Scoring Ireland At The Drop Off A Hat
When a decent long period groundswell hit the UK and Ireland in mid September, it wasn’t just the first proper swell of autumn, but the first proper swell in a good couple of months. Most of the surfers in the UK headed south and west in search of decent banks; Cord head shaper Markie Lascelles headed to the reefs on the west coast of Ireland.
“I had a bunch of boards to take over for team riders Noah Lane and Conor Maguire, and a few customs that I could deliver rather than shipping, so I was just waiting for a good chart to appear to try and time it well. This swell popped up so we got the last of the boards through the factory and I think I pulled the trigger the night before or the morning of the day that we left.”
Aussie Jack Croker joined Markie on road-trip DJ duty and they drove up to Fishguard in Wales to get the night-time ferry at two in the morning, rolling off on the other side of the Irish Sea at 5am.
“We drove straight to The Cliffs to get in at Aileens, which was kind of small to medium sized for The Cliffs but it was really beautiful and perfect waves” says Markie. “It had got a bit windy when I first paddled out, so a load of guys went in and it was fairly quiet, but then the wind dropped and I was out there in glorious sunshine wearing a 3:2, which at The Cliffs which is pretty unheard of.
That’s only the third time that I’ve surfed Aileens and it’s the first time that it’s not been freezing and I didn’t feel absolutely terrified. We got the nicer side of it on this trip but that was pretty rare and I still got a 10-12 footer on the head at the end of the session. It’s still a serious wave.”
Markie and Jack spent the next three days surfing around the Lahinch area with Noah and some of their mates who live around that area, including local standouts like Ollie O’Flaherty and Dave Blount. “The whole trip was pretty special. It was glassy and 4-6 foot pretty much everywhere we surfed. We had some of the reefs around Lahinch perfect with just a few local crew around, and everyone was sharing waves. There’s a really strong bunch of groms over there and they were just absolutely ripping, so I was just sitting back and watching really. Shout out to the strong crew of groms over there, Conor, Odin and Josh to name a few, and the girls ripping. It was really impressive to see!”
As well as the boards being dropped off for Noah and Conor, Markie had a whole stack of surfboards in the back of the van to make the most of the R&D opportunity.
“I took a 6’8” triple stringer which I surfed quite a bit – the yellow one with the glass-ins. And a new 2+1 model, a Humbucker, a long fish and a diamond tail step-deck mid-length that I’m playing around with. And the new Mid-Ark, which somebody bought out the back of the van. The long fish went great – I’m really enjoying that. I had a few different waves in mind but I didn’t really know what sort of waves we’d be surfing, so I just threw a lot of stuff in the van.”
As always, if you like the sound of any of those new designs that Markie and the team are putting through their paces before they can earn a spot as a permanent model in the Cord range, then get in touch directly. And if you live somewhere with pumping waves on your doorstep then let us know and you never know, you could just have your next surfboard delivered by hand on the next good swell.
We'd like to say a huge thank you to the local crew on Ireland's West Coast for sharing your waves with Markie and Jack. Any of you who are thinking of heading to Ireland to surf, remember to respect the local crew and give them their waves!
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