Surfing’s not immune from change, and this issue we’re concentrating on the changes happening in, on and above the water, as we head for the Mentawais with Jordy Smith, Dusty Payne and Laurie Towner on a quest to stomp manoeuvres never landed before. We head north and find a bunch of Irish surfers taking the sport into realms never seen on the Continents, and jump on a plane to a warm island paradise to get as deep as we can in the Pacific.
If that ain’t enough to steam your dim sims we’ve chucked in the “Shades of Indo” DVD – if this doesn’t get you pumped to take advantage of all the cheap flights to Bali we’re seeing at the moment we don’t know what will.
Insane Big Barrels in Ireland
Ferg mental Photo: Mickey Smith
Stepping Up - Dedicating the darker months to heavy waves in Atlantic Ireland, a feature from the latest issue of ASL.
At face value, Atlantic Ireland is a land of extreme contrast. Where old and new are forced together with barely any middle ground, visibly awkward in each other’s presence. Where you can fill your embarrassingly flash jet ski at a petrol station while an ol’ pard on a horse-drawn cart ambles past, laughing. Where beautiful, ancient stone houses lie empty and crumbling on the same plots of land as rushed, flimsy looking toy-town new homes. Where your bank balance bleeds pints daily, where tractors become transport, and your inner resolve hardens the louder the wind howls.
Tom Lowe mans up way out the back on the Aileens boil. Three waves later a stray lip dislocated his left arm. Photo: Mickey Smith
Time to tow Photo: Mickey Smith
Sometimes life has a sense of urgency to it, and this past winter felt like it had a kind of nervousness, twitching up under its skin. Something was definitely in the air. Even the elements couldn’t make up their minds. It was cold, skitzy, temperamental weather at its most unpredictable. You’d wake to sunshine burning the retinas blind, only to be swallowed the next second by cauldron black fronts. Chaotic North Atlantic weather gets my blood boiling every time.
Morgs mental Photo: Mickey Smith
Five years ago, the first sessions at ‘Aileens’ changed the face of surfing in Ireland. During the long cold winters between now and then, a huge difference in knowledge, desire and focus has shifted the local approach to heavy waves here. With occasional inspiration from the few hardy visitors we've had passing through, the gang of misfits committed to riding these waves have been weathering and riding the storms whilst quietly pushing things further. Session by session, season by season, gaining confidence to the point where all sorts of mad situations are unfolding at sea.