Conor Maguire On Mullaghmore's Swell Of The Decade

“Cast a cold eye

On life, on death.

Horseman, pass by!”

That was the self-written epitaph of William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet. It appears on his gravestone and was taken from the last stanza of his last poem, Under Ben Bulben. Benbulben is the 1000-metre-high table mountain that often frames the square-lipped mutants that roll down the Mullaghmore reef.

For almost the entire month of last December, a swathe of local and international surfers spent a month dodging horsemen on one of the greatest swell runs in the Irish slab’s recent history. The biggest day of this swell has been compared to October 2020, generally recognised as the previous benchmark. The surfer who can cast the coldest of eyes, being the only man to ride both days, was Bundoran local Conor Maguire. Five years ago, he surfed alone, with special government permission granted during Covid. This swell, there were 20 skis in the water. On both occasions, though, he caught the biggest wave.

Having decompressed from a hectic December, and now working part-time on the tools to make up for a month in the water, we caught up with the humble, goofyfooter to compare the swells, talk through the wave of his life, other standouts, and get the lowdown on a run of waves that might go down in history.

SURFER: Hey Conor, talk us through the run of swell, and the biggest day in particular.

Conor Maguire: I was really tired when that day came around because it had been nonstop for a month. It was just back-to-back big swells with favourable winds. It was mentally draining having to get hyped up to go out there again. On the flipside, it almost made you comfortable with the routine of it.

Is it rare to have a run like that?

Absolutely. Generally, it breaks a couple of times a year, and you’re trying to wrap your head around it all over again. Before the big day we had loads of paddle days and a handful of tow days. So it was nice to be there and all in mentally for that day.

How did the charts look compared to 2020?

The numbers were similar, maybe a tad smaller, but this storm was sitting a bit farther off the coast, so we expected the swell to be a bit more groomed and clean. The COVID one was huge and raw and powerful. This looked cleaner, but we expected 30-foot waves, so I was pretty jittery.

What time did you hit it?

I was on it in the dark with my tow partner, Dylan Stott. We put the ski in at a different spot, just to avoid all the chaos at Mully harbour. We knew it was probably going to be the busiest day ski-wise, and it turned out that there were around 20 tow teams. I figured they'd all be chomping at the bit to get waves, and I just kind of wanted to do my own thing and avoid that jittery mindset where everyone's kind of going crazy with nerves and excitement in the harbour.  Plus, you spend an extra 20 minutes chatting to everyone.

How early can you tell the size?

We drove before the sun had come up, and it had that magical first blue light. Not long after we were in the line-up around 8.30, this fucking huge wave came. Nobody seemed interested. Dylan pulled me in, and I just let go of the rope. It felt like a 20 ft wave when I was dropping down it, but then I bottomturned and the whole thing just dragged off the reef, grew in size and spat behind me. I pulled in and set a high line. The whole thing went really steep, and I had the craziest vision because I was so far back in it. I didn't think I was going to be able to come back down from the high line, but luckily managed to keep my nose out of the water and rode out of it and then almost went over the handlebars coming out of the barrel. It was definitely the wave of my life.

How did it compare to the 2020 wave?

It was such a polar opposite experience. I was surfing alone, and it was so big that my waves broke off the back of the reef and kind of clamped at the end. It chandeliered on my head pretty much. This was more perfect. I thought I'd never get a crack at a wave like that again. And to have it stay open was incredible.

How’d the rest of the session go?

I was almost done. I was so stoked, whatever happened after that was gravy. I towed Dylan into a few before a big squall came in and disrupted it for a while, and everybody went in pretty much. We were chilling in the harbour, and as soon as the wind backed off, we boosted back out. The wind dropped, nobody was out, and we scored probably 10 more waves each with no one around. It was just a nice way to top it all off, with  no pressure and super relaxed, just having fun. So yeah, quite a memorable day.

It seemed all the world’s big wave attention was trained on Mully at that time. Did you notice or feel that?

It definitely felt like Mully was in the spotlight. With a swell run like that, it has been well and truly solidified as one of the best places to go and get the wave of your life. You can either let that get into your head and get frustrated with the crowd, or just use it to your advantage and feed off the energy. And people are fairly respectful of the locals. We just sit at the top of the pack, and if we're going for a wave, generally people won't go. But it's such a special place, and it's nice to share it. I think the visiting surfers respond to that. And as we had it so good for quite a few years, where there was only a handful of us out there, I feel pretty privileged to have had that. You can't really stop that wave of change with social media and the internet these days.

How does the run of swell compare to previous years?

I don't think I've ever had a run that good since back in 2015, when it pumped for six weeks. But I don't think those swells had the quality and size of this past month. I’m pretty broken after it.

Any other special moments?

Well, Dylan towed me into my very first wave out at Mullaghmore, so it was kind of like a full circle moment. Plus, I had my best mate Clem McInery filming, and my school buddy Chris McGloin driving him. Along with photographer Joao Tudella, we all went from the harbour together, so it was such a tight unit. Naxto Gonzalez and Ryan Watts were also there. We’ve taken Natxo under our wing here and he has become part of the family. Plus, Peter Clyne was on land shooting. So we are a team of friends that have been working together for decades. And when I got that wave, I kicked out and Chris and Clem were just sitting on the ski, just screaming. We hugged it out. It made a special wave even more special.

Any other standouts from that swell?

It was cool to see local kids like Callum Curtain going pretty crazy. Peter Conroy was there doing safety, but also having a crack. Luca Padua and Alo Slebir were both lovely guys, and just watching how those guys move on a tow board was mind-boggling. Clement Roseyro, too, was pretty insane with his positioning. Nic Von Rupp, as always, was a standout. Young guys paddling like Ned Hart and Robbie Goodwin were impressive. And Lowey scored a psychotic paddle wave. The thought of paddling for a wave, missing it and turning around and having my wave or Nic’s land on your head makes my blood run cold. Absolutely terrifying, but Tom has dedicated his whole life to that wave, so it was pretty cool. I’d say quite a guys had the waves of their lives that day. They were the biggest, most perfect barrels I've ever seen.