normal service has been resumed

With all the talk of speedsailing, hardly had time to mention the wave sessions of the last week.

The day after the speedsailing in Dungarvan, we had the first round of our Irish Wave Champs in Coolmaine in Cork. The wind that I had got for the speed continued all weekend, and by Coolmaine standards, the swell was pumping about as good as it gets there... bit over logo high cross-on ramp central, and nice for some good rides too.

The first day was set aside for newcomers to the wave series, and the turnout was great, with loads of new faces having a go, even some who had never wave-sailed before.
We had a few fun expression sessions for the silver fleet... and a couple for us too, one was for biggest jump, the other for general 'express yourself' type stuff.  It was an absolute jump-fest, and also nice to get a couple of takas in there, and generally loosen the muscles up after the speed marathon the day before.

Ryan, Jeff C, Myself (Pearse in background) Mark Killeen in the rain.

Then Sunday was comp proper, and we got through the whole round pretty quickly before the wind eventually died, and left us de-rigging in the pissing rain. 

The newcomer to the Surfdock Team  Ryan O'Leary was right at home in the starboard tack conditions, and generally loving life.   Before you knew it, there he was in the final with myself, Jeff Cochrane (also team Surfdock) and Mark Killeen.  Mark actually might have never made it, after breaking his boom 1 minute before his first heat.. luckly I was on the beach with one in my hand at the time rigging the 3.2m for Ryan.    Unlucky to miss a place in the final was Dan Gardener, whose equipment decided enough was enough after all his jumping, and a shredded sail left him out of the running after his semifinal.

The final itself turned out to be a bit of an anticlimax after a great day of jumping and riding, as after about 4 minutes in, the wind started to drop, and we were left trying to keep moving, rather then giving it everything.  Just a shame after 3 days of solid wind, for the last few minutes to be a bit frustrating.  In the end though, I'm glad to say I got the win, Mark 2nd, Ryan 3rd and Jeff 4th (see pic).

Big thanks has to go to Pearse, for running the whole thing, arranging the non-stop wind and waves, and also getting a great crew of newcomers to try their first event!
Wish I had some pics of the event, but my Nikon is having memory card issues which need to be sorted out, and so I don't have any stills shots of this event, or of the Louisbourg session below.  The shots are on the card... just need to find a way to get them.

Louisbourg...  boots are back on :(

Anyway... yesterday was another great forecast for the westcoast. 6.3m swell and 30 knots Southerly :) That was the good news.  The bad news was it's got colder again, and it was booties and hood back on, and I even got the full re-heats in the hands :(
Louisbourg was breaking the biggest I have ever sailed it, with some mast+ sets rolling through, an making getting out tricky at times.  We tried sailing the outer reefs, which were absolutely firing, but they were actually a bit too bumpy to even think about turning on.   The inside reef was breaking really heavy, and apart from Tibo having his usual 25 minute swim after his equipment, it was damn good fun.  He didn't manage to break anything (again), but did manage to lose his mast off the top of his car on the way home. DOH!

The shot above is as usual from my trusty GoPro HD. I'm liking that nose mount angle, and just playing around to see what I can capture shooting stills every 2 secs.  It's a bit hit and miss, but always good fun.

Hope you had a good one.

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