Birthday Fix...

Yours truly. Not this evening but making the best of litte'un few weeks back.

Try to get a surf on my Birthday every year and managed to sneak a quick one before dark. Wasn't the best conditions but waves are waves and its my first time in the water for nearly 3/4 weeks!

Also have the internet at home again after 18 months without, so you'll hopefully find a few more posts here too!

Caught on Camera...

Wednesday Very small but very clean and surprisingly alot of fun. Carl from Troggs Surf School snapped this shot of yours truly angry stepping!

Thursday Those rocks? That poo stance? Hooded and booted? Yes indeed it is me. Snapped by Gary McCall and gleaned from MSW. I thoroughly recommend looking at some of his shots without me spoiling them here!

Part Deux.

Part II as promised. Steve took over the camera whilst I went back in to enjoy the mornings remainders.

Walking to the temple.

Getting there. Just need to learn to it with style!

Autumn textures.

Big thanks to Steve for the shots. You took some beauties!

Smoke on the water.

Stoked and speculating!

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!

Rossnowlagh Longboard Contest ...

Arrived down Friday night and conditions were far from great. Headed out for a quick dip all the same in the onshore crumble, though getting to wear the old legless winter suit again felt great...

Yours truly getting down to some late night sliding...

O-bag and Steve made the trip down too. Owen stoked with his Desmond... (Owen affectionately nicknamed his 2:2 Desmond, after Desmond 'Tutu')

Round 1, Heat 4. Unfortunately my competitive streak in the comp didn't last too long when I got knocked out in heat 2 of the first round.

Bosco

Causeway representing. John in front, Bosco behind...

Conditions for the semi's deteriorated further and proved seriously hard going

Everyone did their best to make the most of it though. Craig Butler sticking it out.

Things started to relatively better on the push for the juniors and ladies final. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hang-Five...

Butler taking the Juniors with a bit of style...

Your Judges for the finals...

Thankfully by the time of the mens final a few contestable waves came through. Emmet going right...

John Junior on the nose...

Nice finish

Emmett going broadside for John

Powerful surfing for tiny conditions...

Your Inaugural Rossnowlagh Longboard Contest winner - John McCurry Junior

Thanks to all who organised such a great comp. The waves may have been less than ideal but the craic and spirit of the thing was 1st class. Here's to many happy returns!

Full results

U 18
1st Craig Butler
2nd Christian McLeod
3rd Owen O’Malley-Daly
4th Bosco McAuley
5th Dan Britton

Ladies
1st Ione Byrne
2nd Naomi Britton
3rd Amy-May Garvey
4th Sophie Scott

Seniors

1st John McCurry
2nd Stephen Conwell
3rd Patrick Cassidy
4th Emmet O’Doherty

After the drought comes the rain...

Yours truly at a spot he surfed alot in the past week. And shouldn't there be a bit of drop knee there Thombo?

After last weekends mini-mission I was lucky enough to get in the water locally most nights last week. True it was far from being the biggest or most memorable surf I've had but the warm weather and late night sliding gave me my fair share of stoke. Noticed elements of my surfing progress too due to just consistently being in the water. Just need to hold unto it through this next system of northerly winds and drought of decent waves...

It's been a while...

Nice clean lines from the start of the month...

Yours truly trying his bestest to get some tip time...

This ones optimistic...

Look at that clenched fist. Oh the rage that lurks below...

Cheers to foxz for the photos of yours truly from the start of the month. To be honest haven't really been the water that much since the end easter week. Lack of swell but more so an increase in my workload has seriously limited water time. Went for a quick search the other night after watching small clean lines rolling through when doing fieldwork but it had all but died by sundown and I very nearly ended up with the car being stuck...

However the chill's going out of the dawnies and the evenings continuing to stretch. Everything is not yet lost...

Snow Surf...

Yours truly preparing for the cold

Cold, clean and peeling.

Toes on the nose beneath the hills of Donegal

My Sleigh (I've never seen so much snow on the beach!)

Aaron had his work cut out taking photos today as the lens no had given up a bit.

Tried to burn off yesterday's excess with a few waves this arvo. Aaron's still recovering from faceplanting an icy pavement a few weeks back so he's still out of the water but kindly came along and took a few shots of yours truly, though hampered by my long lens giving up the ghost a bit. Here's hoping that the charts change abit for a few more festive surfs. Merry Christmas all!