assume the recovery position

Finally managed to recover some pictures off a dodgy memory card in my SLR camera.
Here's a few shots from one of the bigger days in Louisbourg I blogged about in the last week or two. Bit grey and shaky, but you get the general idea :)

Myself and Andreas

Some nice sets on the main reef at the beach

We sailed the offshore reef, but it was too bumpy on the face

Worth a look though !

Some nice lumps of water moving around :)

Not much wind around at the moment, though the surf is good on the west coast.
I have to stay home though, as I'm nominated for ISA Sailing Achievement of the year, so it's off to the awards ball on Saturday.
Naturally for the Irish Sailing Association it's a Black Tie dinner, some I'm going to have to get a Tux... the only suit I own is a wetsuit !

From the ISA site:
And the nominees for ISA Sailing Achievement of the Year are...
• Anthony O'Leary – Winner of the Rolex Commodore’s Cup 2010
• Peter O'Leary – Winner of the Skandia Sail For Gold Regatta
• Nicholas O'Leary – Only competitor to win 3 consecutive titles at the ISA All Ireland Sailing Championships
• Mark Pollack and Mick Liddy – Round Ireland Yacht Race
• Oisín Van Gelderen – Irish Speed Sailing Champion

Don't know who all these O'Learys are.. but they are damn good sailors !

And speaking of which, check out my Surfdock team-mate Ryan O'Leary's blog: ir999.blogspot.com
He's just had some great sessions in Fuerte and Donegal.

www.surfdock.ie

Fanoretastic & freestylin'

A distinct lack of pictures for this post due to my Nikon still being sick, but no lack of action in the last week.  We scored a great session in Fanore (also known as Louisbourgorfanore) with a great crew on the water.  The usual Galway crew including Dan G & Katie were loving it, and good to see Brian from Beach Telegraph on the water too. 

This spot works best in SE winds for full cross offshore, and has a mix of beach and reef break, though the beach is rocky and shelvy, so it packs a punch.

Fanoretastic

This first pic (a shaky frame grab) gives a hint of what it's like on the beach break, clean punchy and hollow.  In total 4 masts and sails were claimed by this wave... happily none of them mine.  The reefs upwind were cleaner still, but the pics will have to wait for another time.

A bit of a view upwind towards the reefs.  Pics don't do it justice.

Then this weekend I watched some of the live freestyle from Vietnam, and realised it's been a long time since I have been on my JP freestyle board. Full of inspiration, got a nice sunny day down at Burrow on 5.0 Combat.

freestylin

After a full day slippin' and sliding... realised my bones are not as bendy as they used to be !  Good fun though... think I can just about remember how to freestyle.  

As usual, enjoyed messing around with the GoPro.  This pic shows how flat the water is here, though this is down the end of the course in a NW wind, which is a bit short for a decent speed run.

Forecast not great rest for the rest of the week, though it looks like it will be OK for getting the SUPs out again.

www.surfdock.ie