If everybody had an ocean
Across the USA
Then everybody’d be surfin’
Like California-a
You’d see ‘em wearing their baggies
Huarachi sandals too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin’ USA
(The Beach Boys, 1963)
As children, going to the beach only meant one thing, Tramore.
Tramore – sand, sea, and sandwiches, ice cream, candy floss and bumper cars.
It’s Ireland, you always had to have a B plan for when it rained and there is only so much of sand in your sandwiches you can take. Countless instructions to be good and not go in to the water past your knees or we wouldn’t get an 99.
My father would pick a Sunday there were no important GAA matches and would announce the trip on Friday. My mother would do the planning, packing and refereeing that day as a clatter of kids clambered over each other and into the back seat of the Anglia, Cortina or Hillman Hunter. ‘If ye don’t stop, I’m turning around and going home’ our father would faintly threaten.
We knew he never would no matter how much we argued and taunted each other in the back. Somewhere around Kilkenny our mother’s patience would give and she would tell us we were worse than Baloobas.
Songs would crank out of an 8-track tape recorder on the front dash – Big Tom, the Carpenters, John Denver. My parents were cool and no matter how much sun cream my mother piled on us we always ended up with red necks. Endless Summer.
This is the part in the film where they say, 20 years later but in my case its fast-forward 40 years. Where in the name of God did they go?
While Irish surfing is now officially celebrating its 50th birthday, the most unlikely Laois Surf Club is marking its 15th. They said it couldn’t be done and at first most people thought it had something to do with surfing the internet.
I’m not sure of the reasons why the Laois Surf Club was formed. It has something more to do with the Beach Boys than Big Tom. There are probably as many reasons as the 20 or so people who turned up in PJ Kavanagh’s Wrens Nest Bar in Portlaoise. Still the unofficial headquarters of the most land-locked surf club in the world.
Fifteen years on and still going strong after Nigel Keane put out the word in the Heritage Hotel leisure centre that there was going to be a meeting down in PJs to start a surf club. Niall Kavanagh, a mighty man in the water, took up the challenge as Club Chairman and with him at the helm the club flourished with countless trips, coaching, competitions, events and great music gigs.
Today, Steve Kidd our adopted Kiwi, keeps things ticking over. There was a New Zealander involved at the outset too as James Russell, who worked with me in the newsroom of the Leinster Express, had always threatened to go on a road trip. James (now successfully writing children’s books) had a funky short board with Maori writing on it had not only surfed back home but also in Indonesia and the Philippines and could really handle himself in the water. I can still barely swim.
We hit Mayo for the weekend. I bought a crock of a second hand board in a fishing tackle shop in Westport, nicknamed it The Whale (it’s still around as the Club mascot) and we headed for Carrowniskey Strand for my first ever surf. Nearly killed myself.
Now don’t let that or the woefully terrifying experience of Scottish surfer Matthew Bryce this week put you off. He is grateful to be alive after drifting over 20km on his board for 32 hours before being rescued.
Jockey Mick Fitzgerald famously once said that winning the Grand National was better than having sex, well surfing definitely is. In my case the ride on a good wave certainly lasts longer.
Tramore, or in surfing parlance, T-Bay is the Laois Surfers ‘home base’. That’s where we learned to surf, introduced others to surfing and encouraged and took childrren for their first lessons. The first and most important part of surfing is the lingo and how to look the part. A big part of that look is the tunes. The Beach Boys harmonies and their three-minutes of magic will never ever be surpassed; Jack Johnson is super cool and let me introduce you to Galicia’s finest, The Kanaloas.
Then there is the gear. No, silly, I don’t mean your board and wet suit, I mean your shades, T-shirt, hoodie and sandals – Billabong, Rip Curl and Patagonia are all about looking the part. It’s vital to look cool.
Then you can get your board and wet suit. At first always rent and there are plenty of places to do so in Tramore or Lahinch, Ireland’s self-proclaimed Surf City and probably the best go-to destination for regular surf on a safe beach and plenty of places to hire the gear and take lessons. (I recommend Ben’s Surf Clinic, a good outfit). If you stick at it you will need to invest in a wet suit (and for enthusiastic all year round surfers, boots and gloves for the cold Atlantic waters). By contrast this Wednesday in Lahinch the conditions were idyllic and ‘LA Hinch’ could have been California with 22 degrees sunshine, 7ft waves and a stiff offshore breeze. The place was packed.
Surf boards? At first hire a safe, reliable and guaranteed to have fun foamy. Second, if you are going to buy, there is great value in a second hand board as so many people take up surfing and get fed up after the first winter. After that, surf boards come in all shapes and sizes. My own personal favourite is my 9’6’’ longboard, affectionately known as the Hall Door – it has to float with me on it!! A good board can set you back anything from €300 to €1200, but if you mind it, will last a lifetime.
The beauty of surfing also lasts a lifetime and would take a lifetime to explain. First, there are the lifelong friendships that are forged and apart from the fantastic people you meet, there are the fantastic places. Laois Surfers have by now surfed every break in Ireland, the usual spots and the secret places. Laois Surfers Making Waves our slogan (and super cool logo designed by Penhouse!!).
Laois Surfers are still going strong, 15 years on and have surfed everywhere from Achill to the Azores, Bunmahon, Biarritz and Buzios in Brazil. It’s mostly to Lahinch, Inch or Inchydoney, but my own personal favourite of them all remains Rossnowlagh.
Rossnowlagh is a place of pilgrimage for Laois Surfers, home of the Inter Counties and not to be missed annual trip.
The beauty of surfing is that if I can surf, anyone can; all beach boys and girls, from 9 to 90. I can still barely swim, but in my head I can surf.
It’s all in the head.
Surfing is great for the head. It’s also good for the heart and soul. An all year round soundtrack tonic, better than any tablets.
The founding father of modern Hawaiian surfing, Duke Kahanamoku once said: “Out of water I am nothing”. For me it’s the opposite, in the water, I know I am nothing. But then even world champions like Kelly Slater and Mick Fanning will say, the best surfer is the one who is having the most fun.
If that’s the case, well then, I’m in the top ten.
It mightn’t look like much of a wave to you … but it’s carrying me and Laois Surfers are still making waves fifteen years on.
Watch this video in Lahinch shot just this week.
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