Speed in the snow

Had a good morning speedsailing on Saturday at Burrow Beach.  The drive there was in interesting in a snow storm and lightning, but once that had passed over, it turned out to be not *too cold and windier than expected.

*Had to post this pic for comedy value - it wasnt cold as I was wearing a new Elite Wetsuit, weight jacket (which is nice and warm too), mitts, and two hoods.  Despite looking like a penguin, no re-heats though!

Also a nice pic as it shows Burrow on a good windy day.  It's 30 knots here and I'm on my 5.5, and the water is sooo flat !

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3.2m's in Dollymount

Here's a few shots from a very windy fun session in Dollymount beach today.
I was using my 3.2m FLY which most of the time was 'fooool powahhhhh'!! Some of the squalls going through were mental, around 40-50 knots, but mostly it was manageable on 3.2m for me.

I should have been on a 68l board, but don't have one yet, so I finned down my 74 Twinser Quad with K4 Quad fins, and control was no problemo at all. Thanks Steve!

There was a good crew out, with people on 4.0m or bigger being sent back to the beach suffering.... but still smiling.
Big THANKS to Mikey's Dad for taking the shots below!

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what a week !! what a month !!

Since the trip to Magheroarty, the wind has been pretty much non-stop here in Ireland. I enjoyed enjoyed a few good sessions in Dublin, and made the trip over to Belmullet to catch a good forecast last weekend.

Met up with Andreas from Sligo, Cormac from UISCE, and Colin and Carlos came out of retirement - for possibly their best days waveriding in a long time.
Young Ryan came over with me - for his 3rd ever time wavesailing on the westcoast - and once again was blown away by how good the waves are.

We had a great day starboard tack waveriding on the reef and point at Drum on Saturday, followed by a mental day on Sunday down at Elly Beach.  4.5m... overpowered.  4.0m... overpowered.  3.6m... overpowered.  3.2m... overpowered !!  Was good to test out all the sails though !

Here's a quick video of my first out on the water on the Sunday. I like this camera angle, so I didnt bother editing any clips, just gave you the whole run as it happened.


First Run from Surfdock Watersports on Vimeo.

Yesterday then was great for speedsailing at Burrow Beach in Dublin. Only problem being the tide was low at 6.30am - so I got up at stupid o'clock and was down there rigging at 6am in the dark, to be ready for first light.
It turned out to be well worth it, with 30-35 knots blowing down the course, and the water just deep enough to get straight in at first light. Sailed on my 5.5m RS EvoII, and got a couple of runs around 42, and and the rest all over 40. Nice start to the day! There was a good crew out all keen to catch the low-tide and improve on their PBs.

Speeds are here.

Ah yes, speaking of speed... This picture below was from the Speed event in Ladie's Island speed event - which I never blogged about. Huge thanks to Steven Cassidy for taking the pics!

After the speed in Burrow, the strong NE winds meant that Dublin would have waves everywhere, so I headed up the coast to find some swell. I'm sure every Dublin wavesailor was out from somewhere between Seapoint and Balbriggan, in fact the whole coast was on flood alert because of high tides and big wind/swell warning... as the tail end of a hurricaine went through.

Rush looked like the best option for me, with port tack cross offshore. The way the wave bent on the beach meant you could ride all the way from the sandbar on the outside in to the beach, and get 10 or 12 turns.  OK, it wasn't the west coast...  but always nice to see some decent waves only 5 mins from my house !

Here's a pic of Ryan out on his 4.5 and Quatro KT.

Other hurricaine news hit the papers too that day - with the west coast Tow-in crews finally surfing a new secret spot.. located off the coast of Donegal/Sligo.
Here's a shot that was on the front cover of the Irish Times newspaper - which meant that TV and Radio went crazy over covering the tow in surfers.

Far more interesting to hear though is that Finn Mullen Windsurfed AILEENS !! and is obviously the first person EVER to do that!!  HUGE respect Finn !!! What an absolute ledgend !!
It was caught on video by Brian from Windsurfer International Magazine and Beach Telegraph, and you can also catch a quick shot of him here on the RTE news
Six One News - RTÉ News Player
No doubt Brian is keeping the footage for the next edition of Windsurfer International.  I can't wait to see that one !

Here is the current forecast for Belmullet, check out today's wind !! I was going to head over, but might be TOO windy to be any fun. Also it's still supposed to be gales in Dublin, so I guess that will have to do :)

We have the finals of the IWA Wave champs in Belmulet this weekend, so will be heading over for that.  The forecast keeps changing though - but it looks like we should get at least one days action in.  Belmullet usually never fails to deliver... so fingers crossed for more and more wind - I like my 3.2m FLY :)



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Some Donegal shots

Nice chunky swell in Magheroarty today! Started on 4.5 Combat, then changed down to 4.0 on 74 quad.
Good crew out, Benny G, Gerard & Brendan, Colin, Andreas, Tibo, Tom, Mikey, Timo, & Finn.

Great Day, and looks like more to come !

All the shots apart from first one are courtesy of Tom & Paula.  Check out his website:  www.pol321.com  for more pics.

Been down this road more than once...

9 metre swell and 16 sec period... Van packed and on the road again :-)