On this bank holiday weekend I did my first trip with Tarrumòbil, the well-aged Toyota Corolla I just bought from a colleague who is moving out of the country.
It's so nice to be free to travel around wherever I want, whether it is to have a surf solo session at a reef break or to join my friends for lunch at the beach bar after their surf session.
On Friday I left the office and headed backt o Dalkey to pack my car. Surfboard, wetsuit, sleeping bags, blankets and food. I took of a little after 7pm and drove to Sligo. Only a few minutes earlier I was planning on going to Kerry instead, because the surf forecast looked slightly better over there. However, some friends were gonna be in Sligo and I figured that, since it was the first trip on my car, I'd go to the area I'm most familiar with and enjoy my friends company in the water or outside.
First session: Easky left all over the place
Friday I car-camped in Easky and I surfed Easky left in the morning. The first few surfers went out while I was going to buy some coffee and was debating whether to drive to Enniscrone instead. By the time I came back, drank my coffee and got changed, everyone'd come back in, so I had a solo session. The waves were between should and overhead high. Some looked really nice, but they were breaking all over the place and there was a strong current to the right, which made it hard to make it all the way to the left of the lineup and wait there for the best waves. Chris got changed while I paddled out and he was very nice stick around in case something happened to me (I was surfing on my own).
When I came in Chris informed he was joining our friends from the East Coast surf club at Aughris for a mellower surf. I also headed there afterwards, but I didn't go out because the waves didn't look too good. We all had lunch at the Beach bar and then split into two groups to go surf in different areas.
Second session: Memorable sunset surf
Chris and I had a memorable session in Enniscrone, both thanks to the waves and the magnificent sunset of which we became spectators. Thank god we didn't leave without getting wet, as we were about to! Enniscrone is always hard to judge for us: looking at it from the hill that leads to the harbor, the downhill perspective is a real teaser. Looking at it from the beach, the waves are so far that it's very hard to tell how big they are, unless someone is actually catching the set waves (often times, the are plenty of beginners who are hanging out closer to shore, so there is no reference to assess the size of the waves).
In Enniscrone that night, not only I caught many very nice, long right-handers, but I just can't begin to express how awesome the sunset was! On the left hand side, a big cloud covered the sun but let some rays through, softened as in a hazy morning. An intense orange color tinted that haze and the top part of the cloud. On the right hand side, above the summer houses, the cute white cotton clouds became dark gray at the bottom and bright orange on top. That lasted awhile. Then, as the sun continued to set, the cotton clouds lost any orange trace, merged into bigger clouds and remained gray. The left hand side was still spectacular. I wanted to stay in the water until dark, but I caught so many waves that my arms lost the strength needed to paddle and to push down the surfboard at take-off. I caught one more head-high, nicely peeling wave into shore, riding it smoothly up and down the face, watching other surfers paddle back out smiling at me: What a nice ride and what a nice session at Enniscrone.
Overnight in Strandhill.
