Winter

It’s on its way. The evenings and mornings are getting darker. There is a noticeable chill in the air and soon the morning routine will have to include boiling the kettle to defrost the car. Gone are the summer bbq’s, the pint bottles of bulmers, stupid tag rugby and the annoying holiday goers cluttering up every seaside village and town around the coast. It’s going to be very wet, very cold very windy and very dark but by god it’s going to be fantastic.

I wouldn’t have it any other way!

So it’s time get back to going through the charts hour by hour and the million different wind forecasting sites. Surf trips will now need more of a military like precision and yes we shall all continue to get a shafting more often than not but hey we don’t care cause this is surfing in Ireland and we love it!

Here’s Shane O’Connor getting his first one of the season yesterday. It was about as mellow as it gets but still the odd nice one.

aaaaaaahhhhhhhh

Very annoyed at the moment. After all my complaining about the lack of charts i chased a swell up north only to get a royal shafting and to make matters worse i've missed two perfect charts in the last 24hrs!!

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

This makes me feel a little better though. Always brings a smile to my face.

Hugh Power a little bit too late!

and the outlook is..........bleak

Man Ireland sure does test your resolve. I can't remember the last good chart and doesn't look like anything is on the horizon either. I know it makes you appreciate it more when it happens but i'd like to state for the record i would be ok with it firing 24/7. I have enough appreciation for more than a few days a month!

Perfection isn't too much to ask for is it??

Oldie

This is an old one from up north of i think Aaron Reid. mmmmmm barrels. It was after this session i decided i had to get a housing. So many barrels. i wanted to be in everyone of them!

Paul Smith Vs China

Get on it everyone. You can't possibly beat this offer!

Good on ya Paul!

http://www.allthingsglide.blogspot.com/

Summer playtime

Not the best of conditions around at the moment but being the wkend i had to go and try and find something. Unfortunatly didn't really find any great waves but it was a sunny day and we did come across a bit of a shore dump so i decided to get the housing out and have a play around.

Here's Paudie messing in the shoredump

Early Morning Fun

Had a great little early morning trip up to clare during the wk. Another sneaky little summer swell. Man it was great to be on it when it happened though as i hadn't been out in ages. Another pre 5am start but we got there well before the tide and were able to amble down and take our time getting ready, normally it's a mad sprint down and out which quite often means i get something wrong with my settings. I know everything i should do but i get too excited! what can i say. We were even out for about 30-40mins before the ol reliable turned up. It was my first time trying to swim in deep and shoot wide angle at a wave of consequence. I was pretty stoked with how i got on and only took one set on the head and avoided getting sucked over. Unfortunaly i didn't really get the goods that i thought i was getting when i was out there but that has me even more amped to get out and try again.

Big props to the man Dylan Buckley who got into a good run of waves and started charging some monsters with some sweet late take offs.

Here he is on one beaut, he makes it and is rewarded with "the barrel of his life".



Here's Hugh Galloway stalled and awaiting his curtain call




As per usual though the sets were dominated by the lidder's which apprently means bodyboarder, it's my new word of the day, thanks paudie ;) . Some ballzy drops and awesome barrels. It's crazy how little they don't make!

Steph


Shambles


Tom


Conor