A Guide to Achill Island

A guide to Achill Island. The un-commercial version.The thing about Achill Island is that it can either make or break you and it is a fine line between the two. But if you are one of the lucky few who ventures beyond the veil of torrential rain, you are guaranteed to discover a place of immaculate beauty and adventure.

I present you with a list of things  not to be missed on Oilean Acla.

1. The Greenway: Achill’s latest batch of trials are incredible, running from Mulranny into Achill sound (13km). You can rent bikes in Newport or bring your own.  It is the closest you’ll get to an open top bus tour.

2. If you don’t fancy walking, then I hate to break it to you but you are in the wrong place. Achill hosts several routes, several hundred that is. But my two personal favourites are Keel Beach and The Deserted village

But check out this brochure for all the hill walking routes: http://www.achilltourism.com/hillwalking.html

3.Croagh Patrick. No arguments, just climb it. It is something to add to your bucket list and then tick straight off.

4.Keem – the secret beach. It is not so much a secret as so downright scary to reach the destination that not a lot of people venture there. But if you can bite the bullet and drive over a tarred road that scales the edge of a cliff, then both the getting there and the destination are unreal.

5. Cafe’s: My Mammy’s favourite part of the island and I am sure the only reason she accompanies me on the six hour drive from home. There are a lot of dives but amongst the crap three or four shine through:

-The Beehive Crafts and coffee shop, Keel

-The Cottage coffee shop, Dugort

-Blackfield surf hut and cafe, Keel

-Lynotts Pub, Cashel

6.Now, down to the real fun, Achill is a hardy adventurers paradise. The playing field, the equipment and the teachers are there if you are willing to cough up the dough (money).

-Surfing – There is a pile of surf schools to choose from for the young ones. However, if you just want to give it a go yourself, Surf le Thomas is on site at Keel Beach all day everyday at prime time with foam boards for a tenner to use at your leisure.( Would you check out my rhymes!)

-Windsurfing , kayaking and kite surfing (€120 for three hours with PureMagic) all on Lake Keel.

After a few days of this, my advice is take the evenings off, shut your doors, shower the muck and sweat off your face and retire to the couch with a novel, a notepad or a DVD and a lovely cup of tea, I won’t even judge if you add a splash of whiskey to that, you are in Ireland after all.

Kitesurfing on Achill Island, Attempt 1

Courtesy of Kitesurfing.ie

Here is the information that anyone can provide; 120 euro for three hours with the company Pure Magic, on Lake Keel, Achill Island. On the other hand, what I can offer is a descriptive personal experience so as you can make up your mind before you start counting the pennies.

 It was, in reality, 120 euro to stand knee-deep in dirty water while the heavens pissed on you, and you flew a kite. However, I am no cynic, I am so glad I did it. Instruction was land based for the first hour and a half using a little kite, learning the theory such as the names of the kite’s equipment, wink, wink and all that malarkey. The latter half, we progressed to the real kite and in all seriousness stood in water up to our knees and through trial and error learned how to control it.

With half an hour remaining on the clock I psyched myself up for some time on the board. When I expressed my anticipation I received my equivalent of a slap in the face. Apparently you don’t get to try the board until the third or fourth lesson. Silence, followed by horror. No, no, what we got to do was much more exciting and more importantly, it was safe. The old fella (other pupil) and I, crippled in our safety gear got to kneel in the water and be dragged a few meters by the kite, until we were recalled to safety by a whistle, just in case we passed the pink buoy and drowned in the murky depths of the scarier hip high water. My badly needed adrenaline rush fizzled out promptly.

So freezing and pissed off, I stood like a drown rat as me and your man took turns holding the kite, feeling like a loser as all around us the chiseled vagabonds whirled through the air showing off and laughing at my hapless expression.

However, I cannot write off this sport because technically I never got to kite surf, but Il be damned if I’m coughing up another 320 euro to get to lesson number four where I actually get to touch a board. So Instead my new mission will be to find a nice young man that I will charm and he will teach me free of charge!

A trek up Croagh Patrick

If you are a native Irish and are unaware of the status of the mountains that sit on your doorstep, than shame on you, but at least now you know. They are immaculate and grueling and you can find one to scramble up in almost every county. But if you are a native Irish and you are aware of this catalogue of land and still fail to use them, then my apologies but you are a fool and you are missing out.

