Another day in Clare!

                                     Hugh Galloway on a Beauty!

               I spotted the forecast for this day very early. When I first saw it it looked perfect, bar the neap high tide. This meant it was going to be shallow.. if the forecast stayed the same. Thankfully it did! Cian had gone on holidays so I was going solo for this one. I left at 9am on the Thursday and arrived at 11:45am. It was perfect timing. I quickly gathered my things and myself and Tadhg Kennedy (Lahinch local and a very good friend of mine) ran down in what usually take 30 minutes, in 17 minutes! Tadhg was injured so unfortunately he couldn't get in the water. I got changed quickly as I wasn't sure as to how long the perfect conditions would last for. 

Photos: Tadhg Kennedy!

     I hopped in the water as soon as I was changed. I paddled out the back and I couldn't wait to catch one. There was a good crew out there, consisting of, Hugh Galloway, Peter Conroy, Clem McInerny, Stef skajarowski, Seamus O Riain, Fergal Smith and George Karbus. I have to admit, it felt amazing for me to be out in the water with some of the guys that inspired me to go surf these heavier waves in the first place! I had a few warm up waves and then a big one came in and the lads shouted at me to go. I was way too deep but went anyway. I fell and for a milli second I was very scared but I came up out of the wipeout unscathed and with a lot more confidence! From there on I started pulling into a few barrels and boosting off the end section! I was having so much that I hadn't even noticed how low the tide had got. It was time to get out, but not before Rileys threw the biggest wave of the day towards Myself and Fergal (everyone else had gone in) Fergal would be well used to big waves as he is one of the best surfers in Ireland. Me on the other hand I started to paddle to get out of there and I almost got caught and thrown towards the seabed quite close below, fortunately I got over it and I was okay! 

               It was a very memorable session for me. I gained so much confidence out there and I can't wait to surf there again! Maybe with a bit more size next time! I really am loving surfing these heavier waves and I am learning so much as I ride them! Here are two screengrabs from Thursday!                       

 Photos: Clem McInerny

Thanks to my sponsors : Bigsurfshop.com

                                        Proteus Clothing co.

 

  

First Session At Rileys!

                                      

                                       Rileys!

Where to start is the question! What a day. I figure I might as well start right from the beginning!

                                                 All the sessions, the hours I have spent surfing slabs and heavy waves have all lead up to surfing Rileys in my mind! Surfing a wave like it was the reason I started bodyboarding in the first place. Cian and I had seen a potential Rileys session a couple days previous so we were so happy when we saw that the forecast had stuck and that we thought she would be working. It was an early one again and we reached Clare at 8am with the prospect of surfing 2 differant slabs before heading onto Rileys. The first place we went to looked good but when we got out there the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and it wasn't breaking the way it usually does so we got out after about an hour and a half, disappointed but happy to get in the water none the less!

                                                         

                                                                                                                             We then met up with our friends Tom and Emer and went for a well needed breakfast . We had a lovely 2 hours having a laugh and exchanging stories. Myself and Cian then realised that it was time we headed to our second wave of the day so we parted ways with Tom and Emer and struck off to our second stop of the day! When we arrived it was pretty windy and it wasn't looking good. The two of us sat in the grass examining it anyway just in case it started to work so we would have had time to get in straight away. That didn't happen, the waves stayed like it was so I guess we will have to wait to surf her! 

                  

                          

          After about 3 hours of watching waves, playing music and playing cards, finally it was time to head to Rileys where we met up with Tom and Emer as Tom wanted to surf it too! When we turned up it looked perfect! Head and a half to double over head perfect lefts coming through! We were stoked! We packed up and headed down. The usual half hour walk down didn't seem to take as long this time. We didn't really look at the wave much when we went down, I just wanted to get in the water! I was nervous. I paddled out and as soon as I was in position I saw a massive wall of water roll in, the offshore wind slowly started to make the lip pick up. Then the the wave jacked up and the lip threw out so far accompanied with a bomb like noise. It was on! I caught my first wave and my nerves began to settle. I slowly but surely worked my way to the peak. A big set came in and I began to paddle for it. As the wave began to pick me up I looked down to see the slab of rock beneath the surface in perfect view. I dropped down the face and pulled in and made it out of the end section barrel! I pulled off the wave and I knew that that wave was one of the better ones I had ever caught in my life! I was so happy! I can not wait to go down there again! Here are a few photos of Rileys, unfortunately the camera ran out of battery so the whole session wasn't documented!

Photos: Emer Murphy.

                           Cian

 Cian about to drop in!

 Me eyeing up the end section!