2024 - SWINGING IN DONEGAL
We've had Phil teach us in Donegal for quite a few years and he always come up with something new. And 2024 was no exception, so this is how he now dries his sails. We wraps them up and then swings them energetically round and round to use centripal force to throw all of the water out. So, yes, he was swinging a lot in Donegal. Well, what type of swinging did you think I was talking about? Shame on you...
Only problem was that you didn't want to stand too near otherwise you got all the water over you.
And talking of Phil, he double photobombed this shot of Ballyness Pier...
So what did we get this year? Well, a good flat water course followed by two weeks of wave sailing. And the first week we got lots of wind!!
There were some new people on the course but little did we realise that we had a star amongst us. Davin, while claiming he'd never wave sailed, turned out to have 'accidentally' entered a PWA wave event and scored a whole point! I don't think he went on to win, but it was one more point than all the rest of us put together. So we watched him in awe everytime he got on a wave.
Our first day was at Magheroarty in somewhat off/on wind when two things of note happened. Firstl David did an excellent superman crash. Well of course he did, since he'd flown all the way from Canada to be here - so he wasn't going to crash small. And secondly we had Davin stalking Seraina (on their boards) and coming up behind her and shouting so loudly that she jumped off her board. Not sure if he scored any PWA points for that...
In fact it was a very tough day for the new-to-waves crowd. Kate struggled manfully and certainly proved her fitness but the on/off wind made it very tough.
The next two days were much better as we headed to Rosapenna in lovely sun and wind at around 4.7m. Waves were moderate and of course my favourite backside.
The Wednesday was very windy and it tempted up a rat bag of Nordies to sail with us. So we had Fanta Pants, Jarlath, Hern Dog and others. Great to see.
We also had our second tran-Atlantic recruit in John who'd flown in from the Gorge. For someone with very little wave experience he certainly kicked some ass.
Alan - the Lord - sailing sereenly through the waves.
Davin takes off!
It did get very windy and every now and then the sun would disappear and a squall would come in with big gusts and hail. Bloody sore on the face. But then, this is Donegal, you get all weathers usually on the same day.,
David in the air!
There was a bit of jump-fest going on and Pavel was not going to be left out.
Pavel
Pavel leans in.
Unfortunately once more he managed to damage his kit - this time on the first time he'd sailed his new wave board. The UJ slipped out of the slot and the mast bashed his board quite badly. However, well practiced as he is in this department, he was soon back in his house sniffing glue and other strange chemicals and the board was on the water two days later.
Alan, top turn backside.
Pavel in the air. Again.
Despite the wind, the sun was out and Kate shocked us all by stripping down to her bikini and taking a wild water swim. Nothing wrong with her in a bikini let me say, the shock was that anyone would get into that water without a wet suit. More real man stuff! By this time the conditions were tranquil at Rosapenna. Davin was worried she might score a PWA point too...
Tranquil at Rosapenna
Another day we headed for Carrickfin ie Donegal airport. The highlight of the day was of course the arrival of the daily flight.
Seraina, mostly got out through the breakers.
But not always...
Kate learning to love Donegal and on a wave!
John
David sports some nice 70s headgear.
We didn't catch it on camera, but the crash of the day was awarded to John who was wave riding well until he mysteriously exploded coming down a wave. Still, we all greatly enjoyed it.
Saturday saw us heading to Dooeys where the wind fluctuated a lot. 4.7m for me, so it was pretty windy, except when it wasn't. As soon as I went out my quad, it moderated. And then suddenly it was on again and indeed 4.7 was too big. The water state made it very difficult. It was really hard to plane on the outside as you bounced over the lumps and bumps.
Seraina put her Go Pro to good use and bravely provided this evidence of the 'dynamic' conditions -
Nice to see her smiling as it all exploded around her...
Still, the sun remained hot as indeed it was pretty much for the entire 2 weeks. And we got some spectacular rainbows too, here's a selection along with a nice windless sun.
