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!
A great read Jack. I felt I was there!!
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