In terms of, “biggest, heaviest, scariest waves ever” around the world, Mullaghmore is number five on the list compiled by surfing website www.theinertia.com. The Internet loves top five lists; quantifies everything into a nice order, it’s easy clicking and reading. That’s lovely, but see the funny thing about big waves is they are not very good at being organized, lists or otherwise. There’s no schedule or guarantees, but still we like to measure, compare and contrast them because it brings a sense of order to a very unordered element. We can learn about predicted swell heights and their timing on our phones and computers and it lets us talk with some reason about the unreasonable amount of force on show. But it’s just noise, unwanted noise, the sea will do what it always does, what it wants. And so I sit on the hill overlooking Mullaghmore, looking at a view I’ve looked at many times before, in awe of the unpredictability of this wave. Its chaos is its beauty; its chaos is its beast.
