Paudies Photoblog

I know you’ve seen it already.
Watch it again.
It’s amazing.
The cinematography, the music, the poetry.
This is what I want to do.

How’s that chunky end section!

Yummy

Wade Goodall.

Been a fan of this guy since Frothing!

Check out the project he has going

www.creativedestruction.tv

Some pretty cool stuff going down, then you get to vote for what Wade does next, get this guy over here.

The Dark Side of The Lens

A few mates finished building a mini ramp in time for a huge birthday party up the coast.
Happy Birthday Rich, it’s a bit late but no matter.

The last piece of ply went on just as the sun was setting so we had to resort to alternative light sources.

Ok guys I’ve done a good bit of the leg work for you.

Here’s the letter I’m sending in to the council. Please please please print this off, sign your name and send it in. It really is worth it, and remember we’re not just saying no for the sake of it, we’re simply asking them to reconsider the location of the pier. If you have a blog please repost and we can get as many letter as possible.

Send your letters to

Planning Section,
Clare County Council,
New Road,
Ennis

To whom it concerns,

I write in objection of p108006, the current proposal to build a new pier at Doolin, Co. Clare.

I believe the current plan is grossly negligent in its current state and wildly underestimates the impact the proposed structure will have. The existing pier is inadequate for its current usage, but simply building a bigger pier will not solve the existing problems. A new pier will attract more visitors which will lead to traffic chaos in Doolin village. The bridge and narrow road through the village will cause horrendous traffic problems and lead to an overall bad feeling from visiting tourists to the area. Also, the plan proposes to remove the current area that is used as a car park by ferry passengers.

Doolin experiences regular storms throughout the year, building the pier at the proposed location will increase its exposure to larger, more consistent and more powerful waves and thus will increase the chances of it being damaged. One possible solution to this is to move the site back towards the existing pier. This extra distance will allow the wave more time to expend its energy on the existing reef and decrease the impact on the pier. Another alternative is to move the pier to the north side of the bay. There already exists an under-utilised car park as well as public toilets at this location.

Surfing generates a lot of income for the local economy. I regularly travel from Cork to surf both Crab Island and Doolin point. The proposed development has not taken into account the impact the pier will have on these two waves. Crab Island is an internationally recognised world class wave and it is possible that the new pier will affect the wave to such an extent as to make it unsurfable. It is one of the few waves surfers travelling from other countries will always mention when they talk about waves to surf in Ireland. Even in the unlikely chance that the wave is unaffected, the proposed location of the new pier will make it impossible or extremely dangerous for surfers to access the wave at Crab Island as they will have to paddle through the route taken by the ferries. Surfers are now recognised as a target market for Irish companies, with surfing being regularly featured in adverts by Discover Ireland, AIB and Denny. It is highly likely that the income generated locally by these surfers will be completely destroyed by this new pier.

In conclusion I again object to planning application p108006 in its current state and ask the council to reconsider the proposal.

Sincerely,

I guess Doolin point is a legitimate wave after all.

I’d forgotten about this session.

D-bomb Conway.

The petition is done with I think. But there’s still time to get a written objection in to Clare County Council referencing the Planning Number: 10/8006, best before 13th August. It’ll only cost you a stamp.

Planning Section,

Clare County Council,
New Road,
Ennis

Memories from a recent Bundy trip

Charts eh? Why the hell do we bother looking at them.

We arrived at 0600 to find one foot dribblers barely making it across the reef.
3.5m swell my ass.

It slowly, slowly started to pickup.

I shot land for a while, stoked on my new video buzz.

Dylan Buckley, he got deeper but the shot wasn’t as nice. Check out those hills.

There was a few crew around, but not the expected hoards.

Andy Kilfeather, he was pulling way crazier shit but I always managed not to catch it. Not used to these tricky spongers.

Andy K, before it went to shit

Not quite empty if you look closely.

Not too sure of this fellas name again, any ideas?

On the second tide I watched a lone sponge have two six foot sets to himself before jumping straight into my suit.

Bit of a swim out, but I had the last set burned into my mind making me swim that bit faster.

One smaller set comes through and I got two alright hook ups.

Then …

nothing …

Ten minutes of  nothing.

Twenty minutes of nothing.

The wind starts picking up.

Our epic hollow reef break starts doing its best impression of Ireland’s worst onshore beach break.

Bugger.

One named Peter one named Paul … … and one named Pamela