Donegal Surf Comp

This weekends surf competition and training up north ended in disappointment just about all around. The plan was to run a training event in Tullan on Saturday with the 2008 european waveski champion Yannick Lausse but that didnt work out due to the lack of swell.

Since theres very little to do in Bundoran when theres no surf we decided to hit the road and finish the last two hours of the drive to Magheroaty while it was still bright. We arrived to small surf and a very high tide so we stocked up on beer and pitched tents in the dunes for the night.

In the morning the swell had picked up but so had the wind, and the tide was just turning, whice of course was one of the biggest spring tides in a long time. I won my first heat in the senior HP, which put me through to the final and onto judging duty for most of the afternoon. I had a heat off and then lost out to Mickey Barry by half a point in the IC straight final. He bought an IC boat recently and the extra practise is definatly showing on the water!

The waves and the tide were steadily dropping over the afternoon during the HP reps and all the wave ski heats leaving small, shallow, rocky closeouts for the Junior final. I surfed disappointingly and was left in 3rd in the end, just not able to find a wave that held up long enough to link a few turns together. Unfortunatly that was the last round we were able to run, leaving the HP and waveski finals not finished. The tide had dropped so low that the waves werent really surfable and someone was just going to hurt themselves if they tried. All that was left was to pack everything up and sit through the 5 hour drive back to Limerick!

Next up is the Irish Open in Easky in a few weeks, fingers crossed for good surf that weekend!