Surfer Justine Dupont and Aileen's Wave in Ireland

On Sunday Frenchwoman Justine Dupont joined the tiny number of people who've surfed Aileens Wave in the west of Ireland. It crashes in under the Cliffs of Moher climbing up to 12 metres on its way as you can see in the video below.

A note with the video says: "The swell came courtesy of Hurricane Rafael, a fast moving system which shot a powerful beam of condensed swell in an arc around the Atlantic basin. The 21-year-old World Tour surfer travelled with the Billabong Adventure Division from her home in Lacanau, France to surf the big-wave spot.

In the over-subscribed and unquantifiable "best ever" category, this barrel has got to rank up there in pure heft with any tube ridden by a female surfer in Europe.

"That was an amazing day of surfing," Dupont said afterwards. "It was more than a session, it was a mission. From getting smashed paddling out to surfing that perfect beautiful wave, it was a day I’ll never forget."


Thanks to broadsheet.ie for showcasing this!

Surfer Justine Dupont and Aileen's Wave in Ireland

On Sunday Frenchwoman Justine Dupont joined the tiny number of people who've surfed Aileens Wave in the west of Ireland. It crashes in under the Cliffs of Moher climbing up to 12 metres on its way as you can see in the video below.

A note with the video says: "The swell came courtesy of Hurricane Rafael, a fast moving system which shot a powerful beam of condensed swell in an arc around the Atlantic basin. The 21-year-old World Tour surfer travelled with the Billabong Adventure Division from her home in Lacanau, France to surf the big-wave spot.

In the over-subscribed and unquantifiable "best ever" category, this barrel has got to rank up there in pure heft with any tube ridden by a female surfer in Europe.

"That was an amazing day of surfing," Dupont said afterwards. "It was more than a session, it was a mission. From getting smashed paddling out to surfing that perfect beautiful wave, it was a day I’ll never forget."


Thanks to broadsheet.ie for showcasing this!

Surfer Justine Dupont and Aileen's Wave in Ireland

On Sunday Frenchwoman Justine Dupont joined the tiny number of people who've surfed Aileens Wave in the west of Ireland. It crashes in under the Cliffs of Moher climbing up to 12 metres on its way as you can see in the video below.

A note with the video says: "The swell came courtesy of Hurricane Rafael, a fast moving system which shot a powerful beam of condensed swell in an arc around the Atlantic basin. The 21-year-old World Tour surfer travelled with the Billabong Adventure Division from her home in Lacanau, France to surf the big-wave spot.

In the over-subscribed and unquantifiable "best ever" category, this barrel has got to rank up there in pure heft with any tube ridden by a female surfer in Europe.

"That was an amazing day of surfing," Dupont said afterwards. "It was more than a session, it was a mission. From getting smashed paddling out to surfing that perfect beautiful wave, it was a day I’ll never forget."


Thanks to broadsheet.ie for showcasing this!

It's Pure Magic kiting over the waves

Every now and then I get to mix work with sport. I have a piece in this week's FIT magazine about kite-surfing, and spoke to Catherine Etienne, one of the few female riders in Ireland. That's Etienne in the pic below, with her part of the article underneath that again. 

And this is what I learned from her: 

On Dollymount Strand in Dublin, Frenchwoman Catherine Etienne explains the kite has to be at 12’clock on that semi-circle shape when you start. The kite hangs there – parked as Roche says – and only picks up power when you drop it down. Into the ‘power zone’, obviously.

The next lesson is just called ‘body-dragging’. Etienne says the key to having fun here is keeping warm.

“There are different thickness of wetsuit but generally people wear the 5mm all year round and in the winter add a neoprene vest underneath. In the summer the water can be quite warm so when it’s eight degrees like now, you don’t feel the cold as much as you think in the water,” she says.

Eight degrees – yes, welcome to an Irish summer. But she says the wind always blows and that’s what counts.

Etienne came to Ireland on Erasmus six years ago but fell in love with the winds on Dollymount and never left.

“It’s probably not the image of the Caribbean but it’s actually the perfect spot. Flat water, shallow water, good wind all year round and a very good community,’ she says, in the Pure Magic shop which doubles up as a meeting-place for Dublin’s riders and wanna-be riders.

