Silver surfers celebrate 50 years of Irish swell

The Irish team attending the European championships in 1969 (Davy Govan is fourth from the left)

Irish surfing is about to turn 50 and this weekend some veteran surfers are marking the occasion in a special way.

The intrepid enthusiasts who first ventured out onto the wild Atlantic are set to gather in Rossnowlagh in County Donegal.

Back then their boards were usually homemade.

Half a century of the Irish Surfing Association has seen the sport change in a way those free-spirited teenagers could barely have imagined.

'Home-made'

"In those early days, it was very primitive," says Davy Govan, one of those early surfers.

"Some people were surfing on their own and had never actually met another surfer.

"There was a fellow from Bangor that we met. He was unaware of our existence; we were unaware of his. And he saw us waxing our board; you know you put the wax on the top of the board to repel the water so that your feet can grip and you don't slip off.

"When he saw us doing this, he said 'You know I always put the wax on the bottom part of the board. I thought it was for making it go faster'!"

"In those early days, it was very primitive," says Roci Allan, one of those early surfers

That early lack of expertise was soon to change with the arrival in Ireland of Australians and Californians, drawn by tales of the hefty waves that build their strength crossing the Atlantic before breaking in dramatic fashion on the north and west coasts.

"They kind of demonstrated to us what was possible," said Davy.

"We always had confidence that the waves here were good enough and this was really confirmed by these visiting Australians and Californians."

Many of those visitors were living in Cornwall at that time where a board-making industry was in its infancy.

In Ireland, it still tended to be the case that, if you saw a board, you could be pretty sure it was home-made.

Wetsuits too were made by the surfers themselves, painstakingly cut from sheets of unwieldy neoprene.

A surfer at Rossnowlagh beach where the sport is more popular than ever

These days the ready availability of wetsuits and boards is one of the driving forces behind an explosion in the sport's popularity here.

For those who remember the virtually empty seas of the sixties, there could be a tinge of regret as these days it can seem like a struggle just to find space to surf in.

'Bashed about'

Davy welcomes surfing's growth with open arms.

"There are people of all different abilities in surfing and they all seem to derive similar amounts of enjoyment from it," he said

"It's probably nothing to do with how technically good you are; it's just being in the ocean. I know people who can barely stand up on their boards and they would go out and get bashed about in the waves and they come in and they've enjoyed themselves as much as somebody who's had some fantastic rides.

"It's about throwing yourself in the ocean and it's joyous to see all these people doing just that."