 

Croagh Patrick is one of Ireland’s more famous sleibthe (mountain) as it is a pilgrimage and recreational route combined. It sits eight kilometers outside the quaint town of Westport, County Mayo and its summits reaches 2,507 ft. All I have ever heard about it growing up, far, far away from it (5hrs) that it is tough, really tough. I did not train for it, but I hold a general level of fitness so on impulse I decided last week that I would attempt to scale this beast. The truth be told, it was grand. Breaking it down, there are two stages, the first is fine once you develop a rhythm. At the half way point it flattens out to meet the base of the steep climb to the summit. Here is where things get tricky, especially if you are trying to drag your mother up it after you.To add to the heartache it is buried in shale all the way to the top. At the base, you can rent sticks to aid your ascent, best one euro fifty I ever spent.

 

It was a pleasant sunnish day for Ireland, so naturally the mountain was packed. People of various sizes and ages littered the main route, with a constant wave of people passing you then stopping to rejuvenate, then passing again. There was the unfit, been dragged up by an eager friend or relative red-faced and bleary eyed, then the foreign tourists speaking in a foreign tongue and smiling at all who they pranced by. There were the seasoned hikers who all dolled up in their hiking gear made it all look so easy and finally there was the minority who ran up it and who I gaped after both astounded and jealous.

 

At a leisurely pace it takes about two hours to get up and down it. A weathered church sits on the top surrounded by a view of the sea and greenery that Ireland can be proud of. People dined there on ham and bread rolls and flasks of tea. What I love about mountains, well hills, and the people who climb them is the atmosphere that is created along the trek. The shared experience of pain and triumph breaks the ice and allows everyone on board to chat, to congratulate or to offer words of encouragement. On the descent I met a local man who had walked this route sixty-nine times this year, instantly I felt like a fool. I smiled at the man while thinking fair play to him who actually got and was living by the code I was preaching. The Irish landscape and the people who walk its green pastures are steeped in history, and there to be taken advantage of if you can just force yourself to look beyond the weather.

Learning to Longboard

For every normal person a standard helmet would suffice for a first attempt at longboarding, For me, head to toe coverage – hockey goalie style.I was always told the best way to learn is to plunge right in, head first. I was handed the board and told to go, no instructions on how to steer, stop or even go. Apparently skateboarding is more of a trial and error sport, hit and miss sort of thing.It’s easy, the pro’s chorused, just go. Are you’s kidding me? But I proceeded to stand on the board, obviously no theory equals no technique which equals me face down on the floor. Day two – Observation. This should of been day one. You watch, you learn. Easy and result, I improved mastering the ability to travel in a straight line.But I craved to learn faster, like always I wanted to run before I could walk. So I put in the time. I longboarded to work , I went out to the park for an hour in the evening, every evening.I wanted to longboard because I yearned to surf, my only setback was the lack of a sea to practise in. So this, I figured, was the next best thing. Surfing on tarmacadam. The beauty of it been I could do it year round, all the time, any time. It was hard work but it didn’t take me long to catch on and then I felt it. I experienced the feeling that I read about, saw countless times on tv, that rare and thrilling feeling. It was not a hill, just a slope, but as in surfing when the wave carries you

I built speed, blood thumped in my ears, sweat droplets beaded on my forehead and a crazy grin spread over my face. I had caught the bug and I was hooked…

 

Two days later, I left the garage door open and my board rolled out. Typical me. So its back to the bike until I can afford a new plank of wood on wheels.

Humber Sailing & Powerboating Centre: Intro to Keelboat Sailing

Fact: Introduction to keel-boat sailing is theory free, what a blissful way to learn, just hands on experience. Seven hours on the water, that’s some introduction.  This way the participant either likes it or they don’t. The course run by Humber Sailing & Powerboating Centre, Toronto offers two choices, three evenings a week for two hours or the customer can squeeze it all into one day. Speaking from experience, the latter is a bit tough on the body, on the water nine to four, with only one fifteen minute stop to empty the bladder and dig into the cliff bars. For the determined sailer you can skip the docking part, use the bucket on board and survive on gorp. It’s all up to you. The price is $170, HST included, which is reasonable enough considering sailing is commonly associated with the upper class aka the rich.

