The last time I was in Ireland I was blessed with the opportunity to go surfing.
At the time I would not have called it a blessed moment. It was a bit of a hassle but the payoff was memorable.
To rent a board and a wetsuit was only about 10 Euros for the day but I would have paid 100 for the wetsuit alone. The water was freezing. And not like 'freezing' here in Southern California when it is in the 60's, no, it was Irish cold.Irish ocean water required not only a wetsuit but booties, gloves and the all important head wet suit....what do they call a wet suit for your head? A cozy? Whatever it was, it was necessary. I stupidly paddled out the first time without it and the first time an Irish wave came and I duck-dove under it, I almost died! It was an instant ice cream headache. No, more like 200 ice cream cones were simultaneously stuck to my head at once. I had never felt pain in my noggin like that before, even when my dad lifted me into the ceiling fan! It froze my brain! It actually slowed my thinking down which in turn slowed my body down. I guess that's why it took so long for me to get to shore to put on my head cozy.
Yes it was cold and was a pain in the butt to carry everything down a hill to the beach but damn it, I was surfing in Ireland!
Take the time to pay a little extra, work a little harder, take the chance of being eaten by an Irish shark...to "surf in Ireland". Don't let awesomeness slip by because of inconvenience.
Dang, put a diaper on my and I could lead a cult...on a surfing trip to Ireland!
