We met with Owen Murphy, aka "Murf", one evening in September 2017 on the hilltop overlooking Tullan Strand just after he had closed and packed up his surf school. Murf has been surfing in Bundoran since an early age. He is a talented and powerful surfer who really knows how to make the most of long peeling waves. He is well-known and loved in the local community, always happy to spare a bit of his time for a chat and also to give a hand or a piece of advice to the young groms and push them to their best levels. (On my own end of things he is also known for not really to be trusted whenever my man bumps into him at the local pub, but sure enough: there are usually too many waves to talk about on those evenings to cover over just “a couple” of pints!) I also know he scored a couple of heavy waves out at Mullaghmore last winter so something tells me despite what he told me here, he has plans to go bigger!

Murf told us some good stories about his beginnings as a surfer and then as the owner of Murf’s Surf School, and what it is like to be living, surfing and operating a surf business in Ireland’s “surfing capital”. He laid out very clearly how the surf and tourism industry works in the region, while describing what, to him, needs to be done to improve the area and promote the younger generations of surfers. We also had a lot fun when I got him to speak about himself as a surfer, and he told us some very good stories about what he’s been told surfing back in the days in Ireland was like, and some of the region’s iconic waves!

I hope you will enjoy Episode 5 of “Daoine na Mara – Tales from The Green Shores”! Please leave me any comment if you relate to any of the stories, or get in touch if you would like to share your own!


Contents:
Introduction.
1. Introducing Murrf (or trying!): 00:00.
2. “I just loved it so I kept at it and ended up working in it”: surfing: 00:42.
3. “I was frothing on that”:  first memorable wave, and competitions: 02:30.

Working around surfing.
4. “Instead of lending stuff for free, we just started charging them!”: the little story of how Murf’s surf school and rentals started: 06:27.
5. “Really supportive”: the surf school and rental business landscape in Bundoran: 09:35.
6. The pros and cons of having your business set up on the beach: 10:51.
7. “I’m kind of hoping to just do the same thing”: where you see your business in 5 years: 14:14.

Of surfeconomics, the tourism industry in Donegal, and even Brexit.
8. “Kind of following the pound”: the surfing industry and the tourism flow in Bundoran: 15:43.
9. “People from the north would still come to Bundoran, it’s been such a long tradition”: 18:00.
10. “More direct public transport, ...”: what “Ireland’s surfing capital” needs: 19:53.
11. Bundoran’s surf club: 23:48.

Of waves, favourite manoeuvres, and surfing back in the days.
12. “I had, like, this old single fin in the house, it’s an old board of my dad’s...”: that one wave that just blew my mind recently: 28:34.
13. “That’s why they’re so sweet”: favourite surfing manœuvres, and why actually do them at all??: 32:05.
14. “He said they were surfing in the white water for years like, thinking they were doing exactly what they were supposed to”: back in the days: 37:05.

One gangly seagull, a couple of definitions, a pinch of local legend and a blend of reflections on addiction.
15. “Gangly”, a seagull trying to ice-skate and yellow: Murf describes himself as a surfer and talks heavy waves: 39:31.
16. Murf’s little dictionary of surfing: 43:36.
17. Of battling the winds, travelling for waves, glassy water and better climates… but still being a homebird: 46:53.
18. A little story about the Peak… and pigeons: 48:54.
19. “A godsend”, and “why so many people have ended up living here”: 50:57.
20. Defining and talking addiction: surfing as addictive, and a passion: 53:15.

Making of: taking picture… and stealing the light: 58:07.

Episode 5: Owen Murphy

Olga – quite a special lady to be the first surfer girl to be portrayed in our series! A bubbly friendly girl, always up for a chat and a laugh, she did not grow up by the sea and took up surfing not so long ago, like me. She has since fully fallen in love with the ocean and with the Irish waves especially, and embraced the wild, salty lifestyle on the west coast of Ireland. She has an appetite for all kinds of waves as surfing, for her, is really about the joy of being in the water, although I know for a fact she has her eyes set on bigger waves, too! Olga did her first competition last year in Lahinch at the Annual Kenny’s Open surf contest, and got the girls on board as well – as she says: “the girls around here surf well but are shy to compete!” 
We sat with Olga in September 2017 at Randaddy’s in Lahinch, and she told us how she got into surfing and about “shredding white water” for a year; how surfing generally has changed her life for the better, and how Ireland, through her waves, has now truly become her home. She told us about being a girl in the line-up, and how surfing the Peak “semi drunk’” may not be the best idea; we also talked addiction, travelling for waves, and Olga’s love for the Irish coastline. 
Olga got involved in the farm at Moy Hill as well when she arrived in Clare, so she told us about the surfer farmers’ inspiring dedication and their love for both the earth and the ocean! We will be heading down to Moy Hill in a few days so hopefully will be able to share some of their stories here soon, too! (Apparently, according to Olga, Fergal Smith & co. are “really cool people, just like us; they just shred bigger waves!”)

