Surf Kayak and Waveski Irish Open

After one cancelled weekend in October due to the lack of surf, last weekend we finally managed to run off the Irish Open in brilliant surf on Easky Left in Sligo. We headed up on friday afternoon so that we'd have time to surf that evening When we got there the waves were big, choppy and onshore which would have been rubbish except for the fact that the wave faces were 3+ meters, which always seems to make things more fun! The few hours on the water that evening were great craic, especially cause its been so long since I was out in decent size surf. We spent the evening watching waveski videos and generally having the craic, and looking forward to the next morning since the forecast was sweet and only looking like improving as the day went on.

The next morning the surf had dropped, and the wind had died down and swung off shore, leaving us with perfect conditions for the competition. The surf was forecast to pick up in the afternoon and everyone was keen for a free surf so the comp was run off as quickly as possible. The first round of the waveski comp was first on the water, followed by HP, IC, waveski finals and then it was freesurf time. I was delighted with how the IC comp went, I eventually got the hang of surfing without fins again, got some sweet waves and ended up coming first! The HP didn't go so well and I only managed to come third behind Dessie and Gerry but sure theres always next year!

The full results from the comp are:
Waveski: 1st Marty McCann, 2nd Morgan O'Sullivan, 3rd Marc Taylor, 4th Dessie McGlinchy.

HP: 1st Gerry McGahey, 2nd Dessie McGlinchy, 3rd Eoin Keyes, 4th Anthony Coyne.

IC: 1st Eoin Keyes, 2nd Dessie McGlinchy, 3rd Anthony Coyne.

And a video from the waveski competition:


That afternoon we all headed out for a freesurf and, as promised, the surf kept building as the afternoon went on. I have no idea how big the sets were exactly since when they came along I wasn't hanging around to measure them but they were definatly something over 4 meters! Between difficult to make take offs and a few clean up sets that came through and caught everyone out of position there were a few heavy wipeouts had! The waves more than made up for it though and the afternoon was definatly the most fun I've had in a surf kayak in a long time! Unfortunatly no one got any video from the afternoon, the waves were breaking so far from the carpark that there was no chance of getting any decent footage with the cameras we had with us.

All these surf kayak events are open to anyone with a roll and theres a few club surf boats specifically for people to try out, if anyones interested in giving it a go then keep an eye on paddlesurf.ie for details about the next event and just show up or ask me for more info about getting started!