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
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