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 :)
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