2023-11-27 10:28:57
As the days grow colder, the tourist crowds disappear and the crows take over the streets of Strandhill, the North Atlantic awakens. “It’s gonna be big,” says Zuhé Coronil. It’s the last warm day of autumn, the 38-year-old surf instructor is sitting in Shells Café, looking out to sea. In his left hand he waves a paper cup, coconut latte, in his right he holds his smartphone, surfline.ie. Forecast for Strandhill, County Sligo, Western Ireland. Thursday, October 12, 2023: South-southwest wind, 4 to 6 mph, northeast swell, 10 to 12 feet. Three and a half meters. Actually perfect. “But big.”
Nowhere in Ireland, hardly anywhere in Europe, are the waves more reliable than here, in front of this small town at the foot of a large hill. The bay in which Strandhill is located opens to the northwest – from where the swell usually rolls in. Sand banks and evenly rising reefs allow the water to break in clean, long waves. In June 2023, the National Surf Center opened in the town of 2,000 people, which is expected to attract 50,000 visitors a year: a stone and glass complex, to the left of Shells Café, with changing rooms, showers, a surf shop and event rooms with panoramic views of the Ocean.
#Insider #tip #Surfing #Western #Ireland