A week in the life of Al & Cotty

Al and Cotty's amazing week, it all started on the 20th of October when Al Mennie and Andrew Cotton drove 7 hrs thru the night for one of the biggest sessions ever surfed at Aileens, the only other surfers who dared take her on was Fergal and Shane, with 3 other skis in the water watching. They surfed what is been said as the biggest day surfed there, you can see some photos of mine on Towsurfer.com. After that Al and Cotty then had to drive 7hrs back up to Portrush then hope on a plane to Oregon via Heathrow airport to compete in the Nelscott Reef Classic on the 22nd of October doing UK and Ireland proud. After geting back a few days later there was a call on for Aileens again, not so big this time but good for a paddle so they drove down 7hrs again thru the night to surf it at day break on the 27th October, Al paddled into a few nice ones and then they towed a few along with Paul O'Kane, and if that was not enough Crab was going off so they then surfed that for 4 hrs before packing up and heading back up north, but this time instead of another 7hr drive it ended up being a days drive as the van broke down. These 2 guys have heart and soul when it comes to there passion, surfing, they don't winge about fat waves and being bored, they're just stoked to be out there surfing and having the honor and skill to ride these monsters, fair balls to yas, yas are a bigger man than i'll ever be. hahaha
Have just found out that they have also have been accepted for nomination for the Billabong XXL, so congrats guys and well done.

Andrew Cotton

Al Mennie

Aileens October

Hey hey hey...John & Debs got married 19/09/2009

The Happy CoupleHere Comes the Bride

The Lads

Congratulations John & Deborah Heffernan
What an awesome day, the forecast was for wind & rain, there was no way that was going to happen, the sun shined all day on the happy couple. My good surfing mate John finally got married, it may have taken a while but it could not have been more perfect for John & Debs. Debs arrived traditionally late, when she stepped out of the back seat of the car you could see a real sparkle in her eye and a smile so genuine you could not help but smile back, Debs looked absolutely stunning along with her mother Carol & bridesmaid Kathleen, Debs dad Dave walked her down the aisle pass the smiling faces to a grinning John. John & the lads looked smart in their suits & looked proudly on as the ceremony commenced. After a few words & prayers they exchanged vowels & sealed with a kiss. Then the party started, held in the glorious Knockranny house it was set to be a big night. A bit too big for some! I just want to say a big thank you & congratulations on behalf of everyone to John & Debs for an awesome day that none of us will ever forget.
Cheers
Debs mum Carol
The wedding Party

Father & Bride with Bridesmaid

The Heffernan clan

The Entrance

25th Annual Warriors Run

They have to run from here to the top of Knocknarea & back down to the start/finsh line on the seafront of Strandhill

Winner Josphat Boit
Congratulations!!

It was a great day & night had by all, the 25th anniversary of the Warriors Festival was held in brilliant sunshine with a sea breeze keeping the runners & walkers cool, nearly 800 runners turned up for the gruelling 15km run up Knocknarea, the biggest year of runners ever, the crowd was on there feet the whole time, with the 1st runner Jospaht Boit coming in at a record breaking 0:53:04 the crowd went mental, the 1st local home was Turlough Conway in 0:59:11. The 1st woman home was Anne Fitzpatrick in 1:14:54 & not far behind was the 1st local woman Aisling Cawley in 1:18:32. Lots of celebratory pints of Guinness went down afterwards with both the Strand bar & The Bellavista packed to the max with happy campers, there was a 10min display of fireworks which were amazing to watch in the clear calm night, congratulations to all the runners & walkers & hope to see you there next year.
For more info & finish times visit
www.warriorsfestival.com

Local surfer Aine came in at a very fast 1:23:53

Local Claire came in at a very respectable 1:34:46

Sligo open

Sligo Open Champion Aaron ReidRunner up Andrew Kilfeather

Gary Hall

It was a weekend of all sorts with howling onshore winds on the Saturday causing mayhem in the line up, then come Sunday lite offshores and a ever decreasing short period swell, they made the most of it thou and got the comp finished. Aaron Reid came up trumps to take the open and the U18, Andrew Kilfeather came 2nd in the open and won the longboard event. But if there was a entertainers trophy it would have to go to pint sized Gearad McDaid with his head stands, 360's and general fun antics, pleasing the crowd with clapping and laughter. A great day had by all.

Entertainer Gearad McDaid

Longboard Champion Andrew Kilfeather

John Coady

Too much time on ya hands

Karim Rejeb is a man with far too much time on his hands but he is using it wisely to entertain us all during these flat spells, check out this hilarious video on how to past time, hats off to you Mr. Rejeb you certainly made me laugh

Me, me mate Dazza and U2

Me good mate Dazza

Wow what a frign nite that was, i managed to score some insane tickets for U2 last Saturday in Croke park, we were in a restricted area so when everywhere else in the stadium was wedged to the eyeballs with smelly armpits, farts and people pushing you left, right and centre we had the luxury of only a few around us and the outside walkway of the stage only 2m away! When U2 came on the stage you couldn't help it but admire how far they've come from the late 70's singing to only a few school mates to now when the cheer was that loud from the 80,000 strong crowd you could hardly hear the opening tune, as Bono himself walked on the cameras projected his image onto the massive 360 screen above, Bono had a grin as wide as Coke park in amazement at the crowd which was great to see that even he was taken back by it all, they belted out the tunes for just over 2 hrs, it was a great nite
cheers U2

Is this the ultimate travel boardbag?

Shipsterns blowing minds

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.

Flat day fun

What to do when it's flatter than a squashed hedge hog and hotter than a steam pipe. Well Mikee Hamilton, Paul O'Kane & I decided enough was enough, so they went out and ripped it up after they had dumped me on an island and left me to it! Camera in hand I took a few shots trying not to get it wet with one eye on the lads and another on what i was stepping on. The lads had a ball throwing each other around in circles like someone doing the hammer throw, laughs all round and a great day of what could have been another of sheer boredom, it also gave me the chance to have a play with photo shop producing what you see here in the last shot, a true Power Source-Mark McGuire collection. Flat day fun, ya gotta luv it...

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