The blow out

‘What the hell are you doing leaving Ireland a day before St Patrick’s day’ is what most people asked me and it’s also what I continually asked myself but I had my reasons, things had been good so far and I sort of didn’t want to ruin it so late in the trip and try and get home in one piece with no injuries. Although 10 minutes into what should of been a 14 hour drive home I heard an almightily bang and as I glanced into my wing mirror all I could see was sparks and bits of tyre all over the road. As I pulled over to access the damage I couldn’t help but laugh, What a massive ball ache to say the least, it was 10pm and I had given myself plenty of time to drive the 6 hours to the ferry which left at 9am, things should of been mellow but I wasn’t really planning this little scenario which is no biggie unless you haven’t got a spare tyre and bearings which of course I didn’t. So not wanting to leave the ski on the side of the road for fear some little tinkers might come along and help themselves neither being able to drag it home we slept in the front seats of the van just 10 minutes from our beds freezing cold. The next day I had to leave my mate Gentle Ben guarding it for 5 hours while I drove round trying to get a spare which wasn’t as easy as you might think. Felt sorry for poor Gentle he’d been having a bit of a shocking trip so far and Ireland wasn’t dealing him the best of hands so to speak so this was almost like icing on the cake, for me it wasn’t so bad yeah we missed the ferry yeah it took us nearly 36 hours to get home but I’d had a pretty amazing winter so something like this was pretty trivial although at the time it did feel like something was trying to tell me to stay for just a few more days.
Anyway home now which isn’t so bad is it.........

The bare chested burger eater at KFC

Look at our little house. It makes me a little bit sad, not only have I got to go home soon and back to work I’ve also got to tidy and clean it and try and leave it in a respectable state so there might be a slim chance I’ll be able to rent it again sometime. This little scenario wouldn’t take too long between 2 of us but my house mate Lyndon left me on me tod at short notice late at night due to a little ankle injury which he didn’t stop going on about, I’m partly responsible for this so to make myself feel better about the whole situation I sat with him in casualty for 3 hours and pushed him around in a wheel chair to get it x-rayed. To be fair he’s rubbish at cleaning anyway but the trouble is so am I.
Well I’m sort of solo, Gentle Ben had turned up for a few days and keep me company but I can’t expect him to do much tidying although he did clean the dishes yesterday and he came with me to the dump to get rid of Lyndon’s boxes that his boards turned up in.
I love Ireland and am truly gutted to be going, there’s so many reasons why it’s better than home, I could do some sort of list ‘for’s’ and ‘against’ or ‘positives’ and ‘negatives’ and I think the only thing that would be in the against or negative column would be that annoying fecking dog from next door which still barks at me constantly 3-4 times a day and shits all over our lawn. I have got one highlight though from the past 2 months which sticks out in my brain over all the waves, animals, good times and laughter. Last Wednesday I saw a fat guy eating a burger in the KFC bare-chested at 11am, it was pretty busy and not a single sole seemed to be looking at him oddly or thinking it was strange, he just stood at the table, top off with his massive fat guts out eating a Zinger meal. Fecking amazing hope I see him again before I go.

The Kitchen

Agh, involuntary groaning noises, look at the state of the kitchen and it’s defiantly Lyndon’s turn to do the washing up. Although he has hurt his foot and can’t surf so I should show him a little compassion but that doesn’t mean I’m going to wash his dirty dishes.
Had a very strange email the other day offering me gift vouchers if I did a product review from a cookware website, defiantly a scam i hear you say. ‘My name is Kate and I’m part of the Promotions Team here at www.CSNStores.co.uk . We have been seeking out high quality websites and blogs, gauging interest in doing a giveaway with one of our sites www.CookwarebyCSN.co.uk or www.allmodern.co.uk/ they sell a huge range of products including Le Creuset cookware apparently. Obviously they haven’t seen the state of my kitchen and the fact I have no interest in cooking, it could be an interesting review.
Jason Feast has been here the last week who coincidently is a dam good cook and we’ve been doing our best not to get any shots, it’s the first time I’ve ever met him and he’s a bloody nice bloke although slightly shorter than I expected. Doesn’t seem to mind the old dick chat either but we’ll see if it tips him over the edge after a few more days.

