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PLANES, WAVES AND DRIVING (RAIN): WORLD CLASS IRELAND

John Carter and Timo Mullen head to the west coast of Ireland in search of epic waves where they stumble upon German wave sailor, Leon Jamaer and Phil Horrocks, who were also chasing the same forecast. Read on to find out how they all individually made the call, their travel details and what conditions they scored!

Words: John Carter, Leon Jamaer & Phil Horrocks.

Photos: John Carter.

JOHN CARTER

Having missed out on an epic Ireland forecast the previous weekend, something was nagging me that I needed to pursue at least one big wave forecast during the winter season of 2023/4. When Timo Mullen pinged me his flight reservation, which was with Air Lingus from Southampton to Belfast, and then returning from Dublin to Southampton, that was the game changer that swung it for me. Southampton is by far my most accessible airport and with a solid two day forecast consisting of strong southwesterly winds and 20 feet waves, I decided this was my moment to commit. The outbound flight was a mere £41, while the return was even cheaper at £29, so it doesn’t get much cheaper than that, even after shelling out an extra £60 for my baggage.

So, after a few clicks on the Air Lingus website with flights and bags all booked, I was good to go and all set for an Irish adventure. Fast forward 24 hours and we had landed in Belfast, picked up our hire car and we were soon on the road bound for the west coast. Magheroarty is probably your ‘go to’ spot on most southwesterly forecasts and is simply a stunning playground for wave sailors of all levels. That was probably the location we were most likely headed as it is the most reliable on a big wave forecast.

SHOULD WE STAY OR SHOULD WE GO?

Word on the street was that Leon Jamaer had travelled over from Germany and also Phil Horrocks was up in Magheroarty for a few days. After landing at 10.20am, by noon we were merrily headed on our way to meet up with Leon and Phil. Right at the cutoff point where you are committed to Magheroarty, we received a message from Leon that he had already sailed there in the morning and was now en route to try and sail Mullaghmore, the legendary big wave spot close to Bundoran. Suddenly we were faced with a dilemma… stay on course to Magheroarty for the safe bet of epic sailing, or head to Mullaghmore to sail huge waves with Leon. All of a sudden, we were snookered by the two equally enticing FOMO options. Mullaghmore was a risky call, but we didn’t want to finish the day in Magheroarty only to see pics of Leon riding triple mast high barrelling waves. After much deliberation we eventually turned the car around and headed to Mullaghmore. The lure of that big wave shot was too strong for us to turn our backs on.

An hour later, we were up on the cliffs at Mullaghmore, looking down at a confused sea state with huge messy waves and not a soul in sight out on the water. There were certainly some solid sets, easily mast and a half high, but it wasn’t the clean epic waves that you often see in the photos from there. Now, I started wondering if Magheroarty was firing? And what we might be missing out on if we’d stuck to the original plan and headed north? However, it was unfortunately already too late for any more procrastination, our decision was made – we either sail here or not at all.

A WAVE OF SERIOUS CONSEQUENCE

Leon was keen to give it a go, plus there was Leky and Megan Gayda, as well as a bunch of locals rigging down at the harbour, who were also up for a big wave session. One way or another it was going to be an interesting afternoon. I felt like I was in the right place at least. I had never shot windsurfing at this break before, so I was interested to see how the setup works, even if it wasn’t the epic day for it. The crew had organised a jet ski for safety cover, which is essential at Mullaghmore, as it truly is a wave of consequence, so it can easily inflict some real damage, if not even worse. After sailing up from the harbour, the session was soon underway, and I started to get the gist of how this mega heavy slab works. The one place you absolutely don’t want to be at Mullaghmore is too deep. There is a spot where this wave hits a slab of Irish reef and properly detonates into a monster barrel on its day. If you are too deep here… it is simply game over.

SAFETY IS PARAMOUNT

For the next hour the crew toyed with Mullaghmore. Both Timo and Leon caught a couple of monster sets, but with overcast skies and side-shore messy waves, it was not the day to score that epic shot. The important thing was that after the session everyone made it back safely to the harbour. With the session done and dusted it only felt right to retire to the pub for a pint of Guinness, which is standard procedure whenever we go to Ireland. It was decent day to test the waters at Mullaghmore, and if there is a next time, I would love to get out there on a ski and shoot into the wave where you get to experience the real killer view!

