'It's part of me': night swimming with surfer Al Mennie скачать в хорошем качестве

'It's part of me': night swimming with surfer Al Mennie

The last thing Al Mennie checks before entering the rapidly darkening North Atlantic is the wide beach and clifftops directly behind him. These are relatively calm and inviting conditions for night swimming, not comparable to the blackout depths of winter, but still Mennie isn’t taking any chances. He knows everything about this place, the kilometre stretch of Castlerock Beach on Co Derry’s Causeway Coast. It’s right beside where he lives and breathes the ocean every day. For swimming, Mennie now prefers to go out by night, when this stretch of ocean he has known all his life presents itself in a virtually unrecognisable way. He’s dressed in a thick wetsuit and flotation vest, cap and hood pulled down tight over his head, leaving his eyes and nose exposed and his great ginger beard. Some people who already know Mennie might wonder why he’s not carrying a surfboard; he’s revered as one of the mavericks of big-wave surfing in Ireland, a giant of a man riding 60ft waves. Video: Chris Maddaloni. Full story on irishtimes.com