And no for something completely similar

Was walking into college today with headphones on, got sick of the music so took them off and the world popped back into stereo around me. Reminded me of some crazy times out shooting.

The feeling I’m talking about is when you just scrap through a big wave and pop out the other side. You’re so focused on making it under the wave that you tend to zone out any sound so when you pop out the back of the wave every sound suddenly comes rushing back, like you’ve been standing outside a gig hearing only bassy sounds then go inside and hear everything. Even if your only hearing the crash of the waves and the hiss of the spray landing around you.

You can kind of get the same sensation by pulling down your hood in winter, but beware. And anyway it’s not as effective as swimming for your life (it always seems to be a life/death situation in my head) then pushing through to sweet relief and life on the other side.

Can happen after wipeouts as well I guess but I’m usually too disorientated to take notice.

Couldn’t find a photo to accompany this piece so here’s a photo of a bullock at sunrise somewhere in Clare.

Random Blab

Right well still in recovery, the pain killers are starting wear off and I’m quite sore, so I reckon I’ll be out of the water for a good while.

I’m on twitter. http://twitter.com/paudiescanlon Not sure what ‘ll be tweeting about yet but might be useful.

Wanted to highlight a special cause as well. IRMA (the evil recording company people in Ireland) are tryingto block our access to certain sites. Fair enough they are trying to protect their goods but it should be up to us what sites we visit, if this goes through it would set a dangerous precedent for blocking whatever the hell they wanted. For more info go to http://www.blackoutireland.com/

And finally to get back to some kind of surfing theme, the trailer for Lowe-Smiths new movie is out.

Check it.

You’re joking. Right?

FFS.

 

So I decide to be a nice conscientious person and not run over the rabbit that’s on the road on front of me.

Check my mirrors, there’s a van a good distance behind me, but there’s plenty of time to slow done gradually.

Fuck, what the hell was that?

Ah shit you’re kidding me?

Again?

FUCK.

Ah shit this hurts

 

Ok not so bad, I can walk this is fine, a little shook, a little sore but I’m walking.

Bebhine arrives a while later with Justine, I try to drive the car up to the house, only a mile away. Tire starts smoking and chunks are flying off body is pressing against it, right this isn’t going to work.

Get a number for a tow guy, turns out the one we get is the guy towing the van that hit me.

He drives down to us loads up the car and we follow him to his garage.

Empty the car, again. (For new readers basically the same thing happened to me 5 months ago)

Drop stuff at home grab a bite to eat and get some books for A&E.

We arrive at half two, get seen by the triage nurse get some pain killers. Should be an hour and a half.

The crowd ebbs and flows, finish one book, start another, chat to some people, watch most, comment on some. This isn’t too bad.

6 hours later, I ask am I going to be seen soon. I’m told pretty rudely that there are 6 kids in front of me and two other people. Ok I know I’m a 20 something male but I was in a car crash, I thought that might be important.

8 hours in, I’m bloody starving, haven’t eaten since breakfast and don’t want to have something in case they need to take bloods or give me something. Starting to hurt again.

I go up and ask for more pain meds, and ask can I eat something. I’m given tablets and told I should be ok to eat something, of course this being a hospital there’s only healthy food available like crisps and chocolate bars. Mmmm filling. Apparently I’m next as soon as there is a doctor available

10 hours in, Bebhine has had enough and after three more people are called ahead of me goes up to confront the nurse calling them in, explaining that we have been here for ten hours and I was actually in a car crash. He shouts her down saying that sick children take priority over everyone, as if we all hate kids, and there is an 87 year old man waiting for five hours. According to the hospitals patient charter we’re entitled to courteous treatment. Way to go dude nurse.

00:15 I’m eventually called in. Doctor asks about the crash, yes I do think he was doing at least 80km/h when he hit, car must have been pushed at least 30m forward. Starts poking and prodding ow, ow, no that’s fine, ow , no that’s fine. Oh that really hurt.

Deep breath in … and out, in … and out, in … and out.

“Ok I’m pretty sure it’s just muscular but I want to take an x-ray just to be safe. But don’t worry you’ll be in and out in no time.”

Put in a neck brace, feels better already.

“Ok so what time did this happen at?”

I tell him, he wonders why I’m only here now? I tell him I’ve been here since half two .He looks up, really?

“Are you sure you told them you were in a Road Traffic Collision and that your neck was sore?”

Yes, apparently normal procedure for my case is braced and strapped to gurney straight away, not go sit in a hard chair for 10 hours.

Doctor berates some of the nurses near by, including Mr. Rude to my Finacée ass.

“Oh but I wasn’t on triage then, of course I would have done the right thing.”

Other nurses.

“Are you sure you told them it was a car crash and your neck was sore?”

Are you sure you’re qualified to be a nurse?

Why the fuck would I not mention either of those things?

I put my trust that everybody else was more urgent than my case, I even started to doubt that I should have gone to A&E, I’m not that sore am I?

Why?

Because some ass wrote the wrong thing on my chart.

At least I’m home know, doped up for the next few days.

Then the fun with the insurance company starts all over again.

Start of a trend

So we got these leittle salt and pepper shakers which I plan to put in all sorts of hilarious and endearing positions, hopefully learning how to light static situations in the process.

Here’s the first. I should probably think of a witty name to do with the fact that they are seperated by a window. ut it’s late and I’m tired

Just wanted to throw this in as well, it’s one of my favourites I’ve taken so far. My dad amusing his grandson.

