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Displaying items by tag: StandUp Paddle Boarding

#StandUpPaddle - Jason Conniry is set to make it a first for Cork's An Rás Mór during the Ocean to City Cork Harbour Festival this coming June bank holiday weekend - plying the long-distance rowing course by stand-up paddle board.

As the Irish Examiner reports, the former US lifeguard and longtime surfer, who now resides in Clonakilty, will attempt the shorter 13km race route on his 14ft paddle board just months after surgery for cancer.

He'll be the only 'stand-up guy' among hundreds of rowing boats, kayaks, canoes and even dragon boat teams in the annual race that stretched from Monkstown to the heart of the city in its full 28km length.

“If this goes well, next year I would love to open the race up to prone paddle boarders and we could see up to 100 entries," he said.

The Irish Examiner has more on the story HERE – and also carries news of an incredible encounter with a killer whale by a stand-up paddle boarder in New Zealand this week.

Like Reilly was lucky enough to have his GoPro to hand when the inquisitive orca swam right up to his board for a nose around.

"This one bee-lined it for me," he said of the cetacean in the video above. "He popped up about 10cm away from the back of my board. I was a bit nervous thinking, 'what's this guy going to do?'"

Published in Surfing

#surfing – 'F*** off back to England you ****!' A surfer who allegedly rode another surfers wave has been racially abused on a Cornish beach by a stand-up paddle boarder (SUP) who appears to consider Cornwall another country.

Longboarder Phil Brown, 29, was subjected to abuse after 'sharing' a wave. The former Army serviceman described it as 'disgusting' and 'inappropriate'.

The Unknown paddle boarder launched into a four-letter tirade at Bude, Cornwall. He told the surfer: 'I will put you in f*****g hospital' if he rode same wave again.

Published in Surfing

#Surfing - A trio of Galway windsurfers completed the 95km round trip to and from the Aran Islands last weekend - setting a new Irish record for stand-up paddle boarding in the process.

The Irish Times reports on the successful adventure by Dan Gardner, Daniel King and Joe Gallagher, who embarked on the challenge to raise funds for the Galway RNLI lifeboat service.

Setting out before 5.30am on the morning of Saturday 8 June, they returned to the Galway Docks before 11pm that night - stopping at the halfway mark for lunch on Inis Mór.

The trio are each believed to have covered some 4,000 strokes an hour to make their record time of 17 hours 33 minutes. The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

In other surfing news, the Sunday Independent reports on a website that's seeking to connect surfers of all levels with the right waves for them.

Waterford-based Liam Sinnott set up Swellseekers.ie with business partner James Hassey two years ago, filling a gap in the market for booking surfing trips online at a time when Ireland was only just emerging as a world-class surfing destination.

Though the site currently only takes bookings for surfing and other watersports in the Waterford area, Sinnott says he hopes to expand his site's scope nationwide by next year to serve a growing wave-riding community of "50,000 surfing all year round".

Published in Surfing

About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation 

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour

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