How Green Was Our Wave

Kevin Cavey

Description

1970, Irish team competes in Jersey Channel Islands. Left to right: Harry Evans, Dave Kenny, Hugh O’Brien Moran, David Govan, Roger Steadman, Eamon Matthews, Bo Vance, Kevin Cavey, Alan Duke.
This nostalgic story takes one back to the beginning of surfing in Ireland, which was hammered into reality by one ambitious youth attempting to live the dream. He was entranced by the Hawaiian Islands and sunny California and thus yearned to make Ireland in that image. This meant expanding the sport and putting Ireland on the world map of surfing nations, and that’s just what happened.
Much of this was inspired by his reading an article in the 1962 edition of Reader’s Digest. The story depicted surfers in Oahu on head-high waves, just like the waves in Ireland, he thought! As he went, he gathered supporters and soon formed Ireland’s first surf club. In March 1966, they mounted an exhibit stand in at the Irish Boat Show. At this show valuable contacts were made that were to become lifelong. His club went on a series of surfaris around the coast and introduced the sport in such places as Strandhill, Rossnowlagh, and Tramore. He then competed in the 1966 World Surfing Championships in San Diego and, with his colleagues, staged the first Irish Surfing Championships in Tramore, County Waterford, in September of 1967.
The story tells of the people who responded to the clarion call and just how proficient these surfers were to become. It also relates comical yarns, told by the people they met on their way, and also the encounters that early surfers experienced as they attempted to make fiberglass boards—and then try them in the heaving ocean. The book concludes with a look at the 2006 Silver Surfari celebrating the fifty years of the sport. Old timers returned for the event held in Lahinch, County Clare, and Rossnowlagh, County Donegal. All this was done because it was felt that before the passage of time dimmed memories of old, it was good to rally those icons to whom so much is owed.

Sujets

• Social History
• Histoire
• Georgian architecture
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Trafford Publishing
• Date de parution: 17 octobre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781490784823
• Langue: English

Extrait

HOW GREEN WAS OUR WAVE
 
THE DAWN OF SURFING IN IRELAND
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Kevin Cavey
 
 
© Copyright 2017 Kevin Cavey. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
 
