The magnificent but cold, Causeway Coast

Just back from a great 3 day expedition to northern Ireland chasing two half decent low pressure systems as they tracked across the country over to Scotland.

Friday night's alright! Local lad at East Strand:

I arrived on Saturday morning following a 5am start from home to catch a flight over from Bristol. Mark picked me up from Belfast and off we went in search of some swell.

Our biggest problem it would seem was where to go as there were too many options and the forecast was enormous for Monday.

After driving the north coast, calling in at Troggs to see photos from Friday night showing East Strand breaking at a good 8-10t and clean!

We ended up checking one of Mark's quieter spots - PBD. I'd visited before but never seen surf there so was excited to find small, clean waves nudging 3ft as the tide turned.

Mark always thought this spot was a low tide mark but a crew of regulars from Larne, nr Belfast informed us it works best from mid to high. After an hour watching and waiting we got suited up.

A good slap at White Rocks!

 Mark's wetty zip decided to ping off! so was left with a pair of pliers and some engineering to do to save a drive back to Portrush for a new wetty - which he ended up buying anyway!

I paddled out, not quite sure of were to sit but snagged a few lefts before the rest came out.

We surfed for a couple of hours with a great bunch of lads, a big friendly bear of a man called Tommy with a zz top ginger beard and shaved head who had the place wired and his two friends - both of whom dropped in but didn't mind me burning them back later ;)

PBD, small but good fun in the morning:
 The rides weren't long but it was a fun take off and I managed to find some nice rights at what was meant to be a left hand point break! :)

We snuck off to find some much needed food and hot drink - it's bloody freezing over there folks!

A good 3 degrees cooler than Porthcawl and I had some serious shivers going on. Feet like ice blocks, chilled to the core and shivering by the end from a gusty SW wind.

I ended up buying winter boots from Troggs and a 1m thermal fleece lined rashie which saved me for the rest of the trip! Mark bought a stupidly thin new Ripcurl winter suit with no stitching in  a 5/3mm which felt and weighed like a summer suit.

We ventured back to PBD to see if anything was going to happen. The crew we'd surfed with decided to head home unconvinced it would build but we stuck around. Mark snoozed, I read and 2 long boarders turned up and made a right meal of it.

The swell definitely started to build but with 2 guys in who kept missing every decent wave it was hard to tell if it was worth bothering with. By 5pm regular 4ft+ sets were pushing in so we hit it for a evening session.

Stunning views towards Benone Strand
It was soon evident that a new swell had kicked in.

Mark went way out back to catch a few big lefts on his long board and I took my chances in the middle picking of the smaller more regular waves and catching the odd bigger one that refused to break out back in the deeper water.

The rights were good fun, reeling in parallel to the inside reef and rocks but I dared to go as far as I could in the high tide wobble before kicking out in time.


The only left I attempted to catch was a big set wave which just flipped me skyward and sucked me over the falls!

A great little spot and one I'd love to visit again when the swell is bigger as I saw some amazing pics of it this weekend - resembling pipeline.

TBC....