I hope you will enjoy Episode 6 of “Daoine na Mara – Tales from The Green Shores”! Please leave me any comment or get in touch if you would like to share your own!
A big thank you to Pockets Full of Water Productions, as always, for your help! :)

Contents:
Introduction.
1. “I feel like this is my home”: meet Olga: 00:00.
2. “For a year I was shredding white water!”: how it all started: 00:44.
3. Of getting addicted, travelling, big wave surfers, and moving to Lahinch: 04:41.
4. “I think you’re too old to start surfing:” of learning surfing late, mistakes, judgement and challenges: 06:01.

Of learning, experimenting and scary waves that make you smarter.
5. “Probably from the shore I look like an idiot but it feels amazing!”: favourite manoeuvres, “experimenting”, and “that jittery kind of feeling”: 10:39.
6. Challenges: 13:34.
7. “Before I knew it, a massive lip was coming right on top of me”: semi-drunk on the Peak: my scariest wave recently: 13:57.
8. “It makes you a bit smarter maybe”: of fear, and getting back out after a fright: 16:55.

Surfing in Clare.
9. Being a girl in the line-up, and the community in Lahinch: 17:30.
10. “It’s just having respect, you know”: being a local: 19:19.
11. What is special about surfing in Ireland… and a “kind of a funny cult” in Lahinch: 20:52.
12. The Farm: of bringing it back to what it used to be, dedication, and how my Mum was right about gardening: 22:00.

Getting back to Earth, appreciation, and challenges: surfing therapeutics.
13. It’s like meditation”: how being in the water brings you closer to the earth: 26:44.
14. “Chilling, watching, appreciating… or just trying to survive and have fun!”: what’s on my mind when I’m surfing: 27:26. 
15. My first time seeing the Cliffs and Aileen’s working: 29:36.

Surfing, water connections, and colours.
16. “Anything you can literally ride your board on is a wave and is fun for me”: Olga’s little dictionary of waves: 30:58.
17. “If anything, it’s probably put me back on the trail I probably should have walked in the first place”: how surfing has impacted my life: 33:44.
18. An emotional relationship with surfing? The feminine take on surfing: 34:58.
19. A little colour-map of the waves in Clare: 35:37.

To be continued...
20. Myself in five, ten years from now: 37:00.

Episode 6: Olga Dragon

I met with Seamus McGoldrick, a.k.a. Shambles, in Sligo at the end of the Ocean Human Health event hosted by Dr. Easkey Britton in May, after a day spent listening to eye-opening and inspiring talks about ocean conservation and how our marine environment can benefit us, mentally and physically, and needs care and preservation so badly in return. Shambles and I sat in the main hall of the Model museum - together with baby Lugha, who made a point to take his first babbles into posterity and the podcast… now I am no sound editing genius so despite my efforts I am afraid you will hear some whinging here and there!
“A proud member of the Irish surfing community”: Shambles, I am sure, could have gone on for hours but that day we tried and kept it to his love of the ocean and bodyboarding, and to how, back when he was hanging out with Mickey Smith &co., “being an Irish bodyboarder was the best thing you could have been”! He also told me how his last gnarly experience in the water, while keeping him out of the ocean for a while, actually led him to fulfil his dream and even give back to the founder of his sport, and how surfing is an amazing brother- and sisterhood. 
We also discussed life choices, issues of localism and the old bodyboarders VS surfers thing, and talked about those forward-thinking farmer surfers leading the way in bringing the soul surfing back to Ireland… and, most importantly, what to do on your birthday in Strandhill!

