. He's recently been featured in a few mags and online articles surfing a monster reef called 'Aileen's' on the west coast with his mate, Blounty. They've been towing into 15-20ft bombs on their own and had just had an article published about their exploits in an Irish newspaper. John is driving the ski in this pic.
Last year they took a few Rip Curl chargers out there including Rusty Long who rode the biggest baddest waves but for the record it was the Irish lads that pioneered the place!
It's a serious wave so great to see two relatively unknown lads taking it upon themselves to buy a jet ski and tame it!
Read the Ripcurl article on Aileen's
There must be more plenty more 'Aileens' lurking out there... I saw so many good setups up North; it's only a matter of time before someone finds another XXL spot.
Fergal Smyth won the event becoming the Troggs Irish National Champion 2006 with Easkey Britton becoming ladies champ and Steve Burns winning the Masters.
We saw plenty of hot young rippers making the most of the difficult conditions so I'm sure we'll see some new Irish surfers breaking through onto the contest scene shortly.
We ended up surfing later on in the afternoon as it cleaned up on the incoming tide. The waves were in the 4-6ft range with a bit of power to them but a bit 'all over the shop'.
A handy rip took us out back pretty quickly which was a bonus as the paddle out looked a bit taxing!
Thanks to Andy Hill for this image of Mark @ Portrush in 2005.
I opted for the inside section and had some nice drops into a few fast wedgey waves on the single fin while my surf guide - Mark Patterson sat out back waiting for the 'behemoths' as he put it ;) He caught a couple of nice ones, eventually!
Finally I succumbed and paddled out to join him as the bigger sets became more frequent and I was getting bored of the beatings I was getting, inside!
Another big night followed...more stout...more dodgy Irish drinking establishments! I can honestly say, I've never drunk as much Guinness in my life and was getting slightly worried as I was definitely developing a taste for it.
The following day the wind had supposedly eased! Mmmm when the wind blows, it doesn't seem to stop in Northern Ireland!
We checked countless set ups and Mark showed me a few x spots that are relatively unsurfed. I won't be naming them here.
Heading over the mountain tops we suddenly encountered a full on snow blizzard - a proper white out with horizontal snow blasting the car and a scene outside resembling Lapland?!
The traction warning was flashing on the car as we gently skidded along but I felt completely reassured when Mark said "when these things go, they just go, there's no stopping 'em!"
The scenery was breath taking, that's one thing you can't take away from the Irish lineups - they all look picture postcard perfect and are very isolated with barely a soul to be seen.
En route we made a chowder stop to sample "the best chowder in Ireland!"
It was a bold claim but one that certainly lived up to it as we tucked in to a seafood bowl at 'Mcgrorys' - a dinky old pub with a great live music venue out back.
We checked the spot we'd surfed on Friday @ dawn and it was disappointing. There were waves but only around 2-3ft and not a lot of shape. Convinced we could score better, we drove on..
Travelling out to West Donegal we made a stop @ 'Boogie Mans'. It has 4 breaks and some serious cliffs. We didn't surf it, not many have. The boogieman lives here and most of the locals don't like surfing the spooky spots.
Mark and Josh mentioned they'd surfed it with some Aussies who showed them a nice rip to get out back on a chest to head high day.
Apparently it holds a clean 20ft! and breaks for hundreds of yards, with corduroy lines filling up the entire bay. There are 4 distinct breaks here and an almighty rip when the tide turns.
People have died here swimming etc so the place has a bad voodoo - you'll never find a crowd here.
Pretty much all the breaks had a wave of some description, even totally sheltered spots had a clean 1ft wave in places. We'd opted for a spot; I'll call 'Mr T'.
A picturesque beachie with a reef at one end around a corner, perched under a big mountain with menacing low cloud.
The beach wasn't great - 2ft on sets with a howling offshore and not a lot of power but it was about the best we'd seen for a while.
We were waiting on 'Oregon Josh' and Nick who produces the infamous www.skellington.co.uk website Dedicated to the N.I surf scene and his compadres. Nick loves a 'craic' and has a strange miniature bear for a dog that loves to 'hug' your legs as you wander around his kitchen.
I still maintain he was a bit randy (the dog, not Nick!) but I digress...
Josh is a man mountain from Oregon who has proudly erected a free standing surf rack in honour of his substantial stick collection.
I saw lots of weird things going on especially with his wife Carey's board from the states - a 'Walden' fun shape with distinctly concaved rails on the underside and long board tri fin setup. I've never seen rails like it...you really had to see it, to believe it.
I don't think I've ever seen so many Longboards in one mans garage. I think he must have at least four, plus his short boards and assorted sticks in various states of repair. I was quite envious of his shaping bay...
I had the full tour and we talked a bit of surf while Mark did his best to break his legs on a long skateboard out front.
By the time the boys had arrived, the wind (within 5 minutes) had completely changed direction and gone northerly - dead onshore.
The chilly wind instantly transformed small but surf able beachie into 1ft onshore slop so it was time to leave.
We hit the road again and spied another reef pushing in about 2ft+ but it wasn't pretty. There are 2 reefs here which on a classic day connect up ensuring super long rides through to the beach on classic days. We ended up calling it a day.
My time was up, it was only 4 days but I felt like I'd been away for weeks!
The hospitality was first class. I was made to feel really welcome by complete strangers, I can now call friends.
Big thanks to Rdio Foyle DJ - Mark Patterson, Richmond (a 77yr old mime artist /house guest from NY!) Josh & Carey, Mick, Nick, Shamus, Ghandi, Square head, Neb, big John and everyone else I met while surfing or having a stout in 'Sandinos'.
I shall return!
