Derry Dawnie...

Back in Derry for the weekend visiting the folks and decided to head out for an early sesh with the bro, Aaron and Luke before they went to work. Was empty early but by the time Adam had a surf and grabbed the camera it had filled up...

Yours truly (though a few inches of hair shorter) coming from the the bottom...

and sitting off the top!

Kildare come Inishowen man, making the most of his morning before real life begins...

Pulling out and dropping in...

Luke and Aaron coming back up the beach from an apparently "far bigger, far better wave". The grass is always greener boys, but Lukes rye smile tells me there may have been some truth to the tale...

Aaron and his trusty...

For all you Eagle eyed Tonnta readers out there you may notice I've got three different spellings of my name in the latest issue, Thom Smyth, Thom Smythe and Tom Smyth. Well here I am again, not quite making it...

Luke going left on the bendy Bic. (Just take a closeup at the nose of the board!)

Bump!Another wave, another Westbay

Dropping in...

The crew and the trusty overloaded fiesta. Massive thanks to the bro for cutting short his sesh to run in and grab the camera to give us some pics. Nice one Bruva!

Wobbly rights (pt II) and some afternoon delight....

Afternoon delight

Shared some short frustrating peaks earlier in the week that were very similar to nearly a year ago...

Yours truly. September singlefin loving.

Awog bottom turn

Air Aaron (minus the board)

Another left in context.

Meu amigo peludo

Horse v Adam.

Had a short frustrating session on Monday sharing some super short low tide peaks. Combined with last weeks sketchy session I've been feeling pretty apathetic and lacking a lot of confidence about my surfing. And whilst today my surfing was still far from where I want or where it should be, I began to solely concentrate on what I should be doing when I'm out there. Having Fun. And true enough as I loosened up mentally so too did my surfing. Demonstrating to me once again that most of my frustrations and inabilities are to do with whats going on upstairs rather than underneath my feet.

(Cheers to Ads again for the shots of me and Aaron!)

Getting reacquainted (with fustration...)

Bodyboarder making the most of it early

Aaron finding a wave with a view

I just found frustration for the most part

Face wash and a hand barrel
Picking his spot on a glassy one

Bic and a fish.

Moving up north again next week as I start my PhD so I decided to get reintroduced with the soon to be local. This break has had some magic moments for me but also some highly frustrating ones. Today was unfortunately closer to the latter. Slow to pop, lacking confidence and constantly getting stuck behind the section. Bummed. Aaron however was having a ball on the bic. Early entry into the wave and trying to squeeze his 6'3 frame into 1 ft barrels and coming out grinning. Cheers to Ads too for taking the shots, stoked for ya bro getting along the face for the first time. Now there's no turning back to the land loving life...

Day Tripping...

Yours truly enjoying to be out again...

The Blondie Bro.

Three Amigos

Marty looking for some fish

He was getting there though

But surfing a 6'2 and 6'6 on your first surf is a steep learning curve

Shorty got low...

(Thanks Anne and Ads for the shots!)

Played tourguide on a wee trip up North today with the cousin, her boyfriend Martin, the bro and his lady.Took Marty for his first ever surf en route too. Not easy on sub 7 foot boards but he seemed to enjoy giving it a whack. Despite being tiny t'was fun getting out for the first time in three weeks. Was starting to feel the land locked blues in Africa. Was also my first time having a sesh in the "shorty" I made and was really impressed by the warmth and extra flex. Definitely be giving it a few more sessions before the water temp drops...