Eimear Ryan: Might the Bambú offer the best of all hurling worlds?

Seán Finn of Limerick in action against Brian Concannon of Galway during the All-Ireland SHC semi-final last year. Finn used the Bambú throughout his All-Ireland winning campaign. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

In a pre-pandemic conversation with a friend, John Breen of Waterstones, I happened to mention off-hand that I had read a recently released novel on Kindle. I regretted the words as soon as I said them. As someone who worked as a bookseller for many years — as someone standing in a bookshop — I should have known better than to mention the K-word.

“You read it on Kindle?” John repeated.

“It’s handy for travel,” I mumbled. “It’s very light.”

John laughed. “Sure that’s like playing with a Wavin hurley!”

It was at this point that I had to break it to him that I had been playing camogie with, if not quite a Wavin hurley, then its modern-day descendant — the Cúltec — since 2010.

To be fair to the Cúltec, it’s far more reliable and effective than the much-maligned plastic Wavin, which by all accounts gave the user a ferocious sting anytime they went in for a clash. Launched in 1977, the Wavin hurley never quite took off — but there was certainly something prescient and far-sighted about the idea that ash alternatives might be required for the hurleys of the future.

More than 40 years on, there are now several different options on the market, the Cúltec being the most well-established. Founded in 2008 in Ferbane, Co Offaly, it’s made from a composite of epoxy, nylon, and graphite, and enjoys a particular popularity with kids, the majority of camogie goalkeepers, O’Dwyers Ryan and Orla, and me.

I seized upon the Cúltec after returning from a stint abroad. Finding myself in need of a hurley at short notice for a club match, I robbed my sister’s Cúltec which she had bought just to see. I liked it straightaway. It packs a ferocious belt that belies its lightness, and for a forward, its powerful puck — loaded with backspin — lent me an advantage I felt I couldn’t refuse.

I’ve never noticed any issues with accuracy that I’ve heard others describe, but the touch of a Cúltec does take some getting used to; it’s somehow bouncier than an ash hurley, and the ball is liable to shoot out of your sphere of influence when you put the hurley to it. When I returned to an ash hurley for a practice match last year — having left my Cúltec in the boot of the car, which at that exact moment was on its way to Wicklow — I was thrilled at how sharp my touch was, but my puck was easily 20 yards shorter. Swings and roundabouts.

For me, the Cúltec’s biggest flaw is its smooth handle, which becomes slippery in the rainy conditions. However, its consistency and durability are big pluses for me.

They’re always the same length, weight, and shape; technically, I’ve been hurling to the same specifications for over a decade. They’re also unbreakable, or near enough that I only have to buy one a year, as opposed to six. No more for me the heartbreak of finding the one perfect hurley, only for it to shatter on championship debut, sending me into a psychological tailspin.

It has always surprised me that synthetic hurleys haven’t caught on more at elite levels. Given that Cúltec now commands 9% of the hurley market, and with the increasing scarcity of native ash, you would expect to see more composite hurleys on the inter-county pitch. It is not as if tennis purists are still playing with wooden rackets. Hurlers are perhaps more superstitious and traditional than I realised — and maybe a synthetic hurley would get you the same sort of dressing-room slagging that, say, a pair of flashy orange boots would.

Having developed a fondness for the Cúltec, I’m curious about the other composite hurleys that have come on the market since.

Mycro Evolution hurleys have a better grip than the Cúltec, and a nice grain effect on the handle and bas, but I found the puck out of them distinctly spongy. Reynolds hurleys, which I am intrigued by but have yet to try, come with testimonials from the likes of Richie Hogan, Seamie Callanan, and Neil McManus. But the one to really turn my head has been the Bambú.

Recently featured on a surprisingly emotional segment on Ear to the Ground, the Bambú is an innovation from Torpey Hurleys in Co Clare.

John Torpey started his hurley-making business in 1981 after a long playing career. “When ash was good and I was able to get ash locally, I made 70,000 hurleys in one year,” he said on the programme. “I made a few bob!”

In the '90s Irish ash became scarce, and hurley makers began importing in bulk from the Netherlands. Torpey also began growing his own ash forest with an eye to securing his business for the next generation.

However, ash dieback arrived in Ireland in 2012, infecting the 20,000 trees in his plantation. “Everything is gone here, everything is dead,” Torpey said, over eerie images of stark ash branches blowing in the wind. “It’s very sad. One of the saddest things that’s happened in my life actually. There’s no other way of saying it.”

In response, he began researching alternative woods, and quickly realised the strength, flexibility, and versatility of bamboo, used in everything from large-scale building projects to tableware.

Meanwhile, his son Sean was pursuing a degree in sports technology in the UK before coming back to take over the family business in 2013. They soon created a bamboo prototype and were shocked to discover its similarities to ash. Six years of R&D later, the Bambú was put on sale and quickly sold out its first batches.

I bought one last summer and it has quickly become my number one hurley. I have to confess that I felt a sort of psychic relief when I began pucking around with it and heard its distinctly wooden thwock.

Like other composite hurleys, it’s harder to break and has a stronger puck than an ash hurley, but it asks less of the player in terms of adapting to a new look and feel.

As Sean Finn — who used the Bambú throughout his All-Ireland winning campaign last year — put it: “It looked like a hurley, felt like a hurley, and performed as well as an ash hurley.”

With sustainability one of the biggest issues for hurley-makers of the future, the Bambú might offer the best of both worlds.