Some Reflections of Irish Surf Experiences in the Season of St. Patrick:
This video features some sights and a bit of surf I got on the Emerald Isle over the course of some different trips. After a few experiences there one learns that surfing with the wind and weather is something you gotta get used to in those parts, which turns out to be necessary in other unusual places where I have also gotten to get a bit of surf, such as: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, and Canada. The wind and weather just comes with the territory if you want to surf in those places.
While traveling in Ireland back then, we were visiting sights like a little bitty church out in the country, which St. Patrick built with his own hands (unlike the touristy one in Dublin he had absolutely no connection with). We had to make a mad dash across an active airport runway, and then a hike through some bushes to get to that off-the-beaten-path ancient little sight!
On one trip there, I was surfing at a place called Bonduran, a classic left point that is one of the best Irish waves and is reputed to rival Mundaka as one of the best waves in Europe (I've caught a few waves at Mundaka, and Bonduran is right up there with it.)
I got myself a few tubes and other super fun waves there at Bonduran, but no footage as it was raining cats and dogs. But that is why Ireland is so green as rain will just show up any ole time!
While I was surfing Bonduran, I kept seeing a guy that surfed like Kelly Slater up the point a ways--I got used to seeing Slater surf in person back in the day when I surfed for Quiksilver and they would have him down in Newport Beach at times--however, it seemed so random that he would be in Ireland so I thought, "Nah, that couldn't be him, just another Slater-Imitator."
The next day the surf was blown out and I was in a surf shop in Bonduran talking to the guy who ran and owned the
shop--turned out he had worked with Quiksilver to fly Slater over from mainland Europe to Bonduran in a helicopter for the firing Irish surf of the moment--so it was Slater after all.
They filmed some footage for an Irish surf movie in spite of the drenching rain because, if you can afford a helicopter, you can also afford some pretty decent filming equipment too. It always blows my mind how big Quiksilver got, as I remember the days when I hung about the tiny little office up off Superior Avenue, hoping to get more free board shorts and stuff from Danny Kwok. Kwok was like the candyman shelling out occasional freebies to all the team riders. That small office started very humbly in the industrial area by all the surfboard makers in Newport. When I was walking down the Champs-Elysees in Paris, I bumped into a Quiksilver shop on that ritzy strip of the Parisian boulevard and I was flabbergasted at how big they had become.
Anyways, the surfer from the shop in Bonduran, Ireland, Richie Fitzgerald, made a movie about Irish surfing that he was telling us about as we hung around the shop the day after that epic session at Bonduran. I think he may have just visited the Blarney Stone because he had "the gift of gab" going. The surf was blown to smithereens that day, with even more wind and rain than usual, and there was nothing anyone could do except wait out the storm and chat. He was stoked to tell us all about a movie he was making called "Waveriders" which is about the roots of Irish surfing.
It was fun to see that movie after it finally came out having met one of the main producers. It turned out to be a pretty good flick on Irish Surfing.
Well, those were some fun experiences along the way on the ole Irey Coast and along the Euro Hippie Surf Trail.
Our own short little video we have here has some Irish scenes and surf which accompanies the song “Celtic Cry” that is based on St. Patrick’s supernatural mission call, which I wrote while traveling through Ireland on different trips there.
Anyways, have a look at our video here: https://youtu.be/CwhRknFbIhA
(If you would be interested in reading about how St Patrick’s life can be an inspiration in these dark and distressing days, or are interested in knowing more about St. Patrick, you can go here.)
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