The certified instructor, mine at least, was adorable, both funny and informative. The extent of what we wanted to cover was entirely up to us, we could race, participate, listen, question or simply relax while he pulled the strings. Luckily I chose the racer, the smaller and apparently faster boat, (P.s if that was the fast both, thank god I wasn’t on the slow one.)  The capacity was four people. Four strangers that got to know each other pretty quickly, personal space would not want to be a big issue with you. We tacked, we steered, we hoisted the sails and by the closing hours we were talking and actually understanding the overwhelming sailing lingo.

The course is sturdy, there to be taking advantage of. It’s the perfect introduction to decide if sailing is a hobby you wish to pursue and invest in or just an experience to say that you’ve tried.But beware; go with a friend, someone you can have a laugh with out on the high seas, or else you could end up like me, squeezed in between an older couple both in finance and creepily in love, while you tag along uncomfortably gate crashing their couple bonding time.

Sailing itself is not as adrenaline pumping as expected. Therefore, it is not the sport for me. But when the instructor sensing my discomfort let me sit up on the bow (tip) of the boat alone, legs dangling over the edge with the water splashing on my legs while the sun cremated my pale suncreamless skin, I thought wow this is the life.

Review: Blue Crush 2

The spin offs on major movies is usually make or break time. It can crash and burn or it can explode into a box office sensation. Sadly, Blue Crush 2 made neither category, but floated somewhere in between. It is the perfect crappy chick flick for a Saturday night in, alone with a giant calorie loaded bar of Galaxy and a pint glass of hot chocolate clotted with marshmallows.

The storyline is mundane, the same thread has been retold a thousand times over; a rich young beauty fed up of her fabulous life treks off to Africa to retrace her dead mothers footsteps and fails to tell her aloof father that she’s leaving. She stumbles, she falls, hits rock bottom, recovers and lives happily ever.End of.

 Yet, the camera shots hit base. The solid quality combined with the retro playlist and surf plays a large role in redeeming the weak plot.After a shitty day at the office and the realisation that you are broke and single, sometimes this is just the remedy. This or get pollaxed on a fat bottle of vino. This way you save some cash and get to sleep in a bed as opposed to sprawled on the bathroom floor with your head perched on the rim of the toilet.

 The semi-pro actors were a pretty bunch; Sasha Jackson played the protagonist Dana, Elizabeth Mathis as her best friend Pushy, and Sharni Vinson the bad guy, I mean girl. No award-winning performances. The highlight of the movie is the portrayal and promotion of women’s surfing and its sponsors and that they pull off with style. Any young girl that watches this will want to rip. An unexpected plus is that the movie teaches you a thing or two about pro surfing, the pecking order, its sponsors and location, location, location. The legendary Jeffery’s bay is the heroines final destination and is now officially on my bucket list. It succeeds in making the audience want to bum off on a decent road trip with the gang and catch some waves. I cannot find fault with that!

On the outside, I am a hater of the cringey chick flick genre and I can unearth faults en masse if called upon. However, at the end of the day, when I turned off the tv while the credits rolled, I stumbled to bed giddy with a cheesy grin cemented on my face and butterfly’s in my belly.

Toronto Camogie Club

An audience is gathering. People are pointing.  Fifteen women belting each other with sticks. It merits a few stares. As they run by in their pairs, the Irish shout;“Keep the hurling alive ladies”, while the Canadians inquire politely into the name of this strange sport. Camogie is back in Canada and Toronto is one of the first to jump on the bandwagon.

The last time ladies trotted around High Park caman in hand was back in the 70’s. Anne Loughnane former centre forward recalls; “There were two teams in Toronto back then. We mostly played each other and travelled to tournaments in the States. We got to play New York at the CNE and several feis in Hamilton. It is great to see it making a comeback.” However, it is early days and this year will focus predominantly on getting a team established, recruiting players, naming the club, securing sponsorship and purchasing helmets.

“Our plans for this year include competing in the International Camogie Tournament in New York on October first and there is a possibility of amalgamating with Atlanta Georgia for the North American finals to ensure sufficient numbers. “says Leanne Fitzgerald, the person credited with the idea to start up a club. Fitzgerald was brought on in the men’s hurling game at the seven aside GAA tournament in Cleveland in May and it was there that the idea was first planted.

The response so far has been overwhelming. PK O’Kane Hurls, a Derry based company shipped over a batch of thirteen hurls and twelve sliothars within two days of placing the order. The men’s side, Toronto Hurling club have being incredibly supportive. The turnout of players is solid with newcomers showing up every week. At the moment it is mostly Irish girls with the exception of five Canadians but that will change as the sport begins to take root.

