Ireland gets big waves again

Or at least so I'm hoping.

I'm on a waiting call at the moment to book another trip over to Ireland to add to my collection of surf footage, although it's going to be tough to beat the last session.

While the swell doesn't look to be anywhere near what hit on 1st December, it is decent size and the right direction for a few spots. If the wind can hold off for the weekend we might luck out and get something special again.

But if that fails, I can always turn to plan B. Get drunk on guinness in the pub! Fortunately a good mate of mine from Darwin is going to be around the place over the weekend so it'll be a good chance to catch up on the past 6 months and get a few bevies under our belts.

Of course, I'd rather do that after a days filming in the cold, but if I have to drink all day then who am I to argue!

No more Couch or Floor Surfing

Over the past few months of travelling I've been blessed with a mixture of a great bunch of old friends, new friends, and strangers.

Since I moved out of the famous Margaret Street just after Easter of this year I haven't had a permanent place of residence, and instead of the usual story of having to stay in Hostels around the world I was taken in to the home of both old friends and strangers.

I've now moved into my own room in Clapham and I'm looking forward to being able to repay the favours that were so generously bestowed upon me.

So here's a HUGE thank you to the following friends who gave me a roof over my head

April
Darwin - Phil

May
Darwin - Kylie and Paul
Brisbane - Reanna
Hawaii - Myles

June
San Francisco - Chip/Sean
Santa Barbara - Sara & Billy
San Diego - James

August
Nicaragua - Sherri

September
London - Roland, Rich, Cres, Mel
Dublin - Jusso
Munich - Larissa
Munich - Kita and Lana

October
London - Roland, Rich, Cres, Mel
London - Michaela, Toni-Louise, Danni, Lana and Kita

November
London - Rachael
London - Michaela, Toni-Louise, Danni, Lana and Kita

December
London - Michaela, Toni-Louise, Danni, Lana and Kita

....... and finally my new flat mates Sarah, Gary, Maddy and Lauren!

Again, thanks to everyone that took me in and looked after me, you've helped me travel for longer and have better experiences then I ever though was possible.

Surfline pick up XXL Ireland footage

A big thanks to Surfline for picking up and posting the preview footage from the huge swell in Ireland last weekend.

The full clip will be available in a few days.

Big Wave Surfing Ireland - Mullaghmore & Kilcummin

A Sneak Preview of what's to come

Big Wave Surfing Ireland

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Big Wave Surfing in Ireland - the end

Well it's come to the end of my weekend adventure away.

Today there was no surf footage, which is a little disappointing. On the other hand I was able to catch a couple of different breaks and met a couple of locals that I'll come back to have a surf with, and it also gave me an opportunity to soak in both the country and what this weekend was all about.

Spending time with friends and family is special, but at 5 am this morning when I had a message through from a mate saying that he had beers with the members of The Cat Empire, the concert that I forgo to come over for this trip, I realised that I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else in the world.



I had on 3 pairs of socks, pants, jeans, singlet, thermal long sleeve top, tshirt, zip up jumper, hooded jumper and the sleeping bag, all the while the car was shaking because of the wind and I could here the pitter patter of the rain on the car roof............. and I was loving living every minute of it.

Sometimes you just need to have an incling to want to do something, and you should grab on to that incling and live the shit out of it!!!!

Live it, love it, always remember it.

Big Wave Surfing Ireland - Kilcummin, Mullaghmore, Easkeys

Update: The crazy Irish West Coast has now unleashed a new beast, Prowlers.

Prowlers is the latest uncovered big wave spot, watch the guys surfing Prowlers here

The past 24 hours have been awesome!

I finally got onto the flight a few minutes after it was supposed to be arriving in Dublin, which is actually the best way to take a bunch of normal people, put them in a room together and watch the bitchy and sniediness take control.

The flight was pretty quick. I was asleep before the demonstration, work up briefly for a snack and some water, and again when the plane was losing alittude (or we were flying through a storm, I was tired and can't recall which one) and just in time to look out the window and see the lights of Dublin before we landed.

I grabbed the car without any hassels at all and managed to find my way to Mullaghmore just after 3am. Not bad going seeing as I got to the car desk just after 11pm. I drove around the headland trying to work out where the wave was going to be breaking, and it turned out I was pretty spot on.