And we also had some punk rock action! Picture of respectability (in public), private dentist Chris Ming the Merciless Loughridge used to be a drummer in a punk band - who knew? The band have reformed and their repertoire is a bit more varied and even includes some Abba.... 70s punk royalty, perhaps not. Anyway Shock Treatment were on at the Harbour Bar on Saturday night and lots of windsurfers went down to drink Guinness and spit on Minger. A new sport for all serious windsurfers - spit at the winger.
As you can see he was on fine form and to be honest (for once) his drumming was really great. Drummers are often judged by how hard they hit the drums - and, after years of practising hitting his boards, Chris was doing some serious damage.
You can tell it's a non wind day when Phil maps out Magheroarty bay with his feet in the sand....
And actually in the long lulls in the sun, I started Phil off on the road to golf. We found a ball in the dunes and my clubs were in the car, so soon he was pitching and chipping. It all went really well until he discovered how to rib a ball - which then shot off low at great speed and into poor Neal's knee. He limped for the rest of the day until some Guinness restored him.
The second week saw some changes in the personnel, a big drop in the wind and temperatures around 24 degrees. We got some sail on SUP at Magheroarty and then tried out Ballyness Pier. A new location to me, sailing the tidal flat water bay from the Falcarragh side. Pavel, Neal and Martina went out practiced heli-tacks and things in about 2 feet of water.
As we got the last couple of days, we scored a scorcher at Dooeys. No wind at all, but lovely waves and much SUP action and indeed some surfing. Neal was witnessed really getting onto his surf board and riding standing up. He was well chuffed.
After a break, it was the turn of the wingers to come under Phil's spell. While I wasn't on this course - since I'm a fully paid up member of the I'm never going to wing club - I did get a few reports.
We had very little in the way of damaged equipment during the courses, but one casualty was Phil's van whose clutch fell off. The highly technical report from my correspondent didn't go into much more detail other than that a local garage screwed it on again.
Windwise, the wingers did quite well with 5ish metre wings in use most of the time - that's about 7m in old windsurfing money.
Now we're alway open to a good caption competition. So how about this one, showing Mr Wookie from his best angle. My opening bid is - ass of the year. But can you do better?
There were the usual number of crashes etc, but on the whole most people sailed very well. Chief amongs these was Chubster aka Tim. Seen below in typical pose.
But how about this, not from the winging course, but Pavel showing he can do both the light and the dark side.
Clearly the wingers are not such a smooth and sophicated crowd as the windsurfers. Their conversation got a bit close to the knuckle in the Strand Road one night (something about Oscar shagging?) when a local family told them off in less than polite terms. I might add that Oscar is a dog...
For those of us old enough to know, Jennie McCready was one of the wingers and sailed well but with great determination, instantly reminding us (or a certain age) of her mother being like that on a windsurfer. Jane was responsible for a lot of us getting into windsurfing back in the day - for which she may some day be forgiven. Nice to see Jennie is made of the same stuff.
So yet another Donegal wave clinic is over. There were of course some great highlights, especially when we got such good weather and mostly good wind.
- Martina's improvement, especially on waves was really clear to see
- Pavel broke lots of kit as usual, but was always first out, last off the water and seems to be powered by Duracell. And he couldn't be kept out of Batch - the Falcarragh coffee shop from which he sent us food envy photograps of his breakfasts
- Davin had the moral dilema - stay windsurfing or rush home for his daughter's prom night. Being a sound man, he chose windsurfing! But at least his PWA point was safely in the bag
- Seraina was another whose windsurfing had come on leaps and bounds, she caught a pile of waves only a few of which caught her
- David - jumped for Ireland (and Canada)
- Kate discovered Ireland and swears she will be back. She loved the waves which she fought and beat (mostly).
- Neal recovered from golf ball knee to build on his excellent heli tacks and gybes
- Tom sailed like a machine - always running and very smooth. Vorsprung durch technik - we suspect!
- John discovered that all his Gorge skills transferred very nicely to Donegal waves
- My golf improved on the days off windsurfing, but I did catch a pile of waves
- Phil was great as usual - he even ran a session on UJs (yes it was very windless that day) - and it was actually interesting!
- The food was excellent - including Colls of course but also the Strand Road.
See you next year - when who knows what will be swinging ....