Sun, Swell & Waves!

               Bundoran Junior Competition!

All photos: Jack Clohessy. (unless specified)

It was Friday the 17th of April, the water was getting warmer, the sun was beginning to shine and there were plenty of waves around! A group of friends of mine, Cian, Sean, Colm and myself took off to Bundoran at 9 o clock Friday morning. It was a long drive up, five and a half hours to be exact, but when we arrived we were buzzing as there were pumping waves all around us. I spotted a fun little shallow reef and was first to get in. I was followed closely by Sean and Colm. Cian sacrificed his evening of surfing to film us with his newly purchased camera. Legend Cian! I had a brilliant surf and as the tide dropped it got shallower and shallower, with the standups not taking off on as many waves I practically had it all to myself. Taking off on some big ones and getting plenty of barrel time! I was delighted to have another two days in this amazing place and to have the comp the next day!

                                 Photo: Cian O Mahony.

    

The day of the comp came. We got up at 7am to investigate the waves. After skating to Tullan strand we were fairly disappointed to see only waist high waves. I tried to be positive about it though and just thought to myself that it would get bigger when the tide dropped. At 10am the comp started. The tide had dropped and the waves had reached shoulder high. With a fresh offshore breeze and the sun out it had the makings of a fantastic competition! My heat came around at about 2 or 3pm and the waves looked fun! I was excited. We paddled out anyway and the hooter sounded to signify the start of the heat. Within seconds one of the best sets of the day appeared! I caught the first wave and did a roll on the first section then the wave just disappeared. I paddled back out and that was it. Another set didn't come. I sat on the inside looking for something small to get a backup score. I found a little wave and just about got a spin on it thankfully. I did enough to secure first place anyway. Congrats to Joe on coming second. I was disappointed that I didn't get a chance to show people my technical bodyboarding but I know there are more comps coming and I will get my chance!   

Tullan at sunrise.

                            

The next day the surf was Pumping! We got up at 6am to go in search of some waves around the town. The spot I had surfed on Friday evening had a few good ones coming through but not enough to hop in. The peak was pumping, but I was saving myself for a session at a fairly well known reef just outside Bundoran. We decided to go there at 10am and when we pulled up it looked fun! Head high little barrels coming through and the left looked sick! I jumped in after I saw the first spit. I paddled out with Colm and when we got out the tide had drained out a bit and it had to my delight gotten fairly shallow! The two surfers that were out bailed out and Colm caught one wave at the start but then it just got too shallow for him! He was on a self shaped single fin and we didn't want to see it get hurt! I caught about a dozen waves and got barreled on a few. I was buzzing! It was a brilliant little wave. Every left wrapped around the reef and barreled from start to finish with a spit at the end! Towards the end of the session the shelf was fairly exposed! On my last wave I was too deep and got sucked up the face of the wave and thrown onto the exposed shelf. It was very pointy and it kind of hurt so I decided that I had had my fun and it was time to call it a day! After about ten minutes the rest of the boogers that were out paddled in too! Unfortunatly I don't have any photos of this session but here is a few of around Bundoran!

Thanks for reading!

    

Trip to Clare. Paddys Day!

     Trip to Clare St. Patricks Day!

(all photos taken by Jack Clohesssy)

It had been an interesting few days leading up to this trip. 3 time bodyboarding world champion had been in town and was surfing up in the cliffs on Saturday the 14^th of March. I found out at about 5 o clock that evening after I returned from a surf myself. I read a message a friend of mine Tom had sent me that read “Come up and watch us surf the cliffs this evening, Ben Player will be there!” I checked the time, it was 5:05 on a cold afternoon. I know myself there was no chance of me getting up to Clare in time to see one of my heroes in person. I was devastated. I text one of my friends Tadhg who lives up there as I knew he would be at the cliffs and asked him would he mind trying getting me an autograph. I was sitting at home on my coach sickened that one of my heroes was 2 hours away from me and I wasn’t with him. 1 hour passed and as it approached 6:20 my phone rang. Tadhg’s name appeared on the screen. I answered and he told me about how he had got Bens autograph for me! I couldn’t believe it! I was so pumped that BEN PLAYER had signed ME a young Irish bodyboarder from Cork an autograph! Then all of a sudden I heard voices in the background of the call and Tadhg told me to stay on the line for two minutes, then an Australian accent spoke through the phone and I knew straight away it was Ben! We had a quick chat and agreed to try get a surf together on Paddy’s day! I was shaking after the call. I just couldn’t believe such a legend of the sport had picked up the phone and said my name! It was definitely one of the stand out moments of my bodyboarding lifetime!

