I just had the pleasure of hopping over the Atlantic pond with the Supra Boats team riders and making a little trip to Ireland. Wakeboarding in Ireland? Yeah, that’s what we thought, too. And Mother Nature definitely didn’t make it easy.

Josh Sanders, Ben Greenwood, and the brothers Hansen (Trevor and Reed) all made the journey in hopes of experiencing some of what Ireland had to offer (and finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow). Despite the full-suit water temps (unless you’re a local, of course, ‘cause then it was just boardshorts and a vest temps), the wind, clouds and rain, all the riders managed to get in some really good riding and have more fun than a leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day. This trip was proof that a wakeboarding trip doesn’t have to have the best wakeboarding conditions to be successful. In Ireland’s case, this is due to the people who call it home and who played host to us. Folks like Morgan and Barbara Smyth from Silver Line Cruisers in Banagher and the Frisby family in Waterford saw to it that all of us were treated just as well as Bono from U2. Well, maybe not as well as Bono, he’s kind of a big deal in Ireland, but we all felt we were treated like rock stars.

Some adventures were had, some castles were visited (and wakeboarded past), some countryside was seen (especially when we would get lost, which can be easy to do in Ireland), some driving rules were broken ‘cause most of us had never driven on the left side of the road before, some local pubs were visited and some pints of Guinness were consumed (okay, a lot were consumed, but as they say, “When in Rome… or Ireland…”)

Stay tuned for the October/November issue of Alliance Wakeboard Magazine, which will have a full feature article on this wee little trip to the land of the leprechauns (and find out how many we saw).