ISBN: 978-1-4907-8475-5 (sc) ISBN: 978-1-4907-8482-3 (e)
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
Trafford rev. 05/11/2023
www.trafford.com North America & international toll-free: 844-688-6899 (USA & Canada) fax: [phone]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the families and friends of those great people who have surfed and loved, and gallantly passed into the hands of God. But also, to encourage those remaining who still foster the spirit of adventure that prevailed in the golden years to continue in that pursuit, and share with others as they do so!
Also, to thank the following for their advice, support, photographs and comical recollections:
Articles and comments: Roci Allan, Brian and Barry Britton, Ger Byrne, Ioni Byrne, Colm Cavey, Gerry Collins, Jurek Delimata, Henrietta Glendon, John Guinan, Maureen Gleeson, Patrick Kinsella, Zoe Lally, Martin Lloyd, Eamon Matthews, Mike Murphy, Joe Mc Govern, Sam McCrum, John McCarthy, Kevin Naughton, Antoin O’Looney, Hugh O’Brien-Moran, Alan Rich, Roger Steadman, Rodney Sumpter, Eddie Stewart, Bo Vance,
Readers: Conor Burns, Ann Cavey, Georgina Cavey, Tim Ferguson.
Editing: Alex and Jurek Delimata, Simon Coury.
Historical information: Brian Britton, Colm Cavey, Dave Kenny, Carmel Evans, Hugh O’Brien-Moran, Eric Randal, Joe Roddy.
Photographs: Archives of the Irish Surfing Association, Easkey Britton, Naomi Britton, Gerard Byrne, Alan Duke, Davy Govan, Mike Heary, Ian Hill, Tony Lynch, Eamon Matthews, John McCarthy, Nobby Redman, Hugh O’Brien-Moran, Tom O’Brien, Alan Rich, Bo Vance.
Moral Support: Ann, Paul and Georgina Cavey and Carolyn Thornton.
In appreciation: Gerry Collins, Derek Moody and Ken Costigan of the Great Outdoors, Chatham Street and Clarendon Street, Dublin 2, who are the sponsors of this book.
Kevin Cavey
[e-mail]
To my wife Ann whose beauty, I endlessly perceive in the heaving ocean.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Some names might have been changed to preserve personal iden tity.
SPONSORS
Sean Duggan, Sweet Fancy Productions, Brooklyn, NY 11215. [e-mail]
The Irish Surfing Association, Easkey, Co Sligo. Tel [phone] . www.isasur f.ie
The Great Outdoors, Chatham St, Dublin 2. Tel [phone]. www.greatoutdoor s.ie
Lahinch Surf Shop, Lahinch, Co Clare. Tel 065 – 7081543. www.lahinchsurfshop .com
T Bay Surf Club. Tramore, Co. Waterford. info@tbaysurfclu b.ie
T Bay Surf and Eco Centre, Tramore, Co Waterford. Tel [phone] www.tbaysurf .com
Finn Mc Cools Surf School, Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal. 071 9859020. finmccools@gmail .com
Fin Mc Cools Surf Co. Green St, Dingle, Co Kerry. Tel 066 – 9150833. www.finmccool s.ie
Bundoran Surf Co. Main St, Bundoran, Co Donegal. Tel 071 – 9841968. www.bundoransurfco.com hop.c o.uk
Troggs Surf Shop, Main St, Portrush, Co Antrim. Tel [phone] www.troggss urfs
Incide Surf Shop, Bridge St, Cork City. Tel. 021 – 4505077. www.facebook.com/in cide
River Deep Mountain High, The Corn Store, Middle St, Galway City. Tel 091 – 563938 www.rdm h.ie
Surf Mountain, Lisburn Co Antrim and Bangor Co Down, Tel+44 (0) – 28914588 www.surfmountain .
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1Here and Now
Chapter 2Touching the Monolith
Chapter 3California and Hawaii
Chapter 4Boat Show 1966
Chapter 5The first ever Surfari
Chapter 6C&S Bilbo Surfboards Agency
Chapter 7Surfari to Tramore
Chapter 8The World Event in San Diego
Chapter 9The Boards of Antrim
Chapter 10First Irish Surfing Championships, September 1967
Chapter 11Surfari to France
Chapter 12Intercounty Championships 1968
Chapter 13European Event in France 1971
Chapter 14European Championships Lahinch, 1972
Chapter 15Silver Surfari at Lahinch
Chapter 16Tow-ins
Appendix
INTRODUCTION
Ireland of the 1950s seemed to be a mixture of Georgian architecture, green buses, windy weather, turf smoke, sunshine and good-humoured people. Across the landscape were twisted roads, ochre pastures and fresh air perfumed with heather, gorse and hay. Around its indented shores there was the addition of salty air laced with the aroma of seaweed thrown in by the raging oceans that surround the mystical isle. In the great emptiness only seagulls, puffins, cattle and sheep claimed ownership of the land. All this because most of its population had departed – emigrated to distant lands. The Ireland we used to know was indeed ‘for the birds’.
The Atlantic continues to pound the western seaboard of the island, while Saint George’s Channel to the south and the Irish Sea to the east are equally capable of unleashing violent storms at any time. Ireland, according to St Patrick, is water-bound and will end its days beneath the waves. Now, we islanders never took what he said quite literally but nevertheless treated his comment with respect. Of course, we don’t know if the term ‘beneath’ refers to melting ice caps or whether his ‘waves’ were those of financial debt – or was he just jesting?
The limited fuel capacity of aircraft on transatlantic flights came as a windfall to the island, as Shannon in the south-west of Ireland became the recognised refuelling point for Europe. This new-found advantage for the region resulted in the establishing of the Shannon industrial estate and the duty-free airport, inspired by the late entrepreneur Brendan O’Regan. This was matched by the hydroelectric dam project created by Sean Lemass, who was then Taoiseach. A new direction had been found. But this was only the beginning of a hard-uphill battle to give the Republic new economic growth, which would eventually lead to joining the European Community, followed by a limited period of prosperity.
Memories of those times flash on the mind like a flickering black-and-white movie. One memory is that Gaelic games, along with golf, were almost the only sporting activities known in those days. People would laugh or show no interest if one suggested introducing a foreign sport, especially if it was associated with tropical climates!
Therefore, let us select surfing as a subject, and peer back over the years to see where it all began…
It was first sighted by westerners in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778 when it was chronicled by James King, a lieutenant serving with Captain James Cook’s famous expedition to the Pacific. Cook was killed by natives in Kealakekua Bay, but King nevertheless wrote a description of the natives’ ability to surf: ‘When there is a great swell breaking on the reefs or the shore, twenty or thirty men and women go out on planks of about their own size. They select the biggest swell and push forward with their arms so as to stay on top and ride it to shore.’ He observed the chiefs, known as Ali’i, used longer boards of from twelve to twenty-four feet to ride waves on beaches and the reefs specially selected for them alone.
History tells us that it was the Marquesas and the Polynesian people from Tahiti who originally discovered the Hawaiian Islands. The Polynesians were profound lovers of the ocean and the waves, and used short wooden boards just long enough to lie on which were called paipos. Today they are still used, but called body, skim or belly-boards. It was in the Hawaiian Islands that the really attractive art of standing upright on a board was perfected. As more and more foreigners and missionaries came to the islands, surfing declined.
Amazingly it was a young man called George Freeth, born in Ireland in 1883, who revived the sport. His parents immigrated to Oahu when he was an infant, and while still a young man he became so proficient in the sea that the example of his surfing encouraged others to imitate him. In 1907 the same young George Freeth was brought to Redondo Beach, California, where he demonstrated the sport and caught the imagination of the public.
One heroic event received wide publicity. It seems that in a storm George, entirely on his own, swam out and rescued six Japanese fishermen from a capsized boat, one by one. He was quite rightly awarded the Life Saving Corps medal of valour for his bravery. Sadly, due to his continual exposure to cold water, and because of a global flu epidemic, he died on 7 th April 1919, at the early age of thirty-five.
It was therefore quite befitting that fifty-seven years later this spirit of Aloha would take root and grow, to embrace the youth in Ireland – the land of his heritage. And why not? Ireland has a maritime coast and an ocean equally as exciting as the Pacific – even if it is just a little cooler. The story of that flourishing is the one I want to tell in this book.
First a few basics. Although today the term ‘surfing’ is often associated with the World Wide Web, when related to the sea it becomes the sport of surfboard riding. This is where, as King recorded, one paddles out to s