One of the sports unwritten commandments is talking to other riders to find out about wind currents or water hazards. This gives a real communal feel to the sport says Etienne.

The third lesson is when you get introduced to the board. And this is where it gets fun.

Yes, lots of fun but lots of hard work too. Holding the kite upright requires solid core-strength, instructors tell you to relax your shoulders so the power comes from your core.

Your legs are working as hard as on a surf-board to stay balanced while your arms are at full-stretch against the wind. But don’t rush to the gym to load up on weights as Mother Nature expects high levels of flexibility.

And like most sports, the more you do the more you will build up the physical skills you need. Swimming is pretty important for beginners as you do spend a lot of time rescuing the kite and starting over … and over and over. 

Find out more about Pure Magic here. 

Wordless Wednesday

Inchydoney Beach in Cork  - Ladies in the water!

Pictures only on Wordless Wednesday

Visit the FLOW - for ladies of watersports

Amy Carter from ‘FLOW - For Ladies Of Watersports’ in England took some time out of her hectic week to tell us why the world needs more windsurfers.

Amy edits Boards magazine as well as working on her own website promoting women in watersports, but was a professional windsurfer until injury came knocking last year. She won two Formula Youth World Championships, and holds a number of British and European racing titles.

“I competed internationally from about 12 years of age, I grew up with windsurfing really,” she says. “There are lots of things to love about it. 

"It’s really challenging, you can’t pick it up straight away. But whatever level you get to, there is always something new to learn.”

Cornwall and the south-east of England are some of her favourite places to get out on the water, so it’s maybe a good thing that she’s recuperating in London she says – far away from temptation.

“I never forget about the water, but it’s easier here,” she says while explaining her shoulder injury. “It’s like any sport, when you get to obsessive levels where you do the same sport every day, you get injuries.”

Not that anything like surgery and up to six months of recuperation is going to keep Amy away from her boards… 

Why windsurfing?

“There is a complete feeling of freedom in windsurfing. When you plane, you can glide quickly over the top of the water instead of ploughing through it. That feeling when you first start going quite quickly, well it’s just hard to explain,” she says.

But like lots of other watersports, there is one drawback to being a woman in windsurfing – being a woman in windsurfing. Amy says she was often the only girl on the national squad and even now she estimates only about 10 per cent of professional windsurfers are female.

And what happens on FLOW ? 

That’s where “FLOW” comes in. Amy set up the website when she was working in Tenerife in Spain and she says the main aim is to encourage more women to take up all watersports. 

“It’s about role-models. I never wanted the site to be about me, it’s about getting women involved in the sport. We’ve had great feedback on the site, there is definitely more buzz about women’s windsurfing now which is positive,” she says.

Amy says there are more women’s only events taking place in the UK now, which she sees as a good thing to encourage beginners. And she’s happy to see some women’s only events taking place for professionals too as that means the numbers are slowly increasing.

Slowly … she says a British Windsurfing Association event which normally attracts three or four women managed to pull in 14 last year. So yes it’s four times more but still lots to do.

Is success all about the money?

Sponsorship is another tricky area she says. Getting small sponsors to give surfers a 10 per cent discount on equipment isn’t so hard she says, the problem lies in getting enough money to travel to events. Women can be stuck in what she describes as a Catch-22 where they don’t want to say No! to the small money but then sponsors think there is no need to give more.

Looking to the future, she says: “I would like to see more coverage of women in windsurfing and other watersports. It all comes down to money, there needs to be more videos and photographs of women.”

Pic from UK Windsurfing

You can read more about Amy and other British watersports stars on FLOW - For Ladies Of Watersports

Coming soon to a blog near you

A quiet blogging week due to a hectic off-line time, apologies to everyone who has popped in for a look.But there are some exciting interviews coming soon to a blog near you ...

Starting with interviews with the Irish rugby team - fingers crossed for a win tonight against Italy so they'll be in a good mood for talking - and Irish MMA fighter Aisling Day, as well as English windsurfer Amy Carter and the boxers behind American gym Striking Beauties. I'll be uploading some interviews I did for 'Irish Fighter' magazine as soon as the March issue hits the stands: South African fighter Ferial Ameeroedien - based in Dublin - and her stablemates Kelly Creegan and Frenchwoman Cecile Chemin.

