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!

Big, Brown and Closing out...

Yesterday looked pretty good from the shore but was one of those evenings when every wave you paddle for turns into unmakable closeout. Still good to be out in some decent sized surf again...

It got better...

A bit better than this morning...

Speed Blur...

Even glassed off abit...

Texture

The rights were sweet...

So were a few of the lefts.

It got better. Lefts and rights but as usual I was mostly going right. T'was good to be back on the fish again, gliding on the singlefin is fun but the fish just gives you that bit more room to manoeuvre. Good to see Luke coming on real good these days too. Tonight was the first time I've seen him out back and getting face fairly regularly. Stoked mate!

There she goes...

Maria headed off to Scotland yesterday to take a job as a pre-reg optometrist for at least a couple of years. Better get booking those flights now then...

Grabbed an afternoon session for a couple of hours after saying our goodbyes.The session started quite frustrating again but found my way with a couple of fishy, fast, fun rights.

Rolled on home to Derry for a couple of hours before heading back up the road to catch a few before dark with the lads. The chest/waist high sets however had turned to ankle slappers but with a bit of endeavor and alot of walking we found some fun lefts on the pushing tide. Left the water round 11, finally got to me bed about 1.30 and was up at 6 am again for work. mmm tasty...

Out west...

I hate phone lines...

The lady and I at a place of many fish but few waves

Camping craic...

And something a bit more posh.

Little miss attitude

Been out west with the lady for the past few days. We had a great time but was frustrating being round those parts and not getting a surf. 2ft and onshore was about as good as it got... Finally got into the water up north today coming back from Belfast and resorted to renting a foamie and making the best of some small, crumbling, beach break, closeouts. Not quite what I was hoping for but its been my first surf in nearly 6 weeks!

Small but Sunny...

Theres just something I love about watching people paddle out on their knees

The lineup after we left

Silhouetted right

Post surf snacks...

After the washout at yesterdays North West, it was good to score a few small wans in some unexpected sunshine.

Road to Redemption

No need for a name... (and not my photo)

Westerlies were blowing up north when I woke this morning so decided to hit the road for some redemption after Fridays escapades. Managed to grab some lunch with the parents and pick up a couple of mates on the way and were thankfully rewarded with some decent waves. Still not surfing the way I want to be and struggling to find my feet with this new board (sometimes literally!) but it was hard to wipe the smiles of our faces after a couple of steep lefts. Perhaps a day not so good for the carbon footprint though...