Ireland's west coast the new hotspot for 'big wave' surfers
Dan 'Mole' Joel watches from a jet ski as South African pro surfer Duncan Scott rides a 50-foot wave at Aileens off the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare yesterday
Monday December 10 2007
Surfers riding giant waves off Ireland's west coast were yesterday likened to 'Polar explorers' in the breakthroughs they are making in big wave surfing.
'Big wave' surfers from around the world are descending on Ireland to surf 60ft waves off the Clare, Sligo and Donegal coasts and the maker of a new Irish surf movie, 'Seafever', Ken O'Sullivan yesterday paid tribute to those risking their lives to conquer the massive waves.
The Lahinch-based film maker said: "These guys, John McCarthy, Duncan Scott, Dave Blount, Al Mennie and Dan 'Mole' Joel, to mention just a few, are to the forefront in exploration of big wave surfing. They are like the modern Polar explorers in the new ground they are breaking in surfing. The potential dangers for these surfers are enormous, but they are incredible in terms of the knowledge they have and the preparation they put into it".
Boost
Mr O'Sullivan said that surfing is also providing a massive 'socio-economic boost to Ireland's west coast over the winter'.
He said: "Seaside towns such as Bundoran and Lahinch would've been very quiet places during the winter before surfing became popular in the last few years, and now they have vibrancy and a tourist season during the winter."
An IT recruitment consultant, Mr O'Sullivan made the movie over the past two years "using up all my spare time" and his own financial resources.
Mr O'Sullivan shot around 85 hours of film, 84 hours ending up on the cutting floor, to deliver the slickly-edited, independently-made movie, complete with jaw-dropping footage of surfers surfing the Aill na Serracht wave off the Cliffs of Moher.
Mr O'Sullivan said: "I must have been at the Cliffs 60 to 70 times and went there 20 times to catch a winter sunset shot. We got it, but in the end, it didn't make the final cut".
The film tells the story of Irish surfing throughout the seasons. According to Mr O'Sullivan: "The story begins in the early 1960s with Kevin Cavey, the founding father of Irish surfing,with lots of archive footage and interviews with the early pioneers and their rudimentary equipment such as 14mm dive suits and kitchen gloves".
The 1972 Euro Surf championships, which were held in Lahinch, are also covered.
A trailer of the movie can be viewed on the web at www.seafever.ie.
- Gordon Deegan
