Alastair Mennie

Some sup footage filmed along North Coast over the past few months. Filming and edit by Jamie Russell.

The past 9 months has been incredible for surfing all over the country with some of the best conditions in memory. The North Coast is still producing great waves even now at the end of May! This clip has some footage from the past seasons at Finn MacCools, Nazare (Portugal), Mullaghmore, Prowlers, Aileens and a secret spot. Filming and editing by Joe Kennedy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/AlMennie#p/f/0/skTGbUHOC7c

The early days of Finn MacCools (Northern Ireland)

In November 2010, the discovery of the awesome ‘Prowlers’, an exciting new big wave spot, was the talk of the Irish (and international) surfing community. Now with the memory of that ground-breaking discovery still fresh in everyone’s mind, Al Mennie and Andrew Cotton have done it again, this time joined by Lyndon Wake.

The new wave known as ‘Finn MacCools’ was first paddled on Tuesday 1st of February, and the three returned Thursday February 3rd for a heavier tow-in session, joined by photographers Gary McCall and Conn Osborne.

Located on the end of the world famous Giant’s Causeway, Finn MacCools breaks right on top of the famous rocks shown on almost every postcard from the area. According to Mennie, the wave only breaks when the surf reaches “a solid 8ft and low tide, and that’s only if it’s not ravaged by wind”.

Discoveries like this are a reminder of the untapped potential still available along the Irish coast. Al Mennie and Andrew Cotton are continually pushing Irish surfing to the limits (on an almost daily basis it seems!). Surfers like Mennie and Cotton, and spots like Finn McCools, are the reason Irish surfing is being seen worldwide more and more, and has become a must visit destination for many international surfers.

Although Ireland has a plentiful supply of world class waves for the average surfer, the big wave scene is thriving, and with yet another top class monster wave to add to the list of tow-in spots around the country, we can be certain that the boundries will continue to be pushed for quite some time!

For full story, photos and video check out the links below.

http://www.westcoastsurfer.com/features/finn_mac_cools.html

Al Mennie and Andrew Cotton invitees at Quiksilver La Vaca Gigante

La Vaca Gigante was green lighted for Monday 17th January. Al was surfing in the Canaries at the time with British/Canarian transplant Rob Small and Cotty was just beginning a three month stint in Ireland with Croyde surfer Lyndon Wake. Both Al and Cotty dropped everything and made their way to North Spain to meet with the forecast 15ft (Hawaiian) surf.

As with every big wave session which arises within a couple of days notice, chaos is guaranteed. Cotty drove 6 hours to Bilbao from Barcelona to collect Al from the airport before driving on to Santander. Both guys extremely exhausted from travelling but amping to see the surf! That night was spent in Somo with fellow competitors and big wave chargers from around Europe.

“The morning of the event was cold but sunny and the swell was a little inconsistent but there were no doubt some legitimate waves out there!” said Al.

The decision was made to start the 75min heats at 11am. The big sets were in the 15 foot range but were inconsistent and more frequent 12fters broke throughout the heats. This inconsistency made it difficult to allow everyone to pick and chose waves.

The finalists were announced and both Al and Cotty along with Joao de Macedo from California, Eric Ribiere (France/Brazil) and a solid crew of French, Basque and Spanish surfers all made it through.

The Organisers decided that the final would not run as the surf was no longer consistent enough to be fair to all those involved. The contest was stopped and some prizes awarded.

The winner of ‘Best Wave’ was Californian surfer Joao de Macedo and ‘Best Wipeout’ was local man Dani Garcia.

Future Fins have added Al Mennie to their team of international surfers. Mennie was a pioneer of big wave surfing in Ireland and has an impressive surfing CV marked with numerous Billabong XXL entries. Mennie has surfed all over the globe which has helped him continually raise the bar of big wave surfing in his home country. He is an author of his own book ‘Surfing Mennie Waves‘.

He has now teamed up with future fins to give him better performance in big waves. Being a huge 6’5″ and 16 stones in weight, Mennie is a big man and therefore selects fins from the futures range to specifically suit his build.

The waves of Nazare, Portugal have long been feared and respected by surfers, fishermen and the local community. A deep water canyon, over 200m deep, just off shore funnels swell in from the atlantic before projecting it at the coastline. The result is huge a frame style peaking waves with extreme power.

Al and Garrett had been in contact as they watched the same swell in the Atlantic from two different shores. Garrett with his mind fixed firmly on Nazare and Al with his on the wild Irish coast. It was decided that Cotton and Mennie would fly into Lisbon on Wednesday 17, November to be ready to surf at first light, thursday morning. Both Cotty and Al had been at various events and xxl awards that Garrett was also at in the past but had never actually met him so all they had to go on was his unrivalled reputation as a waterman.

Both Cotty and Al knew that if Garrett is calling it ‘on’ then based on what they knew and had seen of him then they were in for some pretty crazy waves the next morning.

As morning broke the guys checked the surf from the light house on the headland. Huge peaking waves were exploding on the outside. The area between the break and the shore was the main point of concern. Huge wedging whitewater was rushing at speed towards shore from almost every angle causing the surf zone to be trecherous for driving the ski to do pick ups of fallen surfers. Then when the surf hits the shore, all the water runs south into the corner of the cliff and the beach before it enters a huge rip current which looked almost impassable for a ski which meant if someone falls and gets sucked in there it was going to require expertise to get them out. Safety is paramount in big wave surfing and all these guys have lots of experience in that field. Quite often the wave riding is never discussed before the session but the rescue plans, for if something goes wrong, are dealt with in detail.

The guys suited up and headed out there with three skis and two of Portrugals best surfers Jose Gragario and Reuben Gonzales. Al rode on the ski with Garrett. After rounding the headland, huge pyramids of water were standing tall before exploding. Garrett was frothing. Within seconds he was screaming at Al “Get ready, get ready, I will put you on one”. This was Al’s first time at this spot, it had only been light about for an hour and before he knew it, Garrett had him on a rope being flung into bombs! They all agreed; one team would tow, one ski would be used to hold all the extra boards and equipment and the other ski would be the safety ski. All the guys rotated between driving the surfer, surfing and doing safety. The swell was due to peak at noon with the peak of the tide so Garrett saved himself for that so surfed last when it was due to be biggest. Garrett is a very determined person and there is no doubt he wants to ride the biggest wave he can find. The quote of the day has to have been when there weren’t really any sets coming through and a lot of the waves weren’t breaking properly. Al wanted to make sure Garrett got a few while waiting for a huge one. Garretts response was “Unless it says Holy Shit on it, don’t put me on it!” That just about sums it up. He only wanted a giant one and nothing else was going to give him the rush he needed.

The session was definitely eventful for everyone involved, Reuben got smashed by a bomb as no one could get to him before it hit him, Al rode a huge one, Garrett was going so fast on one the bumps were sending him airborne down the face of waves that grew so tall they never seemed to have a bottom to them, Cotty did some excellent pick ups under pressure and charged a few bombs and Gregario rode arguably the biggest wave of the day.

Garrett and the local Portuguese community plan to run a tow in event at Nazare in the future. It is a great location to test the skills of any big wave rider. All the guys have surfed huge waves all over the planet yet they all agree that Nazare is one of, if not thee biggest and most powerful and challenging beach break on earth.

http://www.nazarenorthcanyon.blogspot.com/