Arise and go ... to Sligo

CONFRONTED by a 20-foot wave, I’d do the honourable thing.

I’d run away. For big wave surfers hoping to compete in this year’s Billabong bash at Mullaghmore, however, gut instinct goes the other way. As I write, those surfers are on notice, monitoring the swell as a competition deadline of Mar 1 approaches. Given the green light, they’ll pile right in.

Type ‘Mullaghmore’ into YouTube, and they’re the first to crop up too: monster breaks spotted with fly-like humans, some shooting to safety, others toppling into the churn. But what you don’t see on those clips is the scenery in which all of this takes place. Big waves strike once or twice a season. Mullaghmore Head is a small-but-perfectly-formed peninsula year-round.