RUBBING SALT IN THE WOUND

The next morning presented cleaner conditions, but the peak of the swell had passed. We checked Mullaghmore, which still had a few bombs hitting the reef, but we decided to head north to Magheroarty where Timo reckoned it would be firing all day. We arrived just in time to catch up with Phil Horrocks, who had been on a solo mission to Ireland for the past four days. Apparently, the previous afternoon had been epic which kind of rubbed salt in the wound, but I guess it was impossible for us to be in two places at once and I would have been equally as gutted to have missed out on shooting Mullaghmore. Some days you just have to make your decision and run with it. Phil just about had enough energy for one last session at Magheroarty. The waves were logo high, cross-off and firing and there was plenty of action going down until the rain set in, which forced me to retire to the shelter of the hire car. Timo stayed out for a few more hours before finally calling it quits. It had been an intense couple of days on the water and even though we had barely seen a glimmer of sunshine, it had been awesome to experience this solid swell as it hit the west coast of Ireland.

HOMEWARD BOUND

We now just had the simple task of getting home. Being right out on the west coast of Ireland, this means at least a three-hour drive back to Belfast so that we could drop off the hire car, which would’ve been fine, but for the fact that our return flights were of course from Dublin, so we would need to catch a bus from airport to airport. Thankfully, that wasn’t a problem – even with Timo’s board bag. We then checked in and flew an hour and a half back to Southampton, so all in all, not too bad. Naturally, I just missed a ferry back to the Isle of Wight, but that is the price you pay sometimes when you live on an island.

 

A DISTINCT POSSIBILITY

A winter sojourn over to Ireland is definitely within reach of most UK sailors, especially if you plan your trip as a small group to reduce costs. Although the planes are relatively small, the Air Lingus flights from Southampton are happy to carry windsurfing equipment and the cost of a hire car is relatively cheap. Throw in a bit of fuel money and a couple of nights in one of the hotels at Magheroarty, plus a customary few pints of Guinness and you could easily score a few epic days sailing for less than £500 per head. You may not be blessed with warm weather and turquoise waves, but you will most likely be rewarded with some world class wave sailing and get to experience that incredible Irish hospitality and charm that cannot be replicated anywhere else on the planet!

LEON JAMAER

IRELAND’S POTENTIAL

The surf potential that Ireland’s raw Atlantic coastline has on offer has kept me dreaming since I was young windsurfer. I scored my first taste of it when I was just a sixteen-year-old, while road tripping together with my brother and a friend through this beautiful country. A second trip followed a few years later and I fell in love with the emerald water, defined reefs and easy-going attitude of the people. When I became a professional windsurfer about ten years ago, I was hoping to do plenty of short trips on solid forecasts to Ireland all the time, but somehow it never quite materialised that way. Two Red Bull Storm Chase missions, one in 2013 in Brandon Bay, and the other one in 2019 in Magheroarty, both in abnormal wind conditions, cemented my romance with the green island. And still, I didn’t manage to go on that one special forecast.

PUTTING WORK ON THE BACK BURNER

This winter, work and family life has kept me away from any long distance winter escapes. So, when this particular Atlantic forecast manifested around the first weekend of February, I knew it was my best bet for down-the-line sailing and to give me a chance to explore the Irish northwest coast a bit more. I was tired of the same old Baltic and North Sea windsurfing and so was my friend, Frithjof. We both got off work for a long weekend and soon found ourselves on the road to the Netherlands. A strike at all German airports almost ended our trip before it had even started, but thanks to the extremely helpful Air Lingus, who rebooked our flights to Amsterdam free of charge, our strike mission was back on.

MAGHEROARTY MAGIC

With only a few hours of sleep on the bare airport ground we were off to Dublin and progressed further north in our rental car. The aim was to score an offshore session with good swell at Magheroarty just before dark. With a forecast for southwesterly winds in the next days we stayed around Magheroarty. It was cool to see more and more Irish and British windsurfers turn up and enjoy the mild winter breezes. I remember a session with Timo and Phil trading wave after wave with big grins on our faces despite the pouring rain. Both made similar family and work arrangements and they were just as stoked as I was to ride this swell.

FINDING THE COURAGE

It wasn’t until our penultimate day that the conditions turned up a notch and Magheroarty turned more into what I had dreamt of for all those years. Solid mast high sets reeling down the reef. Not many waves provided that vertical air section, but when they did, and I had the courage to navigate my board under the lip, it gave me the most fulfilling feeling and ultimate satisfaction to make up for that long journey. Eventually, I pushed my luck a bit too much and was sent to the beach with the broken mast. I learnt that as dreamy and alluring as the clear water and offshore winds can seem one minute, as harsh and unforgiving the Irish weather will turn on you the next.

