Big Wave Ireland: The Flick That Kicked It Off

In our inaugural end of year review in 2007, Sound Waves made the point that it was Ireland's discovery as a big wave spot that kicked off the Celtic XXL revolution. A film that played a pivitol role in that advance, even though it did not feature the now famous Aileens, was 'ABC - A Blank Canvas' made by photographer / bodyboarder Mickey Smith. Charting a quest by a group of top notch boogers across a range of codenamed European spots, the filmmakers came across Aileens in County Clare, known already to a group of locals but unridden at the time, and set about a plan to surf it that would  lead to the Carve h2o project and a series of photo features in Surfing Magazine, Carve Magazine and Surfer Magazine as well as credits in the Irish Times. These features made the international reputation of the brilliant Mickey Smith, already a highly rated surf photographer, and placed Ireland on the big wave map in a way homegrown initiatives did not have the resources to do. Interestingly though, 'ABC' did not feature Aileens in the final cut as the boys did not have the resources at the time to get out to and into the wave itself. Anyway, here is the trailer for a surf movie that led a quantum shift in Irish Surf Culture.

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