#SURFING - Surfing is Ireland's new national pastime, if the Irish Independent is anything to go by.
The paper's Amanda Phelan travelled to Lahinch - home of 'biggest wave' award hopeful Ollie O'Flaherty - to investigate the boom in surf lessons to young people on the west coast, "one of the new growing business in this region", and meet some of those involved in helping newbies get their feet wet.
"Hundreds of youngsters, some of them locals and others on holiday, line up in Clare to learn surfing, a sport that requires skill, a calm temperament, good leg strength and a lot of courage," she writes.
And courage is something these kids are definitely not lacking, especially with Ireland's famously freezing waters!
The Irish Independent has much more on the story HERE.