Filed under: Ireland, People, Surfing Ireland, Volvo Ocean Race, tourism | Tags: Galway Bay, galway ireland, galway tourism, Ireland, Sailing, summer festivals, tourism galway, visitors to ireland, Volvo Ocean Race, west of ireland
TOURISM bosses have issued a stark warning to Galway hotels, bars and other businesses in the hospitality sector not to jeopardise the city’s reputation abroad by overcharging and ‘cashing-in’ during the Volvo Ocean Race this Summer. Up to 140,000 visitors are expected to visit Galway for the two week festival in May and June which represents a unique opportunity to showcase Galway and get repeat tourism business.
Fáilte Ireland have warned businesses that if they overcharge and fail to offer a warm welcome, the city’s reputation will be sullied which could cause damage to the long-term future of the tourism sector in Galway and the West.
Already 30 hotels have signed up to the ‘Galway accommodation charter’ where they have agreed to offer fair pricing during the stopover, and others have been urged to follow their lead as there are fears that negative publicity internationally about poor service and overcharging could damage Galway city’s bid to hold the stopover again in four years time.
Filed under: Ireland, Places, Surfing Ireland, conservation, tourism | Tags: beaches, Galway, Ireland, maps, Surfing, tourism
THERE are fears that Galway’s reputation as a premier tourist destination will be severely damaged following the publication of a damning report into the bathing water quality in the county.
The Environmental Protection Agency report, which was published yesterday, identifies county Galway as having two of the worst beaches for water quality in Ireland. The environmental watchdog deemed the water at two Galway beaches, Clifden and Na Forbacha, unsafe to swim or bathe in because they failed to meet the standards for ‘faecal coliforms’ — human or animal waste material in the water.
Just two other beaches in the country have failed to meet this basic European water quality standard.
It is the third year in a row Clifden failed to comply with the regulations while Na Forbacha also failed in 2005 but complied in 2006.
Filed under: Ireland, People, Places, Surfing Ireland, tourism | Tags: galway ireland, maps.ie, Surfing Ireland, tourism, windsurfing
Easkey in County Sligo is Ireland’s premier surfing spot, while Bundoran in County Donegal is considered Ireland’s surfing capital. Other popular sites include Strandhill, County Sligo; Achill, County Mayo; Tramore, County Waterford; Rossnowlagh Beach, County Donegal, and Lahinch, County Clare.
Ireland might not be known for a beach bum culture or limitless sunshine, but its breathtaking coasts and world-class waves have made the island a star in the world of surfing and windsurfing. Pros from all over the globe travel to Ireland to take on its challenging swells, and the country has hosted more than its share of championships.
The damp, cold weather is another challenge for surfers. Even in summer, water temperatures in Ireland don’t average much more than 60 degrees in July and August; in winter they’re more like 50.
The sport certainly doesn’t spring to mind when most people envision Ireland; the country is more likely equated with whitewashed stone walls, grazing sheep and lively pubs.
But for those aware of secret global-surfing hot spots, more than a few can be found in Ireland, almost all of them along the western coast.
Bundoran in County Donegal lies in the island’s rugged northwest and is the de facto epicenter of Ireland’s surf scene. The town boasts a celebrated beach culture, offering multiple surf schools, yearly festivals anchored by surfing and establishments with names that seem transplanted from Bondi Beach or California, such as Turfnsurf Lodge.
Bundoran has hosted European Surfing Championships and the Quiksilver World Masters in 2001, and those high-profile events spurred Irish surfing’s popularity not only with international surfers but with Irish people eager to learn, insiders say.
Tourism officials said no comprehensive statistics have been compiled to track the increase in revenue or visitors brought by surfing. But the sport has sparked the transformation of numerous seaside spots, from small or quiet villages to resort towns bustling with surf boards and athletes.
Filed under: Ireland, Surfing Ireland, conservation | Tags: Energy Conservation, Galway Bay, Oceans, technology, Waves
The Irish government, university research departments, and a growing number of entrepreneurs are collaborating to tap the power and resources of the ocean. Wavebob and Ocean Energy, for instance, have installed wave power prototypes in Galway Bay and will experiment with larger prototypes in an energy park being created just to the north, off the coast of county Mayo according to recent reports.
By 2012, the government aspires to harvest 75 megawatts from waves and by 2020 to raise that energy production to 500 megawatts. It also wants to export services and equipment.
For all the promise of electric power generated by the sea, there are many impediments, from construction costs to environmental concerns and the sheer unpredictability of the weather. But rising energy costs and concerns over climate change are providing renewed impetus — and a new sales pitch — for those pursuing such projects.
Wavebob plans first to target customers with the greatest need: Ireland, Tahiti, Hawaii, and New Zealand are all promising early markets. Oil companies, which run their offshore derricks on diesel power, are also potential early customers. Chevron, in fact, is an investor. Defence departments are also interested.
Energy potential
For wave power, Ireland’s location is ideal. Perched in the North Atlantic, it sits in the path of the Gulf Stream, cold air masses from Greenland, and winds from North America. The fetch — or the distance that wind travels without obstruction — across the Atlantic is one of the longest in the world, and that wind energy in turn propels waves.
Potentially, waves could provide up to 70 per cent of Ireland’s electrical power. Ireland consumed 24 terawatt hours of power in 2006, and roughly 20 terawatt hours could conceivably be tapped from waves.
It could also mean quite a number of jobs in regions of the country hit hard by the decline in fishing. The government’s goal is to create 1,900 jobs. Wavebob, for one, will base some operations in Killybegs, a struggling fishing and shipbuilding centre.
In January 2008, the Irish government created a €26m (about £21m) fund for development and commercial deployment of ocean energy. The fund also provides for a feed-in tariff that will pay wave farm owners 22 cents per kilowatt hour for their energy, higher than the subsidy for wind power.
Hostile deep seas
The Wavebob device is a large buoy, technically called a self-reacting point absorber, with an internal chamber that can accommodate mechanics and technicians — will be capable of producing 1.5 megawatts of power when the full-scale version is ready in 2010.
When incoming waves pressurise fluids contained in chambers in the buoy, the pressure then turns a turbine. Unlike other prototypes, Wavebob’s device also senses the power of incoming waves and automatically adjusts to maximise pressure and energy extraction.
Wave energy won’t be easy, though, says Parish, Wavebob’s CEO. The company’s founder, William Dick, a physicist who helped computerise distilleries on the island, started working on wave power in the early 1990s. A small prototype in a wave tank in Cork and the quarter-size scale device in Galway have worked fine, but the real test comes with the full-scale device in two to three years off the Mayo coast. If it succeeds, multi-megawatt wave farms can start being planned for 2015 and beyond.
Besides needing to survive harsh seas, the devices have to be cost-effective. To this end, Wavebob has teamed up with Georgia Tech to see if it’s possible to make buoys out of concrete rather than steel. Capital will also have to be spent to build coastline power stations and undersea electrical cables, which can cost €1m per kilometre.
With all of these challenges, the government’s goals — 500 megawatts, 1,900 jobs — are pretty lofty. James Ryan, who manages strategic planning and development services at the Marine Institute, explains that knowledge about the ocean is fairly sketchy, too. The Institute recently completed a digital map of Galway Bay — the first map of the sea floor since Brits undertook the job with chains and weights in the 1860s.
Longboards are the original, and very first variety of board used in standup surfing. Ever since the sixth-century the anciant hawaiians have used 8 to 24 foot solid wooden boards when practicing their ancient art of he’e nalu. Surfing was brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Polynesians and has since become popular worldwide. The ancient boards were carved and fashioned out of solid wood, reaching lengths of ten to fourteen feet long and weighing as much as 150 pounds. Replicas of these ancient boards have been made and surfed by Roy Stewert and Tom Wegener. Both men and women, royalty and commoners surfed. But the longest of boards (the Olo) was reserved for royalty. During the 19th century, some extreme western missionaries actively discouraged surfing, viewing it as sinful. Surfing almost died out completely.By the early 20th century, only a handful of people surfed, mostly at Waikiki. But there, it started to grow again. Beginning in 1912, Duke Kahanomouku, a Hawaiian Olympic swimmer in the early 1900s, brought surfing to mainland US and Austrailia. Because of this, Duke is considered the “Father of Modern Surfing.” From that point on, surfing became an integral part of the California beach lifestyle. In Malibu (in LA county), the beach was so popular amongst the early surfers that it lent its name to the type of longboard, Malibu Surfboad.
