Simon's Surfing Page

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Dedicated to all those who want to leave the world a better place
than they found it.

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• The Dingle Peninsula
• Achill Island
• Lahinch
• The East Coast
• Photo Album
• Updates

A fantastic Peninsula for good surf. This scenic setting has numerious breaks which are usually crowd free. Conditions change frequently on this Peninsula, so even if it's flat on Saturday, it may pick up to 4ft on Sunday. I've seen this happen a lot! I was introduced to the Dingle Peninsula back in 1998 and must say that it's one of my favourite spots. The locals are friendly and the surf options plentiful. As a base, I tend to avoid Dingle town as it can get a bit too congested, especially in Summer. However, it is a great place for a pub crawl during a flat swell!

The list of surf spots around the Dingle Peninsula are as follows. Note this is not an extensive list, but rather a list of what I have experienced.

• Brandon Bay: A Horseshoe type bay which works best with a Westerly swell and is offshore on a South Easterly wind. The beauty of the bay is that you can select your wave height. It is biggest towards the Magharees and eases off the closer you get to Kilcummen. So on a really big swell, check out Fermoyle Strand, which is often half the size of Golane Strand and a bit more sheltered. On flater days, The Dumps, Mossies Reef or Garry William Point often works. The latter two reef breaks are for the more experienced or mad surfer!

  Don't block off the Farm entrances and watch the beach - the soft sand can be a graveyard for over-enthusiastic vehicles!

• Inch Beach: Like Brandon, this beach break needs a good Westerly swell. It's clean and offshore with any type of Easterly wind. Generally this beach receives less swell than the North side of the Peninsula. A good beach to learn on or for a gentle longboard session.
• Inch Reef: This only really works several times a year when conditions are perfect - big westerly swell with a gentle offshore wind. Take Care! - It's a tough climb down from the road, which has zero parking. But on a good day, make the effort as you'll be well rewarded. I was lucky enough to catch it once and rate it as my best session in Ireland. The wave requires a fast take off to avoid the rocky reef section, but is followed by a perfectly formed wall which rolls alongside the cliff for a couple of hundred meters.
• Smerwick Harbour: Found near Wine Strand A dumping type of wave can be found at this beach. It is really your last resort when all other places are blowing onshore or are too big.

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A remote area in the Mayo Coastline that is attached to the mainland, despite the term 'island'. It's a small enough to easliy tour around in a day. This makes it perfect to be able to suss out the best surf location for the day. We surfed a beach break called Keel Beach (See Picture 1, Picture 2 and Picture 3. The wind was blowing from a Northerly direction which gave us offshore conditions. The swell was best at mid-tide, but dropped and turned out to be a better longboarding day. I'd say on a big swell this place would be perfect for the shortboard. The following day was wet, windy and miserable as far as surfing was concerned. Still, I recommend a tour of the island as it is extremely picturesque as this photo shows: Keem Strand

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Lahinch

A popular beach that gets very busy in Summer.

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It has to be said that I have surfed a few different countries, but have never met a nicer bunch of surfers, than the East Coast Crew of Ireland and Irish surfers in genreal. I really hope it satys that way.

Click on any to see my collection of surfing pictures....
If any of you lads from the East Coast have surf photos from our trips, please send them to me.

• Lahinch Longboarding
• If you're not an ounce over 4 stone and you have a little bit of balance, then why not get the standing up part out of the way and just wait for waves?!!
• Doesn't matter about the size of the wave; if you are able to surf and smile, the judges will give you extra points!
• I grew up in Cape Town and that's where my love for surfing began. My favourite spots were Llandudno, Sandy Bay, Long Beach, Misty Cliffs and Witsands.
• Also in Cape Town, there were places I dreamed about, but never surfed! Pictures courtesy of a South African Website. Check these out...Dungeons 1 and Dungeons 2
• Johnny 'Longboard' McNulty gets re-nicknamed 'Johnny The Champ' after his victory in Tramore in The Kevin Cavey Cup.
• Some of the East Coast Crew share a few yarns over a pint.
• Brian McCarthy wins the fight for a wave.
• Tracy puts her instructor to shame!
• Marc preparing us for Annestown reef!
• Early morning Tramore surf with the main core of the East Coast Club.
• Mad Ed! of Tramore surf shop.
• Beware the Floods!

• Dingle Weekend March 2001 Ken, Sophie, Clancy, Inch, Inch-high, wetsuits-carring-dogs and more.....
• Cape Town surf April 2001 Although I didn't surf, here are a few pictures of the breaks