Falling hard and fast for stand-up paddleboarding

Waiting for the ferryman has never been so terrifying. There I am, kneeling on a blow-up paddleboard about 50m off the north Dublin coast anxiously waiting for my ship to come in. And as soon as the Stena Line ferry arrives at the mouth of Dublin Port, I’ll have to paddle like the wind until the wave it leaves in its wake hits me and sends me hurtling towards the stony grey sand of Dollymount.

The big idea is that when my wave and I reach a certain speed, I’m expected to pop up on to my board – or stand, to use the vernacular of land-based people – and surf majestically to land.

The people at the Pure Magic kitesurfing and paddleboard centre in Clontarf had taken on the challenge of turning me into a surfing god. Despite their best efforts, I’m coming up short.

My morning has been spent in Howth, with the waves lapping gently against the shore, making it an ideal starting point for an absolute beginner.

Catherine, my Pure Magic coach, is a model of grace and patience as she watches me attempt to stand on my board in the calmest of water with all the elegance of a newborn foal on rollerblades. Every time I try to get up off my knees, I lose my balance. And every time that happens I hit the water.

The first time is the worst. As my board tips over and I am dumped on my face into the freezing sea, tiny amounts of water somehow find the minuscule gaps in the tight-fitting wetsuit I have wrestled myself into in the back of a van. There is a rush of intense coldness.

But it is fleeting, and the thin layer of water that makes it in is quickly warmed by my body, after which the regular falls are much less bracing, mercifully.

Were it not for the wetsuit, stand-up paddleboarding (or SUP, as the cool kids call it) and regular surfing and kitesurfing and windsurfing – and all the other water-based activities Ireland has shown itself to be perfectly equipped for in recent years – would be impossible. That single piece of kit has dramatically changed Irish tourism.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Irish children spent their summer holidays on windswept beaches, having been sent by parents into murky grey seas with bellies full of red lemonade and nothing more than Action Man Speedos to protect them from the icy-cold water. It wasn’t much fun, which is why many of us turned our backs on the water, and on red lemonade, as soon as we entered adulthood.

But wetsuits have changed our world, and they allow the not-so-hardy boys and girls of today to frolic in the waves for hours without risking hypothermia. Dollymount Strand – and Bundoran, Achill, Lahinch, Sligo and all the other coasts exposed to big waves and high winds – have been transformed as a result.

That is one of the key reasons adventure sports are where much of the tourism money in Ireland is right now. The market attracts almost a million overseas visitors annually and is worth more than €1 billion to the economy.

Adventure tourists don’t give a rashers about our weather. They either have the gear for it, or their pursuits of choice – such as mountain-biking and hillwalking – benefit from the mild, slightly damp weather we have in such abundance. The Saturday of the May bank holiday weekend was a washout across the country, with unseasonably cold winds and rains. Dollymount was black with kitesurfers.

Warming to my task

After my first splash-down, I start to enjoy hitting the water. It is great fun and very safe, and I find myself warming to SUP in a big way. I am still rubbish by the time the curtain comes down on my introductory lesson, but not frustratingly so.

The hours spent in the water off Howth prepare me for the big one: the ferry wave that sweeps on to Dollymount six times a day.

About 20 minutes before the first of the evening waves is due, six of us paddle out to sea. And we wait. We see the first of the ferries on the horizon, and very quickly it looms large. You don’t really appreciate how fast those boats move until you’re watching them from a paddleboard gently bobbing in the sea.

“The wave is coming, the wave is coming,” Catherine shouts at me from some distance. I frantically reposition my board so the nose is pointing to the shore, and I wait.

“Here it comes,” she shouts.

I start to paddle furiously.

Then I fall into the sea.

Crestfallen, I retrieve my paddle and mournfully head back out to the starting point and wait for the second ferry. The wave this time is slightly bigger and I fall into the water slightly faster. Catherine looks at me with sadness in her eyes.

We paddle back out again and wait for the third and last ferry to arrive. The Irish Ferries vessel is the one the SUPpers like most. Apparently it steams in faster and creates a bigger wave. We wait. It goes past us. We wait some more. And then we see the wave rushing towards us, all white froth and angry spray.

I ready myself. It hits me. Hard. I paddle harder. And I start moving in the right direction. I keep paddling. Once I have reached a certain speed, I stand up and I paddle more. I am doing it right. I mentally pat myself on the back.

But after hubris comes nemesis, and six or seven glorious seconds into my triumph my board flips up and I hit the water again.

I stagger back to shore. It is packed. Dollymount Strand on any given weekend is a revelation. If the wind is up, dozens of kitesurfers, as well as a growing number SUPpers, descend on the strand.

Gravity-defying moves

This weekend, Dollymount Strand will be even busier than normal. One of world’s best beaches for kitesurfing will be transformed into a water wonderland with the world’s best kitesurfers coming down to show off their skills and gravity-defying moves as they skim the water surface and compete for the coveted King or Queen of the Bay crown.

It is all part of Battle for the Bay, which is organised by Pure Magic. The company plans to give demos on the beach and will offer paddleboarding, wakeboarding and kitesurfing introductions to newcomers. There will be live music, a Kids’ Zone, a funfair and a food village.

A paddleboarding competition will also take place. It is the world's fasting-growing water sport, and as well as individual races on the day, categories will include a relay, a technical 6km and gruelling 14km marathon. The event will even reach the Liffey and the Jeanie Johnston on Sunday, where an SUP race starts at 8am. (I will not be entering.)

• battleforthebay.com, puremagic.ie