 Training takes place  at 7.30pm Tuesday evenings at High Park. For more information regarding membership or sponsorship, contact Leanne at fitzgerald_leanne@yahoo.ie . Here’s hoping that camogie in Canada will return and surmount its former precedence.

The Gaa Presidents Award

He may not have graced the green fields of Croke Park in his youth but he will grace its very walls. He was present on the Canadian pitches in its boom time and he is still there now on the sidelines and behind the scenes as history repeats itself and GAA abroad once again explodes, encasing the hearts of Irelands homesick emmigrants. His name, Mr. Brian Farmer.
 
This year the work of Farmer for the GAA is celebrated with the presentation of the Gradam an t-Uachtaran, the Presidents Award. This is a tribute to the 25year old Armagh man who left the Irish pastures for his career with the company Powersgreen, Dungannon in 1975. He had a choice; Toronto, Canada or Johannesburg, Africa. Which was the lesser of two evils? “I decided to try it for a year because if you want to get ahead these are the things you have to do. After three months I was homesick, I didnt know anyone, I was about to decide to go home when my friend’s brother told me about St. Mikes.”
 
In the late 1980’s Brian broke his leg at training which curtailed his days of playing. To fill the void, he took to managing and was elected chairman of the Toronto board. He played a hand in the founding of the Toronto club Durham Robert Emmets and in its name was a tribute to his old Armagh club Clonmore Robert Emmets. “At one stage I managed St Mikes with Seamus O Keane and then Durham. It kept me in touch, ensured the passion and competitive feel didnt fade. If you havent got that then you shouldnt be there.”
 
Mr. Farmer has led a life which is inextricably intertwined with the Gaa.His debut began at seven years old with Maghery McDermotts football club, back in times long lost where a football consisted of a newspaper tied up with string.  He recounts the highlights of his glory days with fierce pride, recalling the year 72/73 when he won Junior footballer of the year with his club Clonmore in Armagh. Another milestone in his life was the resulting product of the sweat put into the organisation of the A&P Skydome Games and the memory of the battle twixt Dublin and Tyrone, a match of beauty which he questions if the likes of it will ever be seen again. Then there are the titles; Durham winning the senior championship in 1993 and 2005 where Brian was co manager. He adds; “simply seeing the Gaa grow, the enthusiasm of new clubs and the new players coming over from Ireland. The Gaa is a hive of activity and it’s not just in Toronto, the progress in the West is unbelivable.”
  
For now, the gaa in Canada is in good hands, younger people are constantly coming in and the leaders ropes are being passed down; “New blood means new ideas. It is evolution and it is essential.” The only mistake been made in his view is the outlook of some that see the gaa as an irish game for Irish people; “That is counter productive and it stunts the development of the games.” Farmer believes that if the games where showcased to all nationalities, they would take to it and see it through the same passionate eyes as the Irish do. The prospects for the future are exciting. Farmer hints that there is a floating idea to establish a GAA world cup of sorts. There are international units of the gaa scattered across the globe; in New York, San Francisco, Shanghai and New Zealand. It would be a first class tournament with a potentially controversial restriction, you would have to be native born to play. St. Mikes man Paul Loughnane was one of the first to suggest it and since then it has spiralled. Meetings have been set up and there is global interest building. Another possibility is bringing out the All Star Ladies for another round of the Skydome extravaganza.

On March 16th Brian Farmer became one of the latest recipent’s of the GAA President’s Awards in light of his phenomenal voluntary contribution to the GAA.The Award was set up eight years ago to honour those who have exceeded what was expected of them in their commitment to the Gaa.  Farmer was flown home to attend a special banquet in Croke Park to recieve the Award which is presented to a mere 16 recipents, making Brian one of an elite group. “The Gaa is a community, the people you play with when you first start are the people you play with and are friends with for life. Everyone is connected and I am delighted to be a part of it.”

5 Ironman’s in 5 Days

The body is a temple. it can be cared for, it can be abused and in an athletes case it can be pushed to extremes and exhausted, so as on occasion the audience gets to witness crazy yet incredible things.
On 8 June 2011, 26 year old former army member Ian Walsh, will attempt to complete five Ironman’s in five days. He will be competing in the European Ultra Triathlon Championships in Bournemouth in the South of England. The Waterford man will be entering the Quintuple Enduroman Race which consists of  a 2.5 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26 mile run, but he will be doing it five times, totting up an impressive total of 702.5miles.

