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31st March 2021

NI Surf Pro Al Mennie Battles Blaze on North Coast Beach

File image of Al Mennie getting a tow out to a big swell

Northern Ireland surfing pro Al Mennie was among the volunteers who joined fire fighters battling a gorse blaze on Castlerock Beach in Co Derry last night (Tuesday 30 March).

As the Belfast Telegraph reports, 40-year-old Mennie was out catching the waves minutes from his home when he noticed the fire break out around 8pm.

The surfer then teamed up with a group of teenagers to attempt to dampen the flames with sand before the arrival of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.

The Belfast Telegraph has more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastal Notes

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William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago