Surf Café cookbook, Strandhill style

   A surf cookbook you ask? And I answer yes surfing and cooking can go together especially for this well laid out book incorporating the ocean and easy to make delicious recipes for everyone and the surfed out hungry surfer. Not only seafood recipes but some great Irish recipes are found in there like the Guinness and beef stew that I miss soooo much, different ways to make a classic potatoe mash and some good old fashioned Irish bread recipes. These are just a few of what's in the book.

   Also I'm very proud to say some of my photos are scattered amongst the tasty pages. When I was first contacted about using some of my surfing images I was a bit confused about it all, but once Louise illustrated the idea it all made perfect sense. The book is reflected on Shells Café, the owners Jane & Myles Lamberth, fresh organic Irish produce & of course Shells Café is located at the centre of my heart, Strandhill. Once again Strandhill delivers inspiration for great things, as I have always said it is a magical place & it has produced another piece of magic. GO buy the book, it's a must have for any kitchen. Buy it here.

   Thanks to the editor Louise Searle for involving me in the book, Jane & Myles I'm honored to have been part of this & I can hardly wait to get back to Strandhill some day and try some of your beautiful food in Shells with a few of my mates talking about surf, classic.

www.thesurfcafecookbook.com

Photo: Andrew Kilfeather

My time in Ireland

Here's a few shots of my life in Ireland, that to me are important and others life changing. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
cheers and fairwell
Aaron

Zoolander party in Strandhill

Halloween party in Strandhill

Mum & Dad visit

My very first surf photo with a digital camera

Just good mates

The bro visits and my photo in the best bar in the world...The Strand of course

The big swell, that whitewater is at least 200ft high!!

My first ever Tow photo, Cotty the man at Aileens...the passion starts

The legends of Strandhill

"PROWLERS"

My first outing in a boat to shoot, Tom DH at Aileens

Rileys

The Surfer's Path does an article on me, such an honour, cheers Alex

Rolling Stones

Up close & personal at U2

Paul O'Kane, first time Prowlers surfed in early 2009

Mikee Hamilton charging big Mullaghmore

My fairwell party, Strand bar

Prowlers pumping top to bottom

Cotty at Prowlers

My first surfing magazine cover, cheers Cotty

What a send off...

I had a speech in my noggin all sorted it for my farewell party, but when I stood up and turned to everyone who had came out, all I could say was "Shit". I nearly lost it and had to try and pull myself together. I never dreamed this many people would turn up. Finally a few words came out and we started the slideshow. Everyone was hooting and with the odd "ohhhh noooooo" for the wipeouts. We then proceeded to have a few drinks, maybe 1 or 2 too many for most as the surf was good the next day but most stayed in bed. At one stage every corner I turned in the pub a shot of god knows what was put in me hand. It was so cool talking to everyone and partying it up, a long time coming. I've always respected Strandhill and what this little beautiful seaside town stands for ever since I first drove around Knocknarea back in August 2000. Thank you so much everyone for making it an extra special nite, a nite I will never forget. It was great to get the whole gang out in the Strand again. Here's a couple of shots courtesy of me good mate John Heffernan.(by the way that was your fault for the jagermeisters as I had to pay you back for that stomach churning drink you made me have hahaha)

 When I thought my time was over here in Ireland and I could just chill out for a few days, a swell came in that we've been waiting for for 5 years. Conditions were pretty much perfect. I had written off "Prowlers" for me as there was only just over a week for me left in Ireland. The timing of it was uncanny and surreal. Only 4 hrs sleep was had over the last 2 nights, so I wasn't feeling the greatest. But there was no way we were going to miss this. Prowlers was beyound expectations breaking alot heavier than we all imagined, the slab only a few feet below as it drained off. Cotty was the test dummy and rode it with confidence and style. I can't really say too much more at this stage but Paul reckons he was gunning it at almost 60km/hr to flick the boys into the beast. Check out the Irish Times anyway, Cotty scored the front page, legend Cotty. Big respect to Andrew Cotton, Al Mennie, Paul O'Kane's insane driving, Richie Fitzgerald, Barry Mottershed, Jeremy Johnson and the boat driver Daniel. Thanks for the send off Ireland. Ireland and all the great people and surf will always be in my heart.
cheers
Aaron

Cotty going hard

The crew

Strandhill's Angels

Al Mennnie's book of...

