Tea time sessions...

Ricky my new housemate has been out surfing with me 4 or 5 times since we moved in. He's gotta be one of the most confidant and fastest learners I've ever seen. Last night was his first night outside of the local and another climb in the learning curve.

Lady Longboarder

Driving

Teatime hack

Went for a few waves yesterday evening after uni. Seems like everyone was enjoying the teatime/ post work session before the light starts to fade. Unfortunately the light was already gone by the time I got out of the water to take a few snaps, leaving my only resort to take a few in black and white.

Moving...

Been some surprisingly good waves and weather over the weekend
and some stunning sunsets with the odd glassy wall at the local.

Moved back up to the North Coast late last week to start my PhD. Lack of internet access has meant I haven't been updating as regularly as I usually do but its damn good being back. 4 sessions in 4 days has totalled a mighty 8 miles of driving, compared to the minimum of a 60 mile return journey per session when I was living in Derry. The local hasn't exactly been firing but at same time I haven't been finding it anywhere near as fustrating as I did a couple of weeks ago!

Wobbly rights (pt II) and some afternoon delight....

Afternoon delight

Shared some short frustrating peaks earlier in the week that were very similar to nearly a year ago...

Yours truly. September singlefin loving.

Awog bottom turn

Air Aaron (minus the board)

Another left in context.

Meu amigo peludo

Horse v Adam.

Had a short frustrating session on Monday sharing some super short low tide peaks. Combined with last weeks sketchy session I've been feeling pretty apathetic and lacking a lot of confidence about my surfing. And whilst today my surfing was still far from where I want or where it should be, I began to solely concentrate on what I should be doing when I'm out there. Having Fun. And true enough as I loosened up mentally so too did my surfing. Demonstrating to me once again that most of my frustrations and inabilities are to do with whats going on upstairs rather than underneath my feet.

(Cheers to Ads again for the shots of me and Aaron!)

Day Tripping...

Yours truly enjoying to be out again...

The Blondie Bro.

Three Amigos

Marty looking for some fish

He was getting there though

But surfing a 6'2 and 6'6 on your first surf is a steep learning curve

Shorty got low...

(Thanks Anne and Ads for the shots!)

Played tourguide on a wee trip up North today with the cousin, her boyfriend Martin, the bro and his lady.Took Marty for his first ever surf en route too. Not easy on sub 7 foot boards but he seemed to enjoy giving it a whack. Despite being tiny t'was fun getting out for the first time in three weeks. Was starting to feel the land locked blues in Africa. Was also my first time having a sesh in the "shorty" I made and was really impressed by the warmth and extra flex. Definitely be giving it a few more sessions before the water temp drops...

Fin Fun...

Moody skies and building swell...

The banks were good and thankfully only got better as the swell got bigger

Arrived fairly this evening hoping that some of the south westerly swell had wrapped round the coast. We arrived to some small perfectly formed peelers which i duly enjoyed leashless on the singlefin. However as the tide pushed and the anticipated swell filled in things became alot more fun, the impending darkness being our only downfall. Aaron was looking really good on his 6'8 tonight too. He had his tail up and was throwing a bit of spray especially when I happened to be paddling back out on the shoulder. Buzzing mate!

In the garden...

Decided to take the lower legs of an old winter suit tonight in the hope of some warmer sessions this summer

I conveniently remembered from an old Surfers Path article that wetsuit off-cuts make awesome beer holders

Don't think I've ever actually posted a picture of my quiver. From left to right 6'6 singlefin, 6'2 twin keel fish, 6'0 quad, all made by Escape surfboards.

The current quiver and current banner

Anything but three

Enjoying some unexpected evening rays...

First of the summer sessions...

Back lit line.

Getting down...

Cheating 5 (Pity about the lack of focus...)

Today officially marked the beginning of summer, both in regards to the weather picking up and me back surfing from home. Being based 24 miles from my closest wave compared to 1.4 miles during term time always changes things up abit. So due to the decent weather and what looks like the last bit of swell for a while the Awog and I packed up after work and hit the closest and least crowded wave we could. Fortunately we were greeted by some fun rights with only one guy out (pictured above), which we enjoyed long after the sun had set. Tonight was also the first time I'd surfed the fish with the new fins on. Really did make such a difference. The substantially smaller size makes the board feel alot looser and alot easier to throw into turns. Gonna be fun getting to know it alittle better!

Unanticipated action...

Didn't expect to see any sort of a pulse in the water this morning

Sweeping up...

'loadsa fun' rights...

Singlefin love

The building clean and glassy conditions turned abit scrappy as the afternoon wore on

Afternoon surf check...

Didn't expect too see much today but was pleasantly surprised by watching a couple of pulses come through when pulling up in the carpark. Wasn't huge but conditions curiously built despite the forecasts and between showers some seriously glassy waves were on offer. The odd set even rumbled through that was big enough to force a couple of serious ice-cream headaches (water strangely seemed alot colder today) and a wee pummeling onto the sandbar!

Confessions of a small wave surfer?

Was a heck of a lot bigger than expected

Hooking it up...

Not quite on the same scale as the previous nights surf

Last night's accommodation

Shaun looking on...

Looking at the charts I couldn't get a certain somewhere out of my head yesterday so the Abomb and I jumped in the wagon and go have a look see. Couldn't believe the size of the swell and the amount of guys out when we got got there though. As watched and took a few snaps my excitement turned to unease. Watching those waves and the guys on them I felt completely out of my depth. That the boards on top of the car were just were for effect, that perhaps confessions of a surfer should maybe be confessions of a supposed/small wave/inadequate surfer... Eventually we left feeling dejected and looked for something abit more manageable and fortunately we scored and surfed for another few hours again this morning. It was far from the pictures above but it felt good and brought a smile to our faces and not to sound cliched but is that not what its about...

Whatever the story confessions of a surfer remains and hopefully before too long I'll grow myself a pair and surf some waves I can currently only dream about.

Late night slide...

Evening glass at the local.

Ice cold glass. "Mr Muscles" and "Rear of the Year" giving it stacks at last nights formal.

Had a couple of quick waves before dark tonight at the local. Chest high, glassy and mellow. Would've been darn fun a longboard and made me wish I had headed down a bit earlier...

Unexpected finless fun...

My first sight of todays swell. Clean, well shaped but not a lot of size to it. Headed round the corner instead to find something a bit bigger.

After an hour or so in the water I foolishly set the board on top of the car forgetting it was blowing pretty hard, resulting the single fin becoming a zero fin complete with a few scratches.

Every clouds got a silver lining though. Turned out that small clean waves are perfect for a couple of hours of finless fun...

Observations for a Dissertation...

Beach state observation site #6 (small but would've been fun on the singlefin)

West of Site #3 (Strong onshores but still worth a go)

Access problems

Left the parents round 6 to catch low tide and make some beach state field observations for my dissertation. 250 miles of driving, 8 sites observed and 100 odd photos. Resisted the temptation to bring a couple of boards despite last weeks anti-climax (Only got out one day after an anticipated and hyped "week of surf") and ended up doing some mind surfing instead. Remember the North West Surf Clubs Spring Classic this weekend in Ballyhiernan. Looks like a bit of a wild forecast but I'm always told they're great events!