Annoying barking rabbit dog

Remember when I used to have those pants with fish all over them, I loved those pants. Used to call them my lucky pants, until I had that little incident in the hot tub that time at the pub then took them off and threw them at the moon. Evidently I never got them back and although felt a little embarrassed about the whole hot tub/pub/pant scenario but I was more upset that I actually managed to lose my fish pants.
Well Lyndon has exactly the same pair and today driving back from the surf he teased me by wearing only the said pants all the way home. It was like rubbing salt into an open gash, in fact I was thinking about my pants so much I completely forgot about the wheel clamp for the trailer and it wasn’t till we pretty much got home, Lyndon still in fish pants that I remembered. ‘Feck Lyndon, we forgot the clamp.’ It wasn’t even like a quick 10 minute drive back either as we’d been surfing miles away and it was a good hour to go back, plus the thing cost us nearly £90.
So in a slightly shitty mood pissed off about my missing favourite fish pants that I stupidly threw at the moon and now realising I’d left the trailers wheel clamp and the harbour which is over a hour away I get home and am faced with this. Stupid annoying barking rabbit dog which barks at me every day, 3 times a day and also everyone else who happens to pass by, but as the lady said ‘don’t be scared it won’t bite’ and ‘it’s only barking cause it known’s no one should be living there’.
Been here nearly 2 months now, got 1 more left. God I hate that dog.....

Mullaghmore Tow contest 20011

Did that tow contest at Mullaghmore the other day with the Big Red on the Red Bull, I had a bit of a shocker but as a team we managed to squeak in a 3^rd place overall and Al even got an award for best barrel which was a shock to everyone involved, even Al.
Was a epic event and good on Paul O’kane for getting it together, to be honest there was no real rivalry or competitiveness going down just really good vibes, everyone charging hard and pushing it, then when the contest was over we all got out and had a little group cuddle in the harbour with our tops off. Sounds gay I know but that’s what we do after every Mullaghmore session, So you could just say it was like any normal session but we only had an hour to get our waves and it cost 150 euro to enter.
I want to dedicate my 3^rd place to Leggey the bloke from Braunton who caught that fuck off massive fish and made the cut for the back page of the North Devon Journal. As you can see my trophies are sitting next to the signed framed copy he gave me for Christmas. Next year I’m going to win and then maybe I’ll make the back page just like Leggey, just hope he isn’t out fishing that week I do.

Stinking of piss

The surf was absolutely pumping yesterday so it was just a little bit annoying that I was out the back of Rooney Tyres and Exhaust in Bundoran with parts of the ski scattered around me having a nervous breakdown trying to piece it all back together with the help of the technician on the other end of the phone. It did that thing where it started on dry land but the second we put it in the water and I pissed in my wetsuit it wasn’t having any of it so we had to pull it out again and I spent the morning stressing and stinking of piss, which isn’t that unusual to be fair. The lad from Rooney’s tyres and Exhaust was a star for letting us use all his tools though, it’s a family run business but no relation to that football bloke Wayne, although I did shout ‘Roooooooooooooooooney’ ‘Roooooooooooooooney’ in his face once or twice in between asking for spanners and screwdrivers and he fecking loved it. Had to cheer myself up somehow as I was almost in tears over what I thought I was missing. To cut a massive scene of a day short I managed to get in the sea with about an hour or so of light to go, the plan was to paddle but with light fading and the way the day was going opted to tow a few just to make the most of it.
This is a reject shot of one of the bigger sets that came through in the short time we surfed, It sort of sums my day up really, blurry and out of focus and poor Gary wasn’t too happy either, we’re all putting the effort in but things aren’t always as straight forward as they seem and look, but there’s always next time.