In the 1920s boards made of plywood or planking called Hollowboards came into use. These were typically 15 to 20 feet in length and very light. During the 1950s, the surf trend took off dramatically as it obtained a substantial amount of popularity as a sport. The design and material of longboards in the 1950s changed from using solid wood, to balsa wood. The length of the boards still remained the same at an average of 10.5 feet, and had then become widely produced.It was not until the late 50’s and early 60’s when the surfboard design had closely evolved into today’s modern longboard. The introduction of polyurathene foam and fiberglass became the technological leap in design. In the 1960s, the longboard continued to remain popular as its material changed from balsa wood to fiberglass and polyurethane foam. In the 1960’s, the introduction of the shortboard, averaging 6.5 feet, allowed surfers to make tighter turns, quicker maneuvers, and achieve faster speeds, thus radically changing the way people surfed. This “shortboard revolution” nearly made longboards obsolute for all practical purposes. But in the early 1990’s, the longboard returned, integrating a number of the design features invented during the shortboard revolution. Surfers rediscovered the grace and poise – the “glide” – of the longboard, and the fun of classic manouvers that are not possible on a shortboard. In some circles the battle between longboards and shortboards continues. But many surfers live by a philosophy of finding the joy of surfing a mix of boards and surfing styles to suit the waves of the day.
The Irish coastline is one of the most prolific and beautiful surfing backdrops in the northern hemisphere, if not the world.. For the past few years the world’s amateur surfers and best professionals alike have flocked to surf the secret emerald coastline and enjoy the hospitality of the Irish. Ireland is blessed with a huge variety of quality surf spots and some really uncrowded areas – meaning that you will get the best out of your surf trip.
The best time to surf Ireland is during the period from September to May each year when the swells are plentiful. The only real drawback to the Ireland surfing experience is the cold water, but if you are prepared to overlook this little problem you are in for a treat.
If you are considering a trip to Ireland then start out by heading to Donegal Bay – it is like a swell magnet and there are spots dotted all over. There really is a wave for everyone, with a huge variety of uncrowded reef and beach breaks with predominant offshores. If you are into big wave surfing there are also some spots that will hold up to 20ft+.
On Co. Clare’s doorstep lies, Aill Na Searrach, a recently discovered wave hosted under the majestic yet foreboding backdrop of the Cliffs of Moher. These are classified as big wave spots and require a whole different approach to conventional surfing. Big waves move too fast and are simply too huge to paddle into. The only alternative to surfing them is called tow in surfing. Surfers use jet sky assistance to pull them onto growing hills of swell, which evolve into waves as they hit the reef.On October 15th 2005 the weather charts predicted the perfect conditions for Aill Na Searrach to break. A team of surfers including John McCarthy, Dave Blount and Rusty Long launched a jet sky from Doolin pier and headed south along the cliffs to surf a virgin wave for the first time. This has all shot been shot by two cameras over three different dates.Even on an international scale it’s an increasingly rare and magical occasion when a new and perfect wave is discovered. Even rarer still are the hand full of humans marked with the privilege, honor and ability of carving down the face of a virgin wave and looking into her untamed eyes for the first time.This simple act of indescribable beauty is considered the ultimate nirvana bestowed upon a surfer…The historical relevance and importance of what happened on that day is enormous. Aill Na Searrach has been breaking here for thousands of years, exploding perfectly, un-tamed, un-riden. How many jaw-dropping monstrous waves must the cliffs have faced? If a wave breaks in the ocean but nobody hears it does it still make a sound? On this day she gave up her secrets and allowed the privileged the honor of surfing her. The fottage speaks for itself!Already surfing magazines all over the world are stunned by Aill Na Searrach, their reader’s drool and fantasize over her perfect majestic beauty, power and potential. It will not be long before top professional surfers from around the world are queuing up to surf this wave. Irish surfing culture from weekend novices to big wave chargers has reached a monumental and pivotal point in history. Now truly is the time to tell a story of such unflinching dedication and joy, an entire culture so passionate about riding waves.
A new surf map of Ireland has just been published giving an overview of the best spots to catch decent waves. Have a look on: www.maps.ie/surf-map-ireland.htm for more info. There’s also a guide to Island hopping and the best windsurfing beaches in Ireland that are also worth checking out.
