The talented Mr. Squigley McHugh

What an action packed crazy fun month it has been. The inaugural Sea Sessions tour stopped off in Galway with Crazy P, Belfast with Tieranniesaur and Fujiya & Miyagi, then Kinsale and lastly Lahinch with the beat match master Ollie Teeba (The Herbaliser). We have made plenty of new friends along the way and hope to see most of you hit Bundoran in seven weeks time. Feels strange to say that, as it takes us the best part of a year to plan the festival. No time to rest now though, as we get ready to announce more acts, including day by day breakdown and the updated iPhone & Android app. Keep an eye on here over next week or two.

Check out the last leg of our tour. May bank holiday weekend saw us load up the Sea Sessions camper and go on a bit of a road trip.

Photos from Kinsale and Lahinch – get tagging.

3 day weekend tickets are €88.50 and a day pass is €50

Memories OR some of what you missed from Sea Sessions 2011.

2. President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins is to pop by on the Saturday of the festival and will give a speech. Wonder if he’ll be up for a surf lesson!!!

3. Don’t belive our hype! The Minutes are back again this year and here is why

This year Sea Sessions will once again host Ireland’s most high-octane surf event (See Surfing page for more details)

Barefoot Wine Beach Sports
The beach soccer and tag rugby events are again being run by local clubs – Erne Wanderers and Ballyshannon Rugby Club. There is €500 prize money up for grabs at both events, registering a team costs €20. The Soccer Event will be based on the European Championships with each team choosing a country. The Tag Rugby event will also be a knock out competition, but will have a losers round so everyone is guaranteed two games.

We expect to run off all the group games and early rounds on the Saturday with the finals on the Sunday. The winning teams will again have a chance to scoop the overall prize of €500! After last years action-packed games, team places are sure to be at a premium! Register your team or your team place now by emailing seasessionsbeachsports@gmail.com. We will also form two teams for people who are entering solo or that can’t get a full team together. Some of the main rules are below:

- Squads of max 10 with 5 playing at any one time
- ALL SQUAD MEMBERS MUST BE WEEKEND TICKET HOLDERS
- Registration will take place at 11am on Saturday morning at the main beach
- No footwear allowed during games
- We have some great prizes but all games are to be played with good humour (it is a festival)

Beach Handball – We will this year for the first time have a Handball event. There will be a clinic/exhibition match on the Saturday and a small competition on the Sunday. More details to follow soon!

Barefoot Wine Beach Olympics
Sea Sessions are celebrating Olympics year too – and you don’t need to go near London! Bundoran’s Main Beach and the powerful Atlantic Ocean will provide the perfect backdrop for the 2012 Sea Sessions Barefoot Wine Beach Olympics. It will be held across the weekend with a number of Olympic events. There will be lots of spot prizes for those taking part. More information to follow, so get practicing and you could be crowned the Ultimate Sea Sessions 2012 Olympian!

Top night in The Black Box with Brighton wonder boys Fujiya & Miyagi and almost local, Tieranniesaur. The Dublin collective warmed the crowd up nicely with their very unique brand of quirky Pop / Rock.

Tieranniesaur

Next up was Fujiya & Miyagi and they’re one of those bands that sound quite electronic but when you see it live it completely works but also sounds much rockier. Does that make sense? The vocals remind me of a 70′s band called Can but the music sound much more contemporary. Pulsating Bass, Heavy Guitar banging drums and a four four tempo.They were a great addition to the Sea Sessions list of acts and the Belfast crowd really took to them.

Fujiya and Miyagi

It’s kind of strange for Sea Sessions doing these gigs in Cities because we’re not by the sea or the beach but it’s definitely been worth it to bring a flavour of Sea Sessions and I guess a little taster of the big event. I’m looking forward to hearing  them on the main stage, Friday of the Festival. Next stops on the tour are Kinsale and Lahinch with the legendary DJ Herbaliser (May 5th and May 6th) and I expect that to be even closer to the real deal. There’s beaches, there’s surfers, there’s music we will party!! Bring it on!!! – words by Razor, Sea Sessions and Heineken Tour act booker.

Saturday

6pm – Dinner at Made in Belfast a self named ‘Restolounge’, with a tag line ”Food, Art, Music, Love”. Their food was fantastic, just simple fresh seasonal ingredients all put together in a creative somewhat funky taste explosion way. Don’t eat anywhere else in Belfast, especially if you are a foodie.

Made in Belfast - City Hall

8pm – Doors opened at The Black Box to an awaiting crowd who came to see 2012 Choice Music Prize nominee Tieranniesaur and Brighton boys Fujiya & Miyagi.

12am – Wandered round the atmospheric bars dotted around the Cathedral quarter, settling for a local favourite, John Hewitt bar, named after the late poet. Good selection of beers, that taste good too.

Late – What goes on tour stays on tour.

Sunday

The new Titanic Belfast building next to the Harland & Wolff shipyard where the Titanic was built. Irish Times photo.

So you’ve seen the film, sat through a documentary or two, maybe even been gifted a book about it for your birthday like me (thanks Aunty B.), and you reckon you’re fairly clued in on all things Titanic right? Well if you’re in Belfast anytime soon and fancy expanding that particular part of your grey matter, you could do far worse than a visit to the so-brand-spanking-new-it-hurts-your-eyes-to-look-at-it Titanic museum in Belfast.

This place opened a few weeks ago to as much of a frenzy as MTV could whip up. Ok, so it was the 100^th anniversary of the ships departure from her birthplace in Belfast, where 15,000 hardy souls poured blood, sweat, tears, and in some cases, their lives, into building what still to this day is considered to be the fanciest, most spectacular, most posh, elegant, regal, you name it ship to have ever been built. Just a shame it also happened to be the most unlucky, or I’d probably have been stepping on to the ship itself for a tour 100 years on instead of into an ultra-modern building whose sole purpose is to pay homage to the one ship that has captured so many people’s imaginations.

Inside are a whopping 9 galleries covering all things Titanic, so if you’re brain hurts as much as mine did after three hours spent in there, my advice is to make use of the occasional period seating dotted around the place and just sit down, chill out, and take a breather, as there’s a lot to take in. The museum is interactive as well as visual, so you’ll be kept interested right the way through, and as if that wasn’t enough, the exhibition contains the world’s slowest rollercoaster ride…but I’ll say no more! Go check it out, and then rush home and watch that film you love to hate, or hate to love, all over again. Kate is mighty fine in it afterall

24hrs was too short, Belfast is a great city with plenty to do and see. Hope to see you over the May bank holiday weekend in Cork or Lahinch. Wonder what we will get up to there, probably just surf.

The Barefoot Wine Expression Session in association with Billabong will see the top surfers of Europe eyeing up the cash prize and taking each other on in a ‘best move wins’ viewer-friendly format. Prize fund includes 3,000 Euro total prize purse for the overall winner, as well as an 11 day surf cruise worth 2,200 Euro in sun-drenched North Sumatra for best Irish surfer. Go to www.tradewindadventures.com for more information.

Last year the Expression Session was the first speciality event ASP Europe endorsed in Ireland or the UK, and saw the best of Europe pitted against the best in Ireland and the UK. It’s a testament to the quality of the event that’s staged here in Bundoran and also the quality of the waves in the area that it’s happening again this year” said festival organiser and co-owner of Bundoran Surf Co. Pete Craig. “The format is simple; the best move/wave depending on conditions wins the heat, simple as.