Photo: http://www.potatobread.co.uk/

Prowlers paddle

You know it’s going to happen at some point and that’s all part of paddling but when it does it seems to take so long. I think I knew I was fecked about a minute before the set came, it’s that 50/50 scenario where the normal part of my brain is telling me to paddle out so I don’t get cleaned up but the slightly odd part is saying stand your ground because you want to be able to catch one of these buggers. Then there’s the realisation your definitely gunna get caught and no matter how hard you paddle and what direction you just seem to move nowhere then after you’ve dealt with the first wave there’s always a bigger heavier one behind. Course there is that’s life.
So the photo was taken by Gary McCall and I think this is either the 2^nd or 3^rd wave I took on the head while surfing prowlers the other day, I’d lucked in and managed to catch a couple before hand and was now playing chicken with myself, it ended in me getting a right old kicking, losing my board and luckily being rescued by Barry.
Recently I’ve been sleeping in my hoody and socks, no pants as ideally I’d like to sleep naked but the heating has broken and it’s too cold so I’ve compromised with myself and just sleep naked from the waist down, it’s good to compromise. This obviously has nothing to do with anything I’d just thought I’d get it off my chest.

Photo: http://www.potatobread.co.uk/

The arm waving hey technique

Awww bless him, look how happy and content little Lyndon looks. This whoever wasn’t the case early on when all you could see was fear and panic in his eyes.
How annoying is it when your car doesn’t start, it usually happens when you’re in a rush, late for work or urgently need to be somewhere. Then out of the blue and with no explanation your car just won’t start, It’s never done it before and quite possibly won’t do it again which makes it all the bit more tedious and annoying, Well that sort of happened to us the other day.
Floating out to sea beside a off shore bombie we’d been checking out, I was pressing START but all that was happening was the engine was turning over and  whining yet not actually sparking, no biggie really apart from the set of the day was loaming and we had drifted right into the line of fire.
‘It’s not starting’ I shouted to Lyndon as I turned everything off and re set the immobilizer in a small attempt to make it look like I know what I’m doing, still no joy just the woeful sound of the engine whining. ‘We’re fucked’ was Lyndon’s reply as he descended into a whole world of pain, panic and probably self questioning as the set became closer and it was an almost certain we’d get hit by it, then  bizarrely he stands up waving his hands above his head shouting ‘hey’ at the top of his voice. God knows who he was doing this too or even excepted to help in such short notice, maybe he was trying to confront and scare the waves off like you’re supposed to do when you’re faced with a wild beast. I wasn’t going to question him I just kept pressing START and was planning when to actually abandon ship and how fast and what direction I’d have to swim to get the fecking thing back, then almost like a miracle or someone playing a really bad joke she fired and the engine fully kicked in just in time for us to squeak over the shoulder of the first wave. Might have to take up that ‘arm waving hey technique’ next time I’m having engine troubles, seems to work wonders.

Sharing’s caring

When it comes to waves and surfing a saint on dry land can suddenly turn into a sinner, those selfish tendencies that all humans seem to have can come out and you tend to look out for number one. It can be tuff when you think someone’s getting more than their fair share of waves or being slightly snaky in the sea, who can blame anyone for wanting to catch as many waves as possible and getting the best ones at that.
The other nightmare is if you ever go on trips or missions with a few mates and everyone wants different things when deciding where to surf. I personally go for any right hander, ideally slightly bigger and barrelling but I’ll never turn down a slightly fatter point break either, it’s a given really as I’m natural footed and like getting barrelled. Some of my mates would be looking for something completely different and there’s nothing wrong with that but it just helps if you’re all singing from the same sheet when it comes to deciding on somewhere to surf.
So this is a photo of myself and Lyndon and  a perfect compromise yesterday as he likes getting pitted on lefts, also turns out we shared a little moment together when this wave came through, no sneaking, no hassling just a prefect split peak situation. Happy days.......

New Irish Cola

Mikey’s just arrived for a few days in the emerald isle, nice guy but not to be 100% trusted so all valuables and processions wanted are kept under lock and key. It’s not a racial thing it’s just I’ve learnt from my mistakes in the past when he lured me into a false sense of security and trust then when I was at my most venerable stole my flip flops pretty much from under my feet.
He’s come to do some filming which is kind of strange and I’m struggling to come to terms with it as whenever I usually spend any time with this thieving South African we’re in the sea together surfing and the oddest thing is that he hasn’t even bought a surfboard. He’s got a wetsuit though and I’ve told him that if we get some good clips we’ll go for a little wooden belly board together as a special treat as I know he loves ridding all sorts of water craft and to be honest is pretty talented at ridding them too, actually to be fair I’m not completely sure who should be filming who.
The best thing though is that he does seem to be enjoying this new Irish cola I’ve introduced him too and who can blame him.