Home’s sick!
We’ve been driving for two hours, it’s cold, dark, and there’s a gloomy mist sitting on the hills and fields. It looks like rain, and there’s no chance of sun!
Two weeks on the run with the weather chasing us, every precipitation you can think of on our tails, snow, rain and winds that could roll the car. We’ve had dodgy surf reports and scored no real waves.
Strangest thing is, I’m still smiling.
This is Ireland and I fecking love it!
When I first came to Ireland, I knew it was a special place. For me, everything about the place fits into how surfing should be. It’s old school surfing. Van, wet wetsuits, tents, camping stoves and your mates.
The whole country is beautiful. The sea is clean and full of life. The people are friendly. It’s not that expensive. There’s world class waves everywhere, and it’s relatively quiet.
The only draw-back is, when it’s flat or conditions don’t play ball, you can be driving for days. Then you’re going to end up in the pub drinking Guinness and singing all night. So OK, driving is the only draw back!
We stayed on in Ireland after the Portrush BPSA event because the chart looked classic. The crew were, Micah Lester, Matt Capel, Nathan Phillips, Struan Wilkins and Bennett Atkinson.
We headed for the Easkey area. We’d all been there before, and knew some of the local spots that may have been working. We met up with Oli Adams and Josh Hughes who had the same idea as us, and were hanging around waiting for swell.
From day one, we had good waves. Like a bunch of super charged groms, we’d get to the beach whilst it was still dark and spend the day surfing and hanging about on the rocks. We had it to ourselves most of the time, except for a pod of dolphins that joined us one evening. It wasn’t pumping, but it was still 3 ft super fun waves.
We would make fires to keep warm between surfs, cook noodles and watch each other surfing.
We ate at the service stations every day. What a surprise! It’s not like the service stations at home though - they have freshly prepared food. Hot food, cold meats, chicken curries, pasta dishes, fajitas, every sandwich filling, and a selection of fresh fruit. You can give them a loaf of bread, tell them what to put in it, and they’ll make you sandwiches, all for the cost of the bread and the filling. Imagine asking someone back home to do that, “fuck off, I’m busy” would be the answer. Every store is like this, amazing!
This routine went on for about five days it was like ground-hog day.
Although it was stupendous, the boys wanted bigger, heavier waves, and I needed to get photos.
Our time was running out, we had loads of turn shots, a few airs, loads of lifestyle, but still not enough to get an article. Then our luck changed. I realised we’d forgotten our passports! We came into Northern Ireland from Scotland, but we were going home from Eire into Wales. You need your passport to get out of Eire and into Wales, I think, so I decided you did. So as gutted as I was, we had to extend the trip another 3 days in order for our passports to be delivered.
We were staying at Cain Kilcullen’s house in Enniscrone.
Cain and his girlfriend, Debbie, have a 9 month old baby. With Matt and Micah crashing there, space was tight. Cain’s mum Christine, lives across the street, and insisted that Nate and I stay there. Christine was so kind, she made a full three course dinner every night. We’d be in bed by 9pm full as a bull, ready for the early.
The Kilcullen’s own a ‘Bath House’ which is situated right on the point in Enniscrone, it’s the perfect way to relax after a surf. The water they use for the Bath House is pumped straight from the ocean across the road. I recommend that everyone should try this. To start, you have a steam bath. You sit in your own Cedar wood cabinet where you’re completely enclosed, except for your head poking out the top. You’re then steamed with pure moist vapour, it feels unreal! Straight after, you get into a warm salt water bath filled with seaweed. The oils from the seaweed have homeopathic properties that leave you feeling revitalized, they also provide relief from rheumatism and arthritis.
To finish your treatment you have a shower in cold sea water. It’s a great way to relax, and the best hangover cure I’ve ever found.
The plan for the last few days was to hang at Cain’s, check charts and shoot off at the crack of dawn. Ireland’s north-west coast is riddled with numerous nooks and crannies with lots of potential when the wind and swell are right.
Cain’s the bloke to know if you’re on the north-west coast. He’s got every spot wired, and knows all the correct swell directions. Essential knowledge, that would otherwise see you spending the day driving rather than scoring the one spot that’s working.
We’d been putting in the hard yards for a week and still no reward, each dawnie was greeted with the same dark grey sky which was usually accompined with rain. We’d drive a few hours arrive at the beach and find, once again, that the swell hadn’t arrived.
All the reports were saying the swell, wind, wave period and sunlight were good. So why wasn’t it happening?
Nate’s not the most patient bloke, and I could see he was starting to crack. Struan and Benson’s time was up, they had to leave a day before us. They’d milked the trip, and had to get back to work.
Anyone who’s been to Ireland will tell you the same thing. It’s amazing!
What everyone seems to leave out is how fickle it is, and how much time you have to spend driving around checking spots! You have to put serious hours in on the road. If you don’t like driving, you won’t like Ireland!
We were down to our last day. The passports had arrived, the ferry was booked. We had one last roll of the dice!
We were in the van by 5.30 on the last morning, it was cold and raining. The drive takes a while, but as it started to get light I could see a mist sitting on everything. It was grey, thick with cloud, and I’d written off the article at this point.
However, as we pulled up, I saw a set break. It was perfect, offshore, over-head right hand pits. Matt was so excited. He’s hyperactive at the best of times, but he knew we were about to score some madness, and couldn’t stop twitching. Micah was out there first, scoring a deep pit on his first wave. With that incentive, Cain, Nate and Matt joined him. I hung about for a bit, took a few off the land, and waited for some light. As I was swimming out, the sun appeared from nowhere, this had to be a good omen. Everything went perfectly from that point on. For the first hour Matt was on every wave that came, the rest of the boys were waiting for the bigger sets, which left him cleaning up on the inside. He had at least 5 full drainers in a row. Cain had it wired, picking the better waves and making every one. Micah and Nate were playing the waiting game. They both had some solid set waves. They were all getting pitted on every wave they went on. The spot was like a machine, every wave seemed perfect, predictable and so hollow. The smaller waves seemed to connect a bit better but every now and then a bigger set would unload perfectly.
The boys surfed for as long as they could. Matt and Nate wouldn’t let me get out, even though it had stopped breaking, and I had about 50 shots of them both.
We had a bit of Lunch and then met up with Oli and Josh at the next spot. Oli was getting some serious back-hand pits, Josh was frothing and getting some solid ones. Gabe Davies was also in, he was a major stand out. His wave selection was impeccable, he’d sit patiently letting sets go by, then pick an average looking one and get fully shacked and spat out, you’d swear he was a local if you saw him surfing here.
That final day was unreal.
It’s like that every time I leave Ireland. It leaves that lasting image of perfect waves in your mind, the ones that makes you check the report for Ireland, even before your local spot.
For all the driving, petrol stops, early nights, lost passports, begging and blagging that final day was worth the whole ordeal.
A big thanks to Debbie, Cain and Christine Kilcullen
www.kilcullenseaweedbaths.com
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