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The Tramore Open was on this weekend so we loaded up the boards early and for once, headed east. Things started looking bad around Dungarvan when a light sea mist set in. By the time we pulled up at the waterfront in Tramore we could only hear the ocean, out there somewhere in front of us in the murk and gloom. Ther were no other surfers around so we cruised around for a while until we found the local surf shop to ask what the story was. Oh, the competition's moved 8 miles out the road to Annestown, the hairy shopkeeper told us. A few wrong turns and many minutes later we reached Annestown to find the competition well under way on a beach only 100 meters wide, so we couldn't even get a friendly surf in. Around the corner a place called 'Perfect Wave' (these Waterford guys aren't half fond of themselves) was throwing up an admittedly great wave but was congested with the debris of the competition, so we cut our losses and made west along the coastline in hope of finding something. 10 miles down the road we came to Bunmahon beach and with the day fading we decided to go in, despite the thickening mist. I'd love to be able to tell you what the beach was like but I couldn't even see it. All I know is that the waves were crap and we spent a half-hour being tossed around like corks before deciding to call it a day as visibility reduced to a boards-length. With three frustrated, battered and starving surfers aboard, the atmosphere in the car could be best described as frosty. By the time we left Kiddos in Dungarvan though, having been over charged for a mediocre mixed grill, moods were even worse with the normal after-surf banter being relaced with bitter cynicism and recrimination. A wipe-out of a day was capped perfecly when Eddie got his first ever speeding ticket 5 miles from Cork. I'll say no more.
Saturday saw the end of an era namely the demise of the Cavalier as a surf
mobile. It will never again be seen with a graceful surf board caressing
its roof as it heads for the Golden Triangle on a summers day but will have
to endure a baby seat straped to its back seat in a Tesco parking lot. While
we mourned the old we put the new fresh looking Laguna through its paces as a
surf mobile. We discovered that much of the interior seating could be
removed to enable us to fit the 3 boards comfortably inside the car. ( we
could have fitted 5 boards at a push which may be handy in the future). We
were late getting to Inchydoney mainly because of Bills moaning about
using his "New" car as the surf mobile and trying to be careful not to get
wax on his seats. however that being said once we did move we got to the
Donny in a record 30 mins.
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