Walkabout

Woke up yesterday morning to see a full on snow shower out the front of the house, snapped this one before I went to work

 

 

I thought there was going to be loads of photo ops on they way into work with all the snow, but there was none in the city at all.

Managed to get this one of a building in college before my tutorial yesterday evening though.

Then got these two of the river as I was heading over to the car.

Only in Dreams

Crazy dream last night, which I remembered for a change. It all came back to me when I opened the boot of my car and saw my flippers.

 

We were all sitting on the prom in Lahinch (I don’t know who, it was just “us”). We saw Lowey cranking off the bottom on a big chunky Puerto Escondido style wave and all started hooting. I had my suit and fins with me, but didn’t have a board so I borrowed one from Dan Skaj.

As I was swimming out I realized I had forgotten to put my fins on so had to go back put them on then swim out again, just as I was getting out the back Lowey dropped into a big set wave right in front of me. Then I realised I had no idea how to ride a bodyboard properly, set a rail or even duckdive the bloody thing. All this was going through my head as I watched a ten foot lip break in slow motion a few metres away (that was brilliant).

I managed to get the board under the wave and was compressed flat against it. This was one the most realistic and trippy parts of a dream I’ve ever had. I didn’t get washed around too much, but I do remember looking back up and seeing all the roiling mass of water as the wave passed over me. (If you’ve never done it you definitely should, probably easier if you don’t have a board attached to you.)

 

Pretty stoked this morning

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Yes it’s Christmas and this year I’m trying to remain upbeat and in the Christmas mood for the whole thing.

So on Saturday we went to get our tree, at first I was kind of annoyed because it was sunny and there was meant to be waves up the coast but I got over that and realised that I don’t have to go take photos every time there’s surf. Like most surfers I tend to get very cranky if I think I’m missing waves, but this being Ireland I’m usually not missing much, this winter seems to be me to have been pretty bad for consistent surf, especially compared to last winter. I suppose it’s about time Ireland lived up to it’s fickle reputation.

Anyway, I think we did a pretty good job of it.

I’ve also been getting annoyed and worried about my lack of photo output recently. Been thinking about art and my talent and is it worth anything and all that stuff. I feel a bit wankery considering myself an artist most of the time, but I guess that’s because I have a poor opinion of “artists”. In the end I usually settle on the fact that I’m producing something that nobody else has so far and that has to mean something. But then I usually start worrying about how good is the stuff that I’m producing and I usually decide that it should be better, I should work more on trying to get the shot exactly as I see it, that I should work more with lighting and shade, that I should be setting up photos, that my photos should mean something.

In fairness, water shots, which is what I shoot 90% of the time isn’t a whole lot more than luck.
You’re never in charge of the lighting and it’s pretty damn hard to get exactly the angle you wanted to get unless the wave is mechanical, or you’re really really good.
For fecks sake, you don’t even look through the camera most of the time. Is that art?
I don’t know.

I just know that I want to be better, and that’s a start.

Sorry about that, it’s been bulding up for a while now.
Back to the photos.

My Lady has amassed a nice collection of decorations in the year we’ve been living together, fairly expensive looking stuff some of it.

There’s a Christmas Market in Cork city which has loads of great little stalls including a brilliant place selling gorgeous cookies and brownies.
The city council have also turned the Peace Park into a Christmas trail for kids, music and lights and a few post boxes for letters to Santa.

I should have posted about this last week and I’m sorry if you didn’t see it but there was a fantastic celestial light show. Venus and Jupiter were pretty much as close as they come (from our point of view) and the moon was swinging just underneath them. But then the really special event was when the moon eclipsed Venus for a few minutes, I managed to watch as Venus gradually crept out from behind. I didn’t have equipment with me so I just watched and was happy.

But to close here is photo I managed to get the night before when I was at home. My tripod mount thing on the camera is broken so I had to wedge the camera in the branches of a tree, meh, it seems to have worked anyway.

You can click on the portrait style posts for bigger versions. And Venus is the brighter one lower down in case you’re wondering.

Bad News

I have the nasty feeling that my hair is tending towards a bit of a mullet.

Got to sort that out.

Damn you interweb

Stupid web has ruined my patience. That and boxsets. I have watched the two previous series of Heros pretty much in one sitting (slight exageration).

Anyway, Heros started last night on BBC2 and now I can’t wait until next I’m way too used to seeing them one after another. Seems pretty damn cool.

Chilly this morning first time I’ve had to wear a proper jacket to work in ages.

Pretty though.

Poor Lance, I hardly knew you.

Well that’s not strictly true but it’s more poetic than I knew you really well.

Anyway, Lance is on the way out, some (insert derogatory adjective here) woman crashed into the back of us about three weeks ago and he has to be written off. It’s a sad sad day for the surfing community of Lahinch. Many good times were had in Lance, like all those times I rushed eagerly down a new country track to find a wave and ended up getting stuck in mud (three times to be exact, I don’t learn from mistakes well).

So the hunt is on, we need a new surf mobile. I’m thinking a Nissan Almera would be nice, apparently they keep on going for ever, which is nice but they seem possibly a bit low for the back roads of Clare.

We’ll find out.

Here’s Ollie “The Fla” O’Flaherty sliding into a nice keg to keep the surf interest going.