Irish Surf News

Portrait of Irish Surfing

“Empty cold water barrels and pints of Guinness” – T’is the Ireland that the global surfing community has heard much of these last few years. Waveriders, a feature Irish surfing film released tomorrow in cinemas nationwide looks to lay it down the way it is today. The Guinness exists! It is cold! The waves can be incredible. Slater dispels the myth however that you’re in for countless epic surf session alone with your mates. Ireland is very much on the map (as the surf spots section of the new waveriders website proves!). Its become notorious for big wave surfing too. AIB’s recent ad featuring Aileens, not to mention the endless stream of print media coverage locally and internationally, has Ireland blowing up. Irish surfing is now defining and differentiating itself from the mainstream. It’s raw, it’s challenging, and as Ritchie Fitz says “Good things come to those who wait”. As I see it, tourist surfers are resetting their expectations of the quintessential Irish surf trip. They are less so virgin bounty hunters as they are the new wave of extreme adventurers with an eye for unharnessed North Atlantic power, and a sense of timelessness that Ireland and its’ people can still instill, even if they have to look a little harder these days.