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Displaying items by tag: Daniel McGlynn

#Surfing - A young surfer from Kinlough talks to the Leitrim Observer about his experiences taking part in the RTÉ series Big Wave Bootcamp, currently showing Fridays at 5pm on RTÉ Two.

Seventeen-year-old Daniel McGlynn was among eight teenagers who were given just three weeks to become expert surfers under the instruction of American surfing professional Ken Bradshaw.

After an audition process for the reality TV series last summer, McGlynn and his fellow teens were flown half-way round the world to Hawaii. But despite the idyllic surroundings, the group faced a punishing training schedule.

“We were in bed at 9 o’clock and up at 6am. We would then train for at least four hours in the day," says McGlynn. "Everything was so much tougher, the waves could be up to 6ft or 7ft tall, even to paddle out on the surf board was a challenge as the current was so much stronger!"

An occasional surfer for almost a decade, McGlynn says he really stepped up his game under the tutelage of Bradshaw.

"He literally taught us everything he knows about the sport, everything. He also rode the biggest wave ever recorded, a massive 86ft in Oahu, Hawaii.”

The Leitrim Observer has more on the story HERE.

Published in Surfing

The Rankin Dinghy of Cobh, Cork Harbour 

A Rankin is a traditional wooden dinghy which was built in Cobh, of which it’s believed there were 80 and of which The Rankin Dinghy Group has traced nearly half. 

The name of the Rankin dinghies is revered in Cork Harbour and particularly in the harbourside town of Cobh.

And the name of one of those boats is linked to the gunboat which fought against the Irish Volunteers during the 1916 Easter Rising and later for the emergent Irish Free State Government against anti-Treaty Forces during the Irish Civil War.

It also links the renowned boat-building Rankin family in Cobh, one of whose members crewed on the gunboat.

Maurice Kidney and Conor English are driving the restoration of the Rankin dinghies in Cork Harbour. They have discovered that Rankins were bought and sailed in several parts of the country.