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The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is set to return to Ireland on 12 September, with Downpatrick Head in Co Mayo hosting the fourth stop on this year’s international circuit.

It’s one of the four new locations for the elite cliff diving competition, along with spots in France, Norway and the Caucasus.

It also marks the fifth Irish edition of the event — following three visits to Inis Mór in the Aran Islands and 2019’s contest in Dun Laoghaire, which attracted an estimated 145,000 spectators.

Elite divers representing 18 nationalities will take part in the 2021 series, which kicks off at Cap Dramont, south-west of Cannes on France’s Mediterranean coast, on 12 June.

The athletes then head to Oslo in Norway (14 August) and Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina before their Irish stop, continuing on to Polignano a Mare in southern Italy (26 September) and Baku in Azerbaijan (16 October).

Published in Watersport

#redbull – The organisers of Red Bull Storm Chasers have scrambled all their crews and teams who had 48hrs to travel from across the globe to Ireland for the first "Mission" on the 3 mission challenge writes Brian Carlin.

Today saw the majority of the country hit with storm force winds. It's results included debris filled roads, heavy traffic, structural damage to buildings and generally unwanted among the most of the country.

Well, not quite the same could be said if you were standing on the back beach in Castlegregory, Co.Kerry locally known as "Dumps" this morning.

It's simple, Red Bull Storm Chase set a 4 month challenge where they require 3 "missions" to be completed. There is 7 possible locations, United States, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, France, Tasmania and Japan.

The conditions seemed just right for the organisers who pulled the trigger Saturday, a logistically nightmare to get the gear, teams, TV crews, helicopters to Ireland.

The first session of the day kicked off in Dumps, Co.Kerry at 7am. A dark morning that quickly brightened by mid-morning. There was a small gathering, massively understated as I read the event is "Windsurfing's Most Challenging Contest". It wasn't long before I understood the attitude, these guys were interested in the sport, they didn't care about hitting news headlines or making the papers, they spoke and were friendly but it was obvious the feeling was focused on the event and nothing else. Serious dedication. In fact I spoke with a competitor who told me his opposition flew in from Maui at 1.30am Monday to Dublin airport. He jumped straight into a car drove through the night. Had his breakfast and showered, then proceeded to suit up for the days challenge.

The crowds did begin to grow and by 12pm about 100 spectators looked on. The winds increased with gusts recorded over 50 knots. As the wind slightly shifted from south west to west south west the organisers decided to move the camp and head to "Hell's Gate". You couldn't build what seemed to be the God's natural Amphitheatre for this event. A little rocky cove that backed onto the North Atlantic, slightly sheltered which made launch and recovery much easier. The cliffs were lined with a variety of young and old, even the local farmers stopped traffic in their tractors to what must have been a rather unusual sight, Red Bull cars and vans, a low flying helicopter and handful of windsurfers who seemed to spend as much time in the air as in the water.

Six sailors now advance to the next mission, where and when? only the weather can decide the time and date.

Published in Surfing

#CLIFF DIVING - Russian cliff diver Artem Silchenko wowed the crowds on Inis Mor at the weekend, scoring big with a "breathtaking" new dive to take his second victory in a row in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.

As the Irish Independent reports, 700 lucky spectators who won tickets to the limited-capacity event in the Aran Islands saw the 28-year-old steal the thunder from veteran diver Orlando Duque on a weekend that witnessed some spectacular 28-metre dives at Poll na Peist.

"My armstand with blind entry was brilliant and I beat by Orlando by just four points," Silchenko told Red Bull after his victory, which came just two weeks after he topped Duque to claim his first win of the series in the Azores.

"When I came to the platform after Orlando dived I saw nine and nine-and-a-halfs from the judges but I knew what I had to do for my final dive [a back triple triple].

"You know it’s a good dive only when you’re underwater. You’re travelling so fast it’s impossible to take it all in. Only after the entry can you say 'yes, it’s a great dive.'"

Silchenko had to pull out all the stops with Duque putting together his best set of dives all year. And the Colombian, whose programme included a back triple triple and his trademark reverse twister, says it bodes well for the rest of the season.

"This was probably the best competition I’ve done this year," said Duque. "It’s a challenge the way Artem is performing but I’m also doing better.

"This was my highest score of the season. If I can keep up this level then it’s going to be difficult for the others."

Nine-time world champion Duque retains the lead of the overall ranking going into the second half of the 2012 series, which next heads to Boston at the end of August.

Published in Island News
Bulletin TV will be bursting onto your screens every Thursday from the 28th of October at 7pm on RTE 2. The adrenaline-jammed 8 part series brings The Red Bulletin Magazine to life and features extreme sports in full throttle from Ireland and around the world.