Once again, this invite only event will further cement Ireland’s place as one of the world’s best surfing destinations whilst giving exposure to some of the best surfers that ride its waves. The event will be mobile, with a three day waiting period from Friday 29^th June to Sunday 1^st July. The possible surf contest areas will include, Tullan Strand, The Peak, Inside left and Main Beach. The Expression Session is structured to allow it to run in two hours to maximise the chances of calling it when the best waves and tides occur. We will announce when the contest is ‘ON’ as soon as possible, so keep an eye on event screens and online for updates during the festival weekend.

The event will be videoed for all to see, and will be posted online. ASP Europe will be in attendance giving all the competing surfers a chance to gain recognition on the Continent. The Event has a limited entry and no entry on the day is allowed, so if you are interested in getting involved email seasessionssurf@gmail.com.

Confirmed Surfers (to date)
Previous Expression Session winners Alan Stokes (Cornwall), and Cain Kilcullen (Co. Sligo) will this year be joined by Billabong Team rider Reubyn Ash (Cornwall) who is at the forefront of ariel surfing. More TBA.

Alan Stokes commenting on his 2011 win; “It is not a bad day’s work really,” laughed Stokes, “Stoked and really happy with the win. There were great waves in the end and it was good to have it on a wedge because it is high performance surfing and it all came good. It is my first trip to Bundoran, I love it and it is great. Guinness and waves I can do airs on is as good as it can get for me.

Retro Surf Event
A ‘retro event’ will take place on the Saturday of the Sea Sessions weekend, which will be open to all surfers and more based on style than explosive moves. We will aim to find the most graceful surfer, as the surf craft of choice will be 60′s and 70′s inspired boards. It will be a fun-filled event with lots of spot prizes from Barefoot Wine and Billabong. Entry is limited, so if you want to get involved email seasessionssurf@gmail.com.

Sea Sessions on Tour
Sea Sessions has for the first time hit the road to bring the party, tunes and our ‘surf contest’ to cities and surf towns around Ireland. The tour kicked off in Galway’s Roisin Dubh on Friday April 13th, with Crazy P. After that we headed north to The Black Box in Belfast (April 21st), with a performance from Fujiya & Miyagi, supported by Choice Prize nominee Tieranniesaur.

The May bank holiday weekend will see two events deep in the roots of Irish surfing; one ‘Retro Event’ in West Cork at Garretstown with our local partners Incide surf shop, and an ‘Expression Session’ in the epicentre of surfing in the West – Lahinch. The evening festivities will see Ollie Teeba (The Herbaliser) hit the decks at The Market Bar in Kinsale on Saturday 5th May, and in O’Looneys Bar in Lahinch the following night.

Top prize at both Cork and Lahinch surf contests is €500. The Lahinch event will also have up for grabs a wild card entry in to the Sea Session ASP Europe speciality event, Emerald Surfwear (Irish surf brand) packs for all finalists and Sea Sessions weekend passes for best air (surf maneuver).

Cork – The Red Bull Dodge will be on hand to provide tunes and Barefoot Wines will be organising a beach clean up and supplying some wine tasting for those of us old enough. To register for the ‘Retro Surf Comp’ email seasessionssurf@gmail.com.

Lahinch – While the Sea Sessions Barefoot Wine Expression Session in association with Billabong is invite-only, there’s a chance for surfers to take part through the ‘Tour’ event in Lahinch, Co. Clare, organised by our local partners Emerald Surfwear. The winner here will be guaranteed a wild-card entry in to the “invite-only” ASP Europe – Barefoot Wine Expression Session being held over the Sea Sessions weekend.

Confirmed surfers and heat sheet for the Lahinch Expression Sessions – Heat 1: Cain Killcullen, Conor Maguire, Stephen Kelleher, Oisin McGrath, Cian Gagney. Heat 2: Stephen Kilfeather, Cian Logue, Andy Byrne, Gearoid McDaid, Neil Acheson. Heat 3: Andrew Mennie, Damien Conway, Ronan Ortezan, James Monoghan, Donough Cronin. Heat 4: Aaron Reid, Hugh Galloway, Darren Toomey, Cillian Ryan, Alec Frazer.