NOTORIOUS MULLAGHMORE

After the taxing morning session we drove further south to check how the swell looked at the spots around Sligo. Together with a crew of local chargers we sailed out to Mullaghmore. This was my first encounter with the notorious big wave spot, but for the locals it seemed to be part of their daily routine. The conditions didn’t quite come together for the giant barrel to awaken, but the whole vibe around the mission – sailing out from the harbour to ride the freakish offshore reef with more windsurfers on the water than at my local beach at home during wintertime – that really made my day and the trip.

LUCK OF THE IRISH

Later in the pub, the Guinness swirled the sentiment with JC and Timo across the bar with me. I remembered that on my first road trip to Ireland almost 20 years ago I was inspired and driven by the pictures that JC took of Timo at spots all around the UK. I couldn’t quite get my head around why exactly I was now sharing laughs with them decades later in the middle of winter somewhere on the northwest coast of Ireland, but I felt it had something to do with the luck of the Irish.

PHIL HORROCKS

Back in January, I was desperate for some quality sailing. We had been scoring a lot of onshore conditions at home in Wales, but it felt like the same thing over and over again! There comes a time when you are really gagging for a bit of down-the-line sailing, and I had reached my breaking point during the UK winter! It was time to go and hunt down some conditions.

I was considering a trip to Cape Town for two to three weeks and I had been monitoring the weather forecast there, but it seemed like it was a bad season in South Africa. There had not been much swell or wind and it was quite an expensive option to take the risk.

I was thinking well, if it’s going to be that expensive to go and the conditions are not that great then why bother? I started to look closer to home and that is when Ireland really came on the radar! There was an epic forecast looming that looked nailed on to happen. Personally, the best way to get there is by the ferry as I live close to Holyhead, so jumping on the ferry to Ireland is easy for me. The problem is that the ferry is expensive in a van! It was working out around £420 just for myself alone in the van. I worked out if I hijacked my wife’s car, I would qualify for a short break saver, which was around £270.

LATE CALL

It was a last-minute call, so I decided on the Thursday that I was going to pull the trigger and I left at 2am the next morning, arriving in Dublin by 7.30am and then driving over to the west coast, so I was already in Magheroarty by 11am!

LIKE THE SOUTHERN OCEAN

It was a mega day, Leon Jamaer was already there by coincidence and Timo arrived later that afternoon, I had no idea that either of them were going. Friday was a good warm up day, logo high with 4m waves. Saturday had super fun surfing as the waves built further, but Sunday was what I came for! It was mast and a half on the reef! It was crazy to see such volumes of water shifting around, it felt like Southern Ocean swells. Heading in on a wave the ocean scalloped out in front of you with the next crest about 100 metres plus out in front and behind. When the waves hit the reef, they cleaned up and just pitched into this huge wall that was perfect for high-speed turns and big old fashioned walled cutbacks, it felt incredible! Exactly what I was after!

TOO GOOD TO STOP

Normally I would sail for a few hours and then that would be me done for the day, but being there solo, I stopped sailing around lunchtime, however after twenty minutes I was already thinking, “It’s too good to watch it!”, I just have to go back out! On the Sunday, I had a little break and then looked at my watch, it was only about 2pm, and I thought it was way too early to call it a day, so I went back in for another 2 hours!

By the end of the four days, my arms were about a foot longer! I had blistered hands and rub marks all over me from my wetsuit and boots, I am not used to spending five or six hours a day sailing for four days in a row, but boy it felt good.

ROI

At the end of the trip, I can safely say I made a great call, which gave me four awesome days in big waves that I’ll remember for a long time to come! That is a pretty good return on my investment. I could have gone to South Africa and maybe scored a couple of big swells if I was lucky, but it would have been a hefty price for quite some uncertainty.

STRIKE MISSIONS

Looking back, I am realising I have completely glossed over the incessant rain and drizzle that greeted me from the moment I got off the ferry to getting back on it four days later. But I won’t remember that part of my Irish trip anyway. My tips for a strike mission would be to pick a spot and wait until the last minute before making the call, then stick to it! You do not have time for wild goose chases! Hit it up and go! Go! Go! Leave it all out on the water and go home frazzled! That is what I did. My total costs were the ferry at £280, three nights in the hotel for £155, one tank of fuel for £75, around £75 on food plus a few pints of Guinness at five euros a pint, so all in around £600! That is not too bad for four days of quality wave sailing!