HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
My father Ian, first discovered surfing whilst on holiday in Bude in Cornwall, being a keen competitive swimmer and lifeguard, he bought his first surfboard in the early 1960’s from an Australian lifeguard named Bill Bailey.
Dad first surfed the North Coast, at Castlerock in Easter 1964, aged 27. Dad is now in his mid 80's, and as stoked as ever about surfing and the North Coast of Northern Ireland.
Dad brought me up from an early age competing at swimming (I swam a mile at the age of 4) and springboard diving as well as gymnastics and trampolining, from those early years I had real passion for the water and when we moved to Portrush in 1979 dad taught me how to surf.
As I became more addicted, the frustration of not being able to obtain good surfing wetsuits, boards, wax, etc, Dad started a wee surf shop in the garage of our guesthouse “Drumlee” on Mark Street in Portrush, then when we moved to “The Den” a lovely property overlooking East Strand, we made an even bigger garage shop.
During the 1980’s my competitive nature lead me into surfing competitively and I have represented Ireland on the National Team for almost 15 years.
I still maintain the record for most consecutive Irish National tiles in the Open, 6 running back to back undefeated from 1989 to 1994.
I represented Ireland in 3 world championships and 7 European Championships and I am eternally grateful to the Irish Surfing Association for that very special time in my life.
Surfing also gave me the desire to travel and Frankie my wife and I invested lots of time travelling the globe to surf all the exotic spots I had read about in the surfing magazines.
I'm fortunate enough to have surfed some of the most wonderful surfing spots in the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Western Samoa, Hawaii, Maldives, South Africa, Indonesia including Bali, Sumatra, Lombok and Sumbawa, France, Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and California.
THE SHOP...
In 1990 a rep from Alder Sportswear called Martin Exeley convinced my father to open a dedicated proper surf store here in Portrush, I had just finished my Degree in Swansea University where I was awarded the UK’s first sporting scholarship for surfing and having spent most of my time studying the waves there instead of being at my lectures I still managed to obtain a 2.1 in Joint Hons in Oceanography and Geography!
BOOK SURF LESSONS
We also started Troggs Surf School here in Portrush in 1994, my son Ethan now manages and runs it with his side kick and partner in crime Albert Dallas.