Aidan Power and newcomer Daniella Moyles guide viewers around the pulsating world of heroes, music, fashion and high energy sports meeting some of the worlds brightest stars and biggest risk takers along the way.

Aidan and Daniella delve deep into the world of culture and cover everything from rising music performers and fashion designers to getting down and dirty with Ireland's graffiti artists.
Bulletin TV will bring you through the USA, Switzerland, Austria and Italy as well as travelling the length and breadth of Ireland to experience firsthand events such as Rossnowlagh Irish Intercounties Surfing Championships and The Red Bull X Fighters. Along the way they meet Irish & international athletes and find out what dBUerives them beyond the amazing to achieve the incredible.
In programme 1, Aidan catches up with Ireland's top female surfer, Easkey Britton as she leads an all-girl team in the Rossnowalgh Intercounties Surfing Championships in Donegal; Daniella finds out from Karina Hollekim if BASE Jumpers are really as crazy as they seem; David Coultard burns rubber in Belfast City Centre; Keith Walsh tells us of the pain of skateboarding; with the help of Isaac Newton, Travis Pastrana jumps his car 82 meters in the air and Akte Blani demonstrates that if you don't like your seat on a plane you should move....to another plane.
In programme 2, Daniella joins one hundred motorcross and enduro riders as they do battle over the original steeple chase route in Co. Cork; Aidan talks to Felix Baumgartner about his plan to be the first person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle; Mountain Biker Aaron Chase tells us what his spinal chord and a doughnut have in common; and Daniella catches up with award winning Irish fashion designer Amanda Grogan.
So, sit back, belt up and enjoy the world of extreme sports and culture with Bulletin TV. It promises to be an unforgettable ride.

Bulletin TV is a fully funded television series produced by COCO Television for Red Bull Media House GmbH.

Published in Surfing

Ireland's Trading Ketch Ilen

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

Designed by Limerick man Conor O’Brien and built in Baltimore in 1926, she was delivered by Munster men to the Falkland Islands where she served valiantly for seventy years, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties.

Returned now to Ireland and given a new breath of life, Ilen may be described as the last of Ireland’s timber-built ocean-going sailing ships, yet at a mere 56ft, it is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

Wooden Sailing Ship Ilen FAQs

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

The Ilen was designed by Conor O’Brien, the first Irish man to circumnavigate the world.

Ilen is named for the West Cork River which flows to the sea at Baltimore, her home port.

The Ilen was built by Baltimore Sea Fisheries School, West Cork in 1926. Tom Moynihan was foreman.

Ilen's wood construction is of oak ribs and planks of larch.

As-built initially, she is 56 feet in length overall with a beam of 14 feet and a displacement of 45 tonnes.

Conor O’Brien set sail in August 1926 with two Cadogan cousins from Cape Clear in West Cork, arriving at Port Stanley in January 1927 and handed it over to the new owners.

The Ilen was delivered to the Falkland Islands Company, in exchange for £1,500.

Ilen served for over 70 years as a cargo ship and a ferry in the Falkland Islands, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties. She stayed in service until the early 1990s.

Limerick sailor Gary McMahon and his team located Ilen. MacMahon started looking for her in 1996 and went out to the Falklands and struck a deal with the owner to bring her back to Ireland.

After a lifetime of hard work in the Falklands, Ilen required a ground-up rebuild.

A Russian cargo ship transported her back on a 12,000-mile trip from the Southern Oceans to Dublin. The Ilen was discharged at the Port of Dublin 1997, after an absence from Ireland of 70 years.

It was a collaboration between the Ilen Project in Limerick and Hegarty’s Boatyard in Old Court, near Skibbereen. Much of the heavy lifting, of frames, planking, deadwood & backbone, knees, floors, shelves and stringers, deck beams, and carlins, was done in Hegarty’s. The generally lighter work of preparing sole, bulkheads, deck‐houses fixed furniture, fixtures & fittings, deck fittings, machinery, systems, tanks, spar making and rigging is being done at the Ilen boat building school in Limerick.

Ten years. The boat was much the worse for wear when it returned to West Cork in May 1998, and it remained dormant for ten years before the start of a decade-long restoration.

Ilen now serves as a community floating classroom and cargo vessel – visiting 23 ports in 2019 and making a transatlantic crossing to Greenland as part of a relationship-building project to link youth in Limerick City with youth in Nuuk, west Greenland.

At a mere 56ft, Ilen is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

©Afloat 2020