Riley's

Here is the footage from a couple of weeks ago. Looking forward to shooting from the water again. Enjoy!!

Riley's Gopro Shoot

Recently I managed to get my hands on a Gopro HD and although I had told myself that I would never make a surf movie, I had so much fun videoing the lads getting tubed for two hours, that I might have changed my mind. All I need now is a housing for myself and a partner to shoot from land.

The day......

Well not much happened during the day, I went for a walk then had some ice cream, then in the evening I went to Riley's.

The evening.....

Its not what I would have called amazing waves, there were a lot of close-outs but every now and again there would be one gem that ran the length of the reef finishing with a little spit followed by a smile. The fact that there was a team of french bb'ders out didn't help the crowd scene, but saying that, the sun was shining, it had been two weeks since the last decent swell and we were all very happy to share.

The sun was even a little bit too strong can you believe, I think this was the first time I wished for just a little more cloud cover! (but just a little).

Using the Gopro had its benefits, for starters I didnt have to buy an expensive housing just to see if I would enjoy shooting from water, as most of the time I would rather surf. Its also small enough and light enough to hold in one hand, which is great for getting up close while not having to worry about getting sucked over and with a secure wrist strap its not going anywhere.

Here's a few screen shots from the footage.

This is one of the french bb, he got some of the best waves of the day. This was just before the weather started to turn.

     Aaron Reid was charging it on the day, got a few nugs for himself. Im looking forward to seeing more of this guy over the winter.

     Here is Aaron again on the same wave.

Summer fun

After probably the worst winter I've seen since I have started surfing which seems to have continued into the worst summer (summers are always bad we just forget how flat it can be after having a good winter) but wait.... there it is, that swell on the charts where there is the possibility of scoring some epic waves with warm water (when one is wearing a cosy 4/3) and only a few people out (if you get up early enough and paddle out when its completely dark) but its these moments when you think to yourself "man i wish ireland was like this all year round" but then also think to yourself, if it was this good all year round I wouldnt be sitting out here with just a mate. So Ireland I say to you, stay as you are, you bring us cold, rain and wind but it always pays off in the end.

And so the story begins....

Myself and Jimbo went on a little adventure to **** to meet up with Anthony for two days, to simply surf the shit out of it. At 6am we left Co Clare behind us with a 3hr drive ahead of us, even with the lack of sleep and the pissing rain, our spirits were high with the anticipation of good waves to come.

The first day the swell was solid, with 4-6ft sets hitting the reef and not a person in sight for miles.
Although the wind was supposed to be offshore we got a bit skunked, with a light onshore sea breeze, but there was still some ripable walls and sections all to ourselves.

Three of us out on this in the morning for a warm up session.

I had never surfed here before and as far as I know it doesnt have a name so for now we can just call it gregs, as it is quite similar to good ol' creg in Lahinch.

As the tide pushed out we made our way slightly up the coast  and again surfed empty waves with light onshore breeze, it did eventually clean right up and the sun came out. I surfed for around 7hrs got some bombs and some hidings, Anthony got a few good ones but as the tide pushed up he got into a confrontation with a submerged slab and did some damage.

The point

The next day we hit the road nice and early, after only 4hrs sleep I was not in the best form, trying to stay awake behind the wheel was a mission and even the thought of surfing again brought pain to my arms.....ah but then we arrived, the sun came up and the surf was on like donkey kong.

The second day brought sunshine and waves...nice

We arrived with many options, left or right we said, to be honest it was hard to choose both waves were perfect tubes with a good wall to finish. Since we had been surfing lefts all the previous day we decided to hit up the right. What a fun wave, looking forward to my next trip here.

The Left

The Right