FINS

Final FINS...

The last issue of FINS should be on the shelves sometime soon. It's been a fun four issues of work but thanks to the downturn and the surf companies getting smashed by their stock market values dropping to 10% of what they were worth 6 months ago things are awfully tight in the surf industry. Little magazines in countries with small markets are one of the first things to go when ad budgets need culling. No ads= no money to produce the mag and the current owners have been pouring money down the drain since they bought the title to try and keep it afloat (so people whining about all the fat ad cash going to an English company can hush now, as that has never been the case, quite the opposite and at least the mag is printed in Ireland) it's a real shame as I think we were going somewhere good and the feedback has been amazing... Thanks to the readers, riders, shops, advertisers, printers and everyone else involved in producing the mag. It's been fun. On the plus side it does mean I can spend some of the winter somewhere warm wearing boardies instead of being rugged up in a 6mm with all the extras. So muggins is off to Indo, cos now I'm back in the freelance bear pit I needs to score some good waves. It's gonna be tough, mags worldwide are suffering, ad takes are way down, editorial budgets are getting hammered and the end result is freelance photogs and writers like me are gonna feel a rather big pinch. Case in point I'm looking at 30% an issue of what I was getting before from the UK mags... Yikes.
Anyways. Have a good crimbo. Hope you get some waves...

(ps: The cover shot is one of mine- Glenn Hall (now surfing for Ireland on the QS) in Hawaii).

Reidie On Hawaii...

Sligo’s Aaron Reid made his first pilgrimage to the North Shore recently. We were there for the last two weeks of his month long stint on the Rock. Here’s his words…

So this was your first trip to the North Shore. You've seen it in hundreds of photos and video parts, how was the reality compared to how you imagined the North Shore to be?
I didn’t know Rocky Point even barrelled, I just thought it was a fun but lumpy wave but when your out there you see how many rippers are getting shacked. Sunset was such a powerful wave I took a few poundings out there. I didn’t have a clue what the other waves were like. I knew the crowds were going to be bad though.

Cory's Kerazee Wave...

Cory Lopez's first wave at a mysto new spot in Africa... Seals=sharks= yikes. But what a wave...

Reidie Does The North Shore...

Co Sligo's Aaron Reid is out in Hawaii for a months training with Surf Solutions coach Joel Grey. Seeing as I was needing a bit of sun before the long haul of winter and had a few sheckles left in the editorial piggy bank it seemed a good plan to come out for the last few weeks and shoot. The Donegal Bay reef honed style of Aaron fits with Hawaii, he's happy out here and isn't suffering too much in the relentless tropical sunshine. We're here for two more weeks so will update as we go, looks like we're in for a good run of swell for the next week or so... Should be good. In the meantime I'm off to the legendary Ted's Bakery at Sunset to grab a pint of coffee and a bacon and egg roll. 

Al And Cotty Off To Chile???

Got a mail from Al at the weekend, him and Andrew Cotton are off to Chile for an invitational tow in event... Which is puriddy cool. Pichilemu is the place and Lobos is the wave, a rock anchored sand point that can handle monster South Pacific swells. Event is tomorrow so hopefully there'll be some shots and footage knocking around soon. I can't go cos a) I is skint b) I'm going to Hawaii to hook up with Aaron Reid and some English kids. In the meantime here's a nice shot of Oli O Fla from Donegal Bay a few weekends back...

A New Right?

Strange things happen when pro surfers turn up in Ireland. Take Ian Walsh from Maui who was over a few weeks back... He surfed G-Spot on a 5'5" and actually paddled into a few. He got dropped off at Mullags earlier in the day and got a (in his words) a 12-foot set square on the head. But best of all he decided that there was a rideable right at one of Ireland's most famous lefts... This baffling little episode started as I was running down the road with my camera housing and Damea the Transworld mag photog that was with him asked if I was 'going to shoot the left or the right?' I replied perplexed- 'err, the left??? obviously?' but then found myself shooting the right cos Walshy was getting barreled on it. He got a couple of belters... Until he paddled out after one which went 'kinda dry'. You can see the suck off the reef in the shot. Anyhoose. Best get back to building the next issue...

FM on FB...

Cos we are all down with Web 2.0 and stuff we is on Facebook as well now. It's good for us as a mag as we can get pics, vids and content to you with no stress. It's like a over achievers club, friends of the mag on Facebook will be up for exclusive comps and get to see shots and stuff first before they hit the mag (of course they will be here on finsmag.com in due course as well) it's just another way of sharing the love. At the moment there's all the shots from last weekends mad Mully and G-Spot sessions (below) but there's also a few from the fun day Sunday when Boog Spot and Pumps worked... Theres also a link to a hi-res version of the Mull/G video... Heavy stuff. Anyhoose. Big storm coming next week run for the hills....
The Facebook group can be found here or just search for 'FINS magazine' on FB...

Kelly is K9...

(A retrospective peak at the day Mr Slater won his 9th world title... From my ASL Blog)

From midnight last night until the start of Kelly and Eneko Acero's heat today at around midday it has pissed down, rained like you wouldn't believe, with a few interludes of pea-sized hail.

Which made the event fun for all concerned. 

Yours truly (what is sleeping in his van in the car-park) had exactly 2-hours sleep last night, as sleeping in an Astra estate in one of the worst storms of the year is like trying to sleep in a badly malfunctioning ball bearing factory.

The hail was a rare treat, natures most potent natural alarm clock, nearly deafened me this morning and has probably removed the paint from my roof. It may have killed small animals across Northern Spain, who knows, I'm still rattled. It was really appreciated by Kelly (not 'quite good surfer' Kelly but ASP photog Kelly) who was out shooting in the boat in the channel when the ice bullets hit... He survived, just.

So what of the event. What are the gory details??? Aside from the rain and the localised flooding....

Donegal Bay Gets Downright Dirty...

Well. In answer to yesterdays question- yes there were some waves in Donegal Bay... Pretty hard to paddle into waves but none the less some were paddled. American pro Ian Walsh surfed G-Spot on a 5'5". I am not shitting you. He made a few as well. It was however a day for those marvellous men with their jet powered water bikes... Richy Fitz, Neil Britton, Big Al (as the American crew that are over visiting said "dude, that guy is like, seriously huge") and Mr Cotton. It wasn't perfect, the weather was shocking, but some fun waves were had at a few spots up and down the coast... Here's a taster of Big Al. On most people this wave would be triple overhead... Cos it's Al it's only double... Click here for gallery...

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines...

So. What's it going to be? A tow in day? A fun double overhead day? Or unsurfable wind ruined boke? Who knows. It's a decent old low thats been winding up out there and it looks like the west swell is aimed squarely at Fundoran... We'll see in the morning, the forecast isn't as epic as it was- a few days ago the MSWs etc of this world were calling friday to sunday with double digit surf, single digit wind strengths blowing a nice southerly offshore... But forecasts always change, the low is coming a bit too close for comfort tomorrow morning but stops being inappropriate and maintains a polite distance come the afternoon. It should be a good weekend somewhere... If we score we'll let you know.

Sorry I didn't post anything from the Spanish WCT, the wifi connections were weak, expensive and it rained more that week than it does even in Ireland. There is a gallery of shots from the events here,,,