It was a pretty tiring drive, definitely should have grabbed an IPOD tuner, but the Ireland radio was good enough o keep me awake.

I stopped off at a Tesco's on the way to get supplies (and had de ja vu of our wicked camper adventure), bread, banana's, water and a few dc's to break up the drive a bit.

In the morning I woke up and was FREEZING!!!!

I was told that the tow in surfing guys would be there at dawn, and silly me thought dawn was about 6am...... but seeing as the sun doesn't rise forever here it's actually quite late (could have used some more kip too)

Houses upon the hill looking over Mullaghmore

I met a surf teacher who was looking on at the waves before anyone went out there and I was filled in with the good local areas that would hold a good size swell like this.

After a bit of time the jet ski's came out with the tow in surfers and they begin to check out the waves.

I was slightly disappointed about the size of the waves from where I was standing, after all I'd flown over especially to check out HUGE surf in Ireland, and now I was getting slightly above standard.

Of course, when one of the surfers actually got towed in to one of the huge waves I was able to see just how big the swell was....... and while it can ALWAYS be bigger this was a good size.

I spent a couple of hours trying to get feeling back in my fingers and toes......and somewhere in that time I think I pressed record once or twice to get some footage.

After the jet ski's radio in to get more fuel I decided to get 15 minutes kip, and when I awoke the film crew that was there and all the surfers were gone.

Bastards!

So I head on further up the coast and checked out Bundoran - The Peak, which was maxed out and no one was there.

I decided to head back to Mullaghmore to see if they were heading back out and stopped off at Tullaghan but with no luck. I missed the turn off to Mullaghmore so decided to head on down to Black Rock Light House at Rosses Point but that wasn't doing much at all.

The guy I had called the day before said that Easkey's might be 15ft so I stopped in there to yet again find no one surfing.

I was beginning to think that all the warnings on the radio for big waves and the dangers of being near the beach had got to the Irish, but they refilled my belief in them when I got to Kilcummin.

The waves were beautiful and of good size, and there were some really good surfers out there surfing the shit out of the waves.

Irish Surfer's carving up Kilcummin

I stayed there for an hour and got some really good shots (or so I think) until it got dark and I headed back to Kilala for a couple pints of Guinness and some warm food.

I've driven back to Kilcummin and am going to sleep in the carpark where the surf break is so I can sleep right the way through to 7am before getting up, grabbing the camera, and catching some more great footage before I begin my long drive back to Dublin and flight back to London.

..... woops, I nearly wrote "flight back home" instead of London then.

Finger crossed the swell will still be good size tomorrow and the surfers can put on a show for me.......... and once I get the footage cut a show for you all.

Big Wave Surfing in Ireland - flying there

Stage one is complete......... I managed to get out of work without having too many beers that I ended up missing my plane (I only had one).

I braved the peak hour tube service and have made it out to City Airport without too many problems.

The plane is delayed about 45 minutes so I'll fight off my tiredness for now and make sure that I get on the plane. The good news is that I just heard the speaker calling a couple of people to get on the flight was was leaving soon, if only they had done that on some of my previous flights.

I found a guy through a few google searches that is trying to run a "Tow in" jet ski safety course and called him this afternoon. He's given me the name of a couple of spots for big waves and the best time to catch them.

After filming in the morning I'll be driving down to where they are surfing/towing and meet up, hopefully I might even get out on the water to get some footage (in a boat though, not on the back of a jetski).

Before I go I have to do a quick apology to Holly. She's a legend and got me a ticket to the Cat Empire tomorrow night and we were supposed to be hanging out this weekend with the rest of the rowdy bunch.

Unfortunately she also mentioned there was a huge swell hitting Ireland and the rest of the UK...... so here I am, two days later sitting at the airport ready to embark on an adventure to get some epic footage. Sorry Holly, but thanks Holly.

Oh and a quick thank you to Kristian as well. He was the one that suggested that I take a camera travelling with me around the world, and without that slight nudge I wouldn't have filmed killer barrel's at Puerto Escondido (Mex Pipe), the awesome surfers at the magical Barra De La Cruz, the magnificant Mayan Ruins and surf adventure through Mexico, the Edinburgh Wicked Camper road trip and now this, hopefully the best footage yet.........