Chances are to make the trek out to the unknown they have similar motives and open outlook to your own and that stranger becomes just a friend you haven’t met before. We all suit up agreeing that the surf looks great and that it’s perfectly ok for all of us to drop in on each other. Burning someone on a wave is completely unacceptable, unless it’s your mates, in which case it’s hilarious ! The tide pushes in like a syringe injecting more and more fun to the swell as long walls line up and race down the point. Keith is a dad, IT genius and one of the best kitesurfers in Ireland , surfing completely in his element on the hollow rights. Looking at how little free time on paper both Keith and Al get juggling a family and career I’m more than happy to get behind the camera for a bit and snap them in regular foot heaven. Somehow I don’t think they’d have volunteered so quickly for a perfect left !. Want the quickest way to make your surfing look good and feel the best you’ve ever surfed, go find an empty point with perfect waves and let the 15 second period swell do the work for you. We all surf until we can barely stand than catch a few more in the sort of stance that says we really are too tired to stand. Al spills some blood, I’m engaged in some more rock dancing and Keith catches one last barrel, it’s the end of a day that you never want to end but I have one last mission for the sundown. On the way up we’d passed an amazingly beautiful lake, fringed by mountains. It looked like the entrance to Narnia which obviously it wasn’t but you know what I mean. Here to me sums up the beauty and versatility of SUP, that same board I was riding in the waves, I can now jump on and explore another completely different but equally beautiful water space. One that doesn’t rely on a forecast, right state of tide and some dodgy offroading, we can even tell our partners about it !. It’s a peaceful end to a perfect day and reminds me that be it a 12 hour or week long adventure, surf or flat water, the important thing is just actually getting out there and doing something different. It makes you a better SUP’r stepping safely outside of your comfort zone, it invigorates your mind doing something new. I’m glad we scored the wave we came searching for but I’m just as stoked at the lake we found when we weren’t looking. That’s the great thing about our sport, all we need for adventure is all we need to sup: a board and a paddle !. Go explore. SUP