Never in my life have i read a book front to back cover without putting it down. Right from the opening page you know Al has put his heart and soul into this..."Dad, you are my inspiration. If our love could have saved you, you would have lived forever". The start of the book goes thru his younger years about his family, surf comps and how the big wave passion came about, always these parts of books are not so action packed but you need it to get to know a bit about the person to understand it all. Not long thou into the book Al is talking about his travels and big wave stories ands steps up about 10 knotches in a fast action packed read that i could not put down, actually as the pace grew i felt my own reading getting faster and faster wanting to know what happens next. "I dropped and began to glide into position as Duncan pulled away at speed and the wave stood like a 6 storey office block. As i got to about half way down it, it just lurched on the reef and grew massively above me, I thought i was a gonner" Al talking about the epic Dec 1st Mullaghmore day really got my heart pounding. It's like reading a book of gnarly short stories, each one with it's own uniqueness if there's such a word. "All along the reef where the waves breaks, all in a line, these boils of water were surfacing and pouring out from below the surface. One of them was about 6 feet in diameter and surged out to about 2 feet in height. It looked like a big jelly fish!" Al describing how the wave was breaking on the Mullaghmore Massacre day. I think Al's book is a fantastic read and i'm not just saying that cause he's a mate. I honestly could not stop reading it.
I'm stoked to have the covershot and a few photos inside, thank you Al for asking if i wanted to be part of it, a real honor and a highlight in my photographic career.

cheers mate and good luck

http://www.almennie.com/book.html

Surfer mag

Even with the flat spell up here this is turning out to be an amazing first month of blogging, Surfer mag has just done an article on Ireland by Rusty Long in the Big issue which only comes out once a year, they have used a couple of my shots along with fellow snapper Mickey Smith, a big thanks to Mickey for giving me the opportunity to add a couple of shots and introducing me to Rusty's bro Greg and tow partner Twiggy Baker when they were over here, totally stoked. Over the moon that alot of the shots in there are of Fergal Smith as he really was the stand out surfer on the day pulling into some bullshit barrels, especially at Mullaghmore, i think it's a great feat to get photos in one of the top surf mags in the world, well done Ferg, congrats. Note to one of the photos of mine in there of Tom Lowe's brutal wipe out, Tom recovered well after his arm wrenching accident but now i believe he's gone and done it again but this time a SUP might've hit him on the shoulder to pop it out, i don't know the full story, only the guys there do so i'm not gonna make any assumptions, but more importantly get well Tom and looking froward to seeing ya amongst again soon

The Surfer's Path Dream

"Holy shit, you gotta be joking, is this a crank email?", was my first thought when i got an email from Alex Dick-Read at the prestigious mag The Surfer's Path asking if i'd be interested in submitting some photos for a possible portfolio, well hells bells yeah. As yas can probably tell i was over the moon about it all. I was like an excited kid waiting for Santa for the mag to come out. When i got the mag i was even more blown away, to see the preview in digi format is one thing but to see it on paper in the mag is just outta this world, all 12 pages of it all, such an honor especially when I was in the company of such greats as Gary Young and his bamboo boards, and the Long brothers along with their epic photos of the northern Teahupoo, so it seems fitting that the opening photo of mine is of Greg sitting in the channel at Aileens. Am really amped that they ran this photo cause it really shows the power and aggressiveness of Aileens.
So a huge thanks to all the surfers in my photos who have made my dream come true, and last and not least thanks to Alex, you're a legend, cheers mate.

My first ever cover and my first blog

Well things are changing around here pretty quick, not so long ago i was too frightened to even look at a computer or digital camera,eventually i bit the bullet and followed the rest of the pack to see what the craic is all about, just over 3 years on now and i have my first ever mag cover so i'd thought i'd celebrate by having a few beers and then getting the bright spark of an idea of doing a blog, which will probably be my downfall as i don't update anything too much but i will defo give it a go aye. Anyway i'm over the frign moon that i got my first cover, it's on the "Outsider" magazine which funny enough isn't a surf mag! But i'm still stoked as stoked can be, Al Mennie is the man who made it for me, without his ballsy approach to it on this day the cover wouldn't have happened, hats off to ya Al