone update.

The wind is still blowing pretty strong but veering Southerly. This pic was taken from opposite the Fairways Hotel where it's a little more sheltered and around 2ft.

Rest Bay is a bit more wind affected but looks a solid 3-4ft and chunky with plenty of power to it. It's not clean but not a total mess either and there are few rights holding up.

Plenty of surfers in already this morning!

Promises, promises...

Well, as usual this summer/autumn - the winds haven't played ball and delivered us neatly groomed, corduroy lines...

Light SE were predicted but instead we've got moderate SSW and fairly messy conditions.

The swell is nudging 1.7m and a decent wave period so I'll be waxing up the 6'6 single fin this morning for some old skool bottom turns ;)

All is not lost though as current forecasts predict lightening S winds mid morning so we'll have to wait and see what happens as the tide pushes in.

At least the sun is shining (currently) so the Ryder Cup can get a few more rounds played. Virtually no wind forecast for Sunday, so sleeping tonight knowing we might just have some glassy surf @ first light will be tricky.

Two days of full sleep thanks to junior's teeth subsiding have left me feeling re-charged today!

I'm also toying with getting some head-cam POV surfing footage today too if it's big enough so check back for the video on Sunday - something to watch over your sunday lunch :)