Contents:
1. A little introduction to collecting surflore.
2. Shambles in a few words: 00:01:47.
3. “A proud member of the Irish surfing community”: 04:07.
4. The dictionary definition of surfing, being a surfer, being a bodyboarder: 05:03.
5. Of bodyboarding, surfing, and the surfers VS bodyboarders thing: 05:33.
6. My first memorable wave: 06:48.
7. “Surfing has the same effect on people, no matter who you are”: of infatuation, passion and addiction, and turning people into ocean children: 08:16.
8. My first near-death experience... and a dead bird: dealing with fear: 11:00.
9. My last big injury – “a gnarly experience in a lot of ways, but [it] had an equally amazing effect on my life”: 13:27.
10. "An amazing brother- and sisterhood”, and us European surfers being a bit of a tribe: 16:02.
11. “I said, ‘Ok, I’m gonna go surfing...’”: of life choices, and a surfing career VS an academic career: 18:25.
12. “Being an Irish bodyboarder was the best thing you could have been, because it was such an exciting time”: of discovering the waves, and how Mickey Smith “just let the art speak for itself”: 26:41.
13. “Surfers are horizon gazers, always looking forward” (Easkey Britton): of nostalgia, soul surfing, and the power trio at Moy Hill Farm… plus some wise words from Fergal Smith: 29:23.
14. “I don’t see localism as bad, it’s the way it’s perpetrated”: of saving the goose, and the importance of the surfers' code: 33:21.
15. “A special place for all of us”: my favourite wave, and friends: “When we get out in the surf it’s half to catch waves and half to catch up with all your friends”: 40:03.
16. “Ireland has a great media profile for surfing… but it can be deceptive”: the hardest thing about surfing in Ireland: 43:11.
17. “The swings in Nature’s playground”: Shambles’s Little Dictionary of Surfing: 44:18.
18. “Having more surfers in society is probably a good thing”: surfing from fringe to mainstream, a selfish act… and growing as a human: 47:17.
19. “I was Seamus before I went on that trip, and I was Shambles when I came back!”: the body board that gave me my nickname, and what I love about Northern Irish surfers: 53:28.
20. A beach clean, a bite to eat, a good gig and a few pints: what to do on your birthday in Strandhill! 57:02.

Episode 7: Seamus "Shambles" McGoldrick

Hi, I’m Fred. 
I live in Bundoran on the west coast of Ireland. I am into everything from swimming, longboarding, camping and half a dozen mugs of tea a day. I share my life between county Donegal and Brittany, where I work as a lecturer and a researcher in Rennes University. My research interests mainly focus on surfing in Ireland, Irish sea folklore and Ireland's surf economics. I want to share with you the wealth and distinctiveness of the stories Irish surfers have to tell about the Wild Atlantic waves, and try to locate them within this island nation’s rich national cultural landscape. Heavy wave surfing is a major focus of my work, but not only: any story, from young or old, related to the waves and ocean around Ireland, any personal narrative relating experiences of surfing here, hunting, discovering and riding new waves, is a story worth telling and sharing.

And that is what got me started on a journey collecting tales and legends from surfers along the west coast of Ireland.
In my search of eadaíls – of the bounties of the sea, I have come across many a tale telling of watery treasures: stories of fishermen, explorers and sailors of the day of yore, and tales of wave hunters, surfers, creatures from both the land and the ocean. The stories I am collecting are building up into a beautiful body of cultural material that is unique to Ireland’s daoine na mara – the people of the sea; a collection of traditional beliefs, knowledge, language, customs and rituals, and stories of a community, and that we will call surflore. A group brought together by a common love for the ocean, their deeply rooted connection is a sense of a tradition, and of the processes of acquiring and transmitting it through the generations by word of mouth and all the modern forms of storytelling. 

So here is a little insight into Ireland’s surflore: a renewed form of Ireland's sea folklore – a long ignored founding pillar for Ireland's identity as an “island nation”, and a collection of the values, the passions and the knowledge of the men and women riding the waves and living to the rhythm of the tides and of the swells and to the moods of the winds. It is also a rich and exciting journey amongst the treasure trove of narratives, tales and legends all along the coast of Ireland.

 The “Daoine na Mara – Tales from the Green Shores” podcast series is a place to store and share the surflore so that, like the seanachai of times gone by, we may not only collect but transmit the tales, and carry the voice of the people of the sea and help their lore grow strong and bountiful!

I hope you will enjoy the stories shared here, and please do get in touch if you would like to share yours!
Thank you for listening,
Fred x

Daoine na Mara - Tales from the Green Shores

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