Each morning for five days Ian will line up for take off at 6am. He will survive on a mixture of liquids and solid foods and 3 fat filled meals will be served a day. “Il just slog it out, I’ve never done an Ironman before but I’ve competed in a few triathlons and I used to box and kickbox with the army.” Walsh has also completed the annual 100km run in Galway and an 80km run in Switzerland. “I suppose i do it because i can, to test myself but also no one else does it.” he says. Walsh has kept his crucial support team surprisingly simple. It consists of only one member, his girlfriend Leanne Carberry; “I heard a story of these two men where one brought a whole support team, physiotherapist, the works and he failed to complete it. The other guy just brought his 80year old granny and he succeeded, so I’m going to go with the latter.”

His strength lies in the run, his enjoyment in the cycle. Ian has been extremely lucky on the injury front considering the huge amount of training he undertakes on a daily basis.At an earlier stage, he started off with a one hour swim in the morning, 75miles on the bike and a 14mile run. He then began to build it up to an hour and a half swim, 90mile cycle and 19mile run everyday for 5days followed by a 3 days rest. An Ironman competitor is allowed 22 hrs to complete the race each day, unsurprizingly Ian Walsh’s target is much more ambitious at 14hrs per day.

For 6-9 months what you eat for, sleep for, exercise for, all you think about is the Ironman, it consumes you. After it you’re wiped out, drained both physically and mentally. 50% of people who do the Ironman fall into depression afterwards because they go from constant training and healthy eating to a lull, to a gap in their lives. To that Walsh said; “I just won’t stop, I’ll have an active rest. I have a kickboxing fight coming up in America a month after it anyway.”

To date, he has raised €2,000 for the Share a Dream Foundation, a charity that fulfills the dreams of children with terminal illnesses. To donate, log onto my.charity.ie/event/ianslittlerace.

Golden’s Titanic Dive

Scuba diving is Ireland’s latest sporting obsession and there is no better man to pitch it to the people than Dublin diver Rory Golden. He was the first Irish diver to explore the Titanic’s remains and the first person to touch the steering wheel since its late captain. He has swapped careers from MD of Virgin Records, Ireland to jointly running Portroe Diving Center Ltd in Tipperary – Ireland’s first Inland diving centre- and he is the Founder & Managing Director of Flagship Scubadiving Ltd., Dublin. More people have been into outer space then to the ocean depths he has been.

“I did my first dive in Dalkey Sound in 1976 and from that moment on I was hooked. I have dived the whole coastline of Ireland and in every county since. I was just always fascinated with the underwater world, being born in the Jacques Cousteau-Silent World era. The thought of breathing under water still fascinates me.”

For Golden, it started out as a hobby, but with his bank of contacts it was possible to develop it into a business.From there on in, it snowballed and he landed the Titanic gig in the summer of 2000. Rory’s job was to oversee the safe retrieval of the submersibles MIR 1 and MIR 2 from the sea after surfacing from the irregular trips to the sea bed.The expedition raised hundreds of new artefacts from nearly 4,000 metres depth below the Atlantic Ocean.In August of 2005, he made a repeat visit, bringing memorial plaques from Belfast to place on the bridge of the ship, alongside one he had left from Cobh in August 2000.
“It took 2 and a half hours just to get to the bottom so you wouldn’t want to be claustrophobic. It was an amazing experience and that feeling of being apart of a unique few is indescribable.”

His favourite diving spot is off the Connemara coast; “It’s a fantastic place. The Irish do not realize the extent of this country’s potential, they assume our waters are not clear but in the right conditions its got  40 to 50m of visibility, that’s incredible. Ireland’s waters are host to a huge variety of life, with the use of a torch, you can access amazing colours and with the right equipment it’s not even that cold.”
Ireland has an untapped market for scuba diving. Golden allows; “because scuba diving is not a spectator activity like surfing, it doesn’t have the same appeal. However, it could definitely be pushed as a diving destination.Its popularity is growing as people are learning how to dive abroad, then coming home to experiment with what Ireland has to offer.”

Golden is not just a diver, he is an adventurer. He recently climbed Mt. Blanc in France in aid of the ISPCC and did a skydive.Rory will be giving a presentation at The Adventure Weekend Expo in the RDS in late May. The PADI scuba diving association will also have stall, so if you’re thinking of taking up scuba diving, come along.