Windsurfers Katie McAnena and Finn Mellon Are National Wave Champions

8th November 2023

2023 Irish National Wave Windsurfing Champions Finn Mellon and Katie McAnena ashore after the competition at Kerry’s Brandon Bay off Castlegregory, Co Kerry Credit: Megan Gayda

Windsurfers Finn Mellon and Katie McAnena have taken gold in the highly competitive national wave championships in Kerry’s Brandon Bay off Castlegregory, Co Kerry.

For McAnena, it is her tenth such win, while Mellon competed against his father, Niall, to take his second national title.

McAnena, from Galway, is a GP based in the north-west and mother of two. She became the world’s first woman to wind surf the Hawaiian wave “Jaws” during a gap year from her medical studies ten years ago.

Cathal Clarke of Galway took first place in the men’s silver event, while Megan Gayda of Donegal was second in the female class.

Niall Mellon competing in the 2023 Irish National Wave Windsurfing Championships at Kerry’s Brandon Bay off Castlegregory, Co Kerry Photo: Megan Gayda

There were 33 competitors in all in what was the second and final competition of the 2023 Irish Windsurfing Wave Tour, with Simply Blue renewable energy company as main sponsor.

Simply Blue Wave Classic Mens Gold Fleet Top 4 (from left to right) - Julius Byrne, Ruaraidh Summerville, Finn Mellon, Niall Mellon

Mellon, who was co-organiser, said that competitors travelled from all over Ireland, with windsurfers also from Wales and Scotland taking to the water.

On conditions, Mellon said the contest experienced two very different days off Castlegregory.

“We were lucky to get both port and starboard tack wave riding, giving us true all around winners at the end,” he said.

“On the Saturday, we had a building swell all day, and the conditions got better and better as the day went on,” he said.

2023 Irish National Wave Championship results

Gold fleet

1. Finn Mellon (Kerry, Ireland) (New Irish Men’s Champion)
2. Niall Mellon (Kerry, Ireland)
3. Ruaraidh Summerville (Scotland)
4. Julius Byrne (Galway, Ireland)

Ladies

1. Katie McAnena (Galway, Ireland) (New Irish Ladies Champion)
2. Megan Gayda (Donegal, Ireland)
3. Elena Fleming (Cork, Ireland)
4. Aoife Cooke/Amy O’Donnell (joint fourth place)

Men’s Silver

1. Cathal Clarke (Galway, Ireland)
2. Charlie Loch (Wales)
3. Billy O’Neill /Conor Fagan

Published in Surfing

Tagged under

Windsurfer

About The Author

Lorna Siggins

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Lorna Siggins is a print and radio reporter, and a former Irish Times western correspondent. She is the author of Search and Rescue: True stories of Irish Air-Sea Rescues and the Loss of R116 (2022); Everest Callling (1994) on the first Irish Everest expedition; Mayday! Mayday! (2004); and Once Upon a Time in the West: the Corrib gas controversy (2010). She is also co-producer with Sarah Blake of the Doc on One "Miracle in Galway Bay" which recently won a Celtic Media Award

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