Ireland may have begun 2014 in the grip of some of the fiercest winds and rains in recent memory with many coastal areas battered by gale force winds and torrential rain while low lying areas have suffered some localised flooding.
For surfing enthusiasts from all across Europe and beyond, however, such weather has provided the perfect reason to make a trip to Ireland to ride huge waves which could break new records.
These intrepid surfers have been making there way to the countless beaches which are dotted along the coastline from Mayo to Donegal in the hope of taking advantage of the high waves which are anticipated as high tides driven by a storm hit the North West coast.
Neil Britton, from the Fin McCool Surf School in Rossnowlagh who was busy organising two-in surfing for customers stated:
“We have surfers here from all over Europe, mainly France, Spain and Portugal and some from the States and South Africa… This is a very exciting event, there has been a build-up to this for more than a week. We are looking at the biggest swell in living memory and it’s possible we could see waves higher than the biggest ever recorded which was around 97-ft a couple of years ago.”
Surfers have been hoping to avail of cheap Ireland vacations in order to get a chance to ride the huge waves anticipated. They have been monitoring the waves on the specialist websites such as magicseaweed.com with Bundoran in County Donegal another favourite destination for the surfers hoping to take advantage of the great swell.