Surfers Village
The Surfers Village will this year have its home at the now world famous ‘The Peak’ surf break, which in 2011 hosted the European Surfing Championships. Expect a mixture of food, shopping and displays to keep you entertained throughout the weekend as some of your favourite brands show off their wares.

Action Sports
Sea Sessions 2012 will again cater for the action sports fan with the return of the Skate and BMX displays. The crowd will not be left disappointed as the cream of extreme sports performers will wow and thrill spectators with the Adrenaline State High Octane BMX and Stunt Bike Display. ‘Adrenaline State’ brings the Ultra Dynamic Adrenaline Mash-Up to Sea Sessions this year. The multi-discipline biking spectacle will feature some of Europe’s best BMX, stunt and trials biking riders. Their playground will be an elaborate purpose-built course that includes anything from mashed-up cars and industrial electric spools, to ramp and kicker madness. Let the fun begin!

Sat. 14th & Sun. 15th April saw Bundoran tidy towns along with hundreds of local volunteers and businesses get their cleaning gloves on and their pain brushes out for RTE’s ‘Dirty Old Towns’ Weekend Challenge. The action plan included – art works at East End, beach clean up on Main Beach, planting of top gardens, Painting of – two shelters and some info signs, walls at West End playground, Bundoran Boat Quay and music from RBBJ finalists Stonefree.

Colm Hayes and the RTE crew arrived down on Sat. to lend a hand and to film the community project in action. Play the clip – get a sense of all the great work that was carried out along with the community spirit involved. Also see Bundoran getting ready for Sea Sessions, as Irish artists Eoin O’Connor, Tara Mc Guinness and Gavin McCrea brought the town alive with surf murals painted along the main street.

The Artists had this to say about their experience and involvement with the project:

Gavin McCrea - Surf Art By Gavin McCrea
The entire weekend proved to be a huge success overall. I spent the two days painting flat out, not really stopping for much else other than toilet and coffee breaks. The whole aim was to complete the entire artwork and installation by Sunday evening, so it was a hard push. I actually got back at it at 6.30 on the Sunday morning just to make sure it was all finished for the deadline, after having worked late into Saturday night finishing the surfboards.

I was pretty overwhelmed by the response of the general public and town folk. Lots of people stopped to chat and enquire as to why I was doing it. But most of all I was taken aback by all the compliments, encouragement and support from everyone on the street. I’d gone from being very apprehensive because I wasn’t sure if people were going to like what I was about to paint all over the building, but I was proved wrong, I had no or have not heard a bad word, only good.

Finishing on the Sunday evening I finally got a chance to stand back and see the entire finished piece and I was and still am absolutely stoked with how it has turned out. But most of all I’m chuffed for all the people who took part in the whole weekend challenge and stepped up to the job. My part was just a small one in the grand scale of the weekends task and the town of Bundoran as a whole should be very proud of themselves!

Before

After - Gavin McCrea

Tara Mc Guinness - Taras Face Art And Design
This was a great experience and learning curve for my art, as it was my first mural and what a mural to start with, over a 100 ft. I think its great to see the town and council getting behind local artists and supporting the expression of street art in the area. The positive feedback and interest that we got from the locals and residents is insane and hopefully this will open opportunities to do more projects like this in the future. I really think Bundoran could gain from street art projects of expression like this. Making Bundoran not just famous for surfing but famous for colour, art and originality.

Before

After - Tara Mc Guinness and Eoin O'Connor

Eoin O’Connor - Art-By Eoin
I guess the main thing for me from the weekend and the mural was that it was an amazing opportunity to showcase my artwork to an audience that may not have seen it before. It was great to see a County Council getting behind a project, like Tidy Towns, promoting and involving surf art in order to enhance the image of the town as a surfing location. It was great to meet some cool people over the weekend and it looks like I’m putting together some proposals for even larger scale projects in the coming months including Sea Sessions this year.

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