The cliffs looked beautiful that morning.

  On St. Patricks day my friend Cian and I set off to Clare at 6:00 in the morning. Our plan was to just search for waves until about 2 o clock when we were going to hit Rileys. A very heavy, shallow slab down past Lahinch. Our search for waves had went well and we had found a good few nice spots but didn’t get in anywhere as we didn’t want to be late for Rileys! We met up with two top class boogers, Tom and Seamus and ploughed on to Rileys. When we turned up it was pumping but it looked pretty big. At least double over head on the sets. Anther crowd of lads turned up including Johnny, Clem, Conor and Barry. We all decided it was best to just head down and have a look. We weren't sure if it was going to be surfable as there were a lot of closeouts coming in!  After about a half an hour walk we reached the wave and our fears came true, it was deadly shallow, dry on some of them and a lot of closeouts. We looked for a while as a couple of the lads paddled out but decided it wasn’t the day. I felt it was too big for my first time to surf the place. The picture I have here of it makes it look like the most perfect day ever but I can assure you that it was far from it. That was about the only perfect one that came in!

Cian and I bailed out and decided we might have enough time to try get a surf in at a slab near Spanish point. We arrived to see head to head and a half high little barrels and ramps. I got a pretty memorable wave were I pulled in to a barrel, came out and then pulled off a substantial enough roll! The tide then got too low for that spot so Cian and I got out of there and stayed in our suits and drove past lahinch and got a lovely hour and a half session at the funnest little slab with just Cian, Clem and myself out. Sharing shack after shack hooting each other on! Dreamy stuff with the sun out! It was an amazing finish to an amazing day! A day I know I will never forget. As for the surf with Ben Player that was supposed to happen, well the previous day Ben unfortunately had to be air lifted from a wave after he suffered a ruptured spleen. Unfortunate I know but hopefully he will be back in the water soon! I can’t wait to get back up there already!

 Cian starring into a very inviting barrel!

Lahinch Junior Competition 2015

              Lahinch Junior Nationals 2015!

It had been a long time since I had competed last. The euro juniors in September was the last time, a whole six months to be exact. I had put some work in for about a month and a half previous, practicing heats in free surfs. I felt good going into the event.

                                                                                         

 I headed up to Lahinch on Friday the 6^th of March and was lucky to score an amazing wave somewhere in Clare that same day. I was so excited for surf after it! What made it even better was scoring it with a bunch of friends.

             On Saturday the forecast and tides only suited a surf in the evening so my friends and I had some time to waste. We decided to head up to Moy Hill community garden and give a hand. We spent 3 hours up there with a load of other amazing surfers. I was delighted because I was really interested in having a little vegetable patch of my own so the lads gave me a few pointers and really drove me on to get cracking on it when I went home back to Cork! After the gardening I was really content with life, I didn’t even feel the need for a surf I was so happy with myself! But my friend and I decided to go for a look around Doonbeg! After about a half an hour of searching we came across a little cove with a lovely little wave breaking in there. We were happy to go in for a paddle and after about an hour the tide rushed over a little bank on the beach and formed an amazing little wedge. Bodyboarders heaven! I couldn’t contain myself! I spent 2 hours catching wave after wave, not tiring and ecstatic with the thought of just a mate of mine and me scoring such amazing waves by ourselves! It was the perfect end to a perfect day!

       We woke up on the morning of the competition (Sunday) and walked down to the beach for a 9a.m check in. We looked out to see the waves looking pretty challenging to say the least. I was really looking forward to paddling out for my heat and surfing competitively again! My heat came around and the tide had gone out a lot making for challenging, rippy conditions. I walked out the reef, jumped off and paddled out to a nice right hander I saw breaking from the beach. I found it hard to catch a wave but luckily got one solid wave where I got a 5.5, which was enough to take the win. I was delighted to win the under 18 bodyboarding event but I know myself I have to work on a few things here and there but I am looking forward to getting back training and practicing for a busy few months of competing ahead.