Derry Dawnie...

Back in Derry for the weekend visiting the folks and decided to head out for an early sesh with the bro, Aaron and Luke before they went to work. Was empty early but by the time Adam had a surf and grabbed the camera it had filled up...

Yours truly (though a few inches of hair shorter) coming from the the bottom...

and sitting off the top!

Kildare come Inishowen man, making the most of his morning before real life begins...

Pulling out and dropping in...

Luke and Aaron coming back up the beach from an apparently "far bigger, far better wave". The grass is always greener boys, but Lukes rye smile tells me there may have been some truth to the tale...

Aaron and his trusty...

For all you Eagle eyed Tonnta readers out there you may notice I've got three different spellings of my name in the latest issue, Thom Smyth, Thom Smythe and Tom Smyth. Well here I am again, not quite making it...

Luke going left on the bendy Bic. (Just take a closeup at the nose of the board!)

Bump!Another wave, another Westbay

Dropping in...

The crew and the trusty overloaded fiesta. Massive thanks to the bro for cutting short his sesh to run in and grab the camera to give us some pics. Nice one Bruva!

The Beast Awakens...

East the beast awakened yesterday with a 20ft swell @ 13 secs. Not bad for July!

Lee trying to get round the corner

Looking on...

John getting her out and round

En route...

Coiled...

Sprung! John of the top.

Good crowd out but still plenty of emptys...

Fins and Flags. Summer in Portrush...

On a knee and in the pocket

Awok retiring for another day...

Escape to the North West...

The combination of a decent north-westerly swell, westerly winds and a free weekend led Aaron, Steveo and myself out west to find the promise of waves in some easterly headlands. A few waves were had on Friday night but it was Saturday's forecast that had Steveo pointing out to see...

Après-surf midnight Barbeque...

Saturday morning. The wave thats elusiveness inspired the trip, remained elusive and was categorically not doing its thing...

It soon became clear that the swell hadn't turned up as expected. Friday nights spot was even smaller than the night before and so the search began...

A few miles and a headland later some windswept rights were found...

The boys wasted no time getting suited and booted...

Guns don't kill people, currents do. (Check out the bullet hole below the A)

Aaron beneath the cliffs...

As the morning went on the swell kept growing too...

Steveo throwing buckets on a small wan...

and trying to the beat the section on something a little bigger.

The exploration of Irish mountains and molehills...

Awog on a wave that always looked like a closeout but went on forever...

Whitewater floating...

Midface on a green'un

After getting some waves we started making our way back east and home but couldn't help but take a final detour to one last spot we thought would have a wave. The view from over the dune...

Going right through the Ammophilia...

While Aaron decided to enjoy the waves from the dune and I ponced about with a camera...

Stevesky spent his afternoon pulling into as many little shorebreak closeouts he could find.

So much so that I could even make a collage from it. Thomas Smyth presents Stevey's Guide to Pulling (in).

Nothing ventured, Nothing gained...

There wasn't much a doing locally Saturday morning so Aaron, Steveo and myself decided to put the boards up top and hit the road.

Some unexpected weather caught a few off guard...
The few behind the windscreen and between the hedges

After checking a couple of beachbreaks which were clean but tiny we stayed on the flats hoping something was a doing

Rocky Right

but Aaron unimpressed...

Back on the road

and a North-west left nearly but not quite doing its thing

With time running out and not a wave surfed we again hit the road with the thought of a certain spot in mind. A view of the pigs back en route...

Stiff offshores, a set of small but clean lines, sunshine and crystal blue water was enough to set the boys hearts racing and Aaron's legs running over one last dune...

The gold over the hill. Far from macking but after a day of driving it was more than worth getting in for, especially Steve who was buzzing to be surfing (and ripping!) a wedging left again no matter how small...

The locals wishing us good Baaaaaaaye!