These interviews and a few more including some print articles on funding for women's sport in Ireland will be trickling through in the next few weeks. Tomorrow night I'm taking part in a radio-panel discussing women's sports so if I can get a recording of that will upload it, should be interesting.

In the meantime have a great weekend, and enjoy this inspiring piece on women in sport from the International Olympic Committee!

Adventure Links in Ireland

Antrim Northern Ireland

There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes. That’s what my kayak-mad sister says whenever anyone mentions the water this time of year in Ireland is just a little chilly. Just a little you know.

And the people behind new Irish website AdventureLink would definitely agree with her. Stephen says the site’s aim is to open up the outdoors to people who don’t know where to start. It’s a pretty simple idea for a website, but seems to be working well.

And it saves on the hours we all seem to spend now trawling the internet looking for deals where before we would have just taken the first thing. “One of the key features is the easy access to all adventure links and tourism from every corner in Ireland, with the adventurer in mind. There are 44 areas of adventure activity, nine extra areas and we have sub-divided the country into seven regions,” says Stephen.

They have about 800 links up already – including this blog which is how I found them, thank you trackback – and cover pretty much anything you might like to try out. Plus he says their “long-term mission” is to encourage sustainable tourism. They’ve got links up to Leave No Trace and Rothar (um, that’s bicycle in Irish) as well as a few others.

So anyone feeling lazy, no more excuses! All details at Adventure Links

Beauty queens and kettlebells in Derry

There can’t be too many beauty queens entering pageants to motivate students in their bootcamp. But that’s what Aoife Grant said at the Face of Ireland competition recently … I was curious.

Turns out the former netball player studied Sport Science and runs bootcamps on the beaches around Derry in Northern Ireland. Taking a laid-back attitude to fitness, she says: “A lot of people try to do everything at the gym, they’re there first thing Monday morning, drinking wheatgrass and things. I try to help people to do what they can, be realistic.”

It’s refreshing to talk to someone in the industry who’s not completely focused on weight-loss, Aoife talks a lot about having fun and finding ways to make exercise meaningful instead of a chore to be fitted into the rest of your life. “When athletes have a drive, they think they can always be better, that’s important to have that in your life,” she says. “Whether it’s for health or vanity.”

Aoife says she works with sportspeople from GAA, body-building and even traditional Irish dancing as well as women just looking to get healthy.

I still didn’t get the beauty pageant idea until she started talking about the links between the “healthy eating” plans she makes and looks. “The bootcamps are a normal weekly class, so I try to take away any barriers (to getting healthy) by taking away the need to cheat … (we) give them a takeaway lunch, and a snack and because they’ve paid for it, they usually eat it.”

“I try to instill in them the idea that they look as healthy as they are,” she says.

More info on Aoife’s classes at Hourglass Bootcamp

Eurosurf in Bundoran, Ireland

Eurosurf 2011 is possible the only surfing competition this year to have been opened by a bagpipe band? 

Open to correction here but Saturday's parade in Bundoran, Donegal - below - leaves you in doubt where the contest is taking place. Surfer Easkey Britton walks past for Ireland along with Shauna Ward and body boarder Ashleigh Smith. (and some guys too) In all 13 countries are taking part according to their website, with about 160 surfers. Yesterday was the first day of competition. I can't find results yet anywhere but will update you during the week. More photos are here on the tournament FB page.  They're also showing Bethany Hamilton's Soul Surfer as part of the festivities, great to see that getting time.

The Chick Flick Wakeboarding

Talking to Melissa Ray this week reminded me of how hard it was to fit in MuayThai training with friends. She learns Thai on her day off, I used to head out to Lake Taco and try to wakeboard while my mates zoomed around the man-made lake. Fun, lots of fun. The Chick Flick is a doco written around female wakeboarders Dallas Friday, Amber Wing and a list of other great athletes. They make it look so easy but I've got the embarrassing photos to prove it's not quite so effortless. Read more about the film on The Chick Flick

How do you cope with learning things which are fun but super-hard to do?