Rory on the crest of a wave

HITTING THE ROAD Rory Tuohy from Castlebar is pictured getting ready to leave home last week for the World Surfing Games in El Salvador. Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Castlebar surfer Rory Tuohy is preparing to compete in the World Games


Interview
Oisín McGovern

THE town of Castlebar is known for many things, but surfing is not one of them — for obvious geographical reasons.
But this week, Rory Tuohy from the county town is in El Salvador preparing to compete for Ireland in the upcoming 2021 World Surfing Games.
The 28-year-old had his bags packed to travel to Dublin before flying to Central America (via Madrid with the Irish team) when The Mayo News tracked him down last Friday.
Having missed the initial selection event due to work commitments, he was called into the travelling party when one of the team had to drop out for similar reasons.
Touhy, who came second in the 2019 Celtic Cup – a competition which features the best of Ireland and Scotland - said he is ‘really excited’ about competing on the world stage.
“Because I had missed loads of events I had probably missed the chance of getting on the team. So to get the call up a month ago, I was pretty shocked. I was delighted with myself!”
A technician by profession, Rory has been surfing for the guts of two decades.
He even once competed internationally at junior level in Ecuador at the age of 16.
So how did someone from a land-locked town like Castlebar take such an interest in surfing?
“We used to spend our summers in the caravan park in Old Head in Louisburgh and we spent pretty much all day every day on the beach,” he explained.
“My Dad had done a little bit of surfing when he was younger, so he showed it to me. I’m pretty vague on my first step, I’d say I was around seven or eight. Once I was fourteen it became the obsession.”
While he did compete in swimming and rugby during his younger years, eventually surfing became his sole focus.
He spent much of his teenage years arranging as many lifts as possible to Old Head every week. Even then he says getting out on the waves once or twice a week wasn’t ‘half enough’ for him. When summer would arrive, he was rarely out of the water.
In recent times he’s out on the waves four to five times most weeks, his favourite stomping ground being Easkey beach along the Sligo coast.
“I just love being in the water and just being in the ocean,” he explained.
“You’re just always chasing it, the waves aren’t good all the time so you’re always chasing it and you’re trying to figure it out.
“Now, it’s the same. It’s always changing,” he added. “You never know what you’re going to get when it comes to the ocean. No two surfs are ever the same and no two waves are ever the same.”
In preparation for the games beginning on May 29, ‘Team Ireland’ will be spending their time getting used to riding El Salvador’s much sought-after waves.
The Irish will also be practicing wearing just shorts instead of the heavy wet gear that is demanded when surfing the wild eastern Atlantic.
Explaining the adjudication system, Rory said: “It’s very similar to gymnastics. You’ve a 20-minute heat and it’s your best two waves that go into your score and your best scores are out of 10 per wave.
“They are looking for commitment, speed, power, flow, the manoeuvres that you’re able to do on the wave and how you link that up and make it work.”
While he is looking forward to the competition, Tuohy still remembers competing in Ecuador as a junior. He recalls how the superior standard on display by the world’s elite young surfers gave his confidence ‘a bit of a knock’.
So for that reason he is realistic about his ambitions.
“For me it’s a funny one. I’m going to be surfing with the top 30, 40, 50 guys in the world. I don’t mean to put myself down or anything, but I’m kind of over there to do my best and give it my best shot.
“If I can showcase my surfing the way I like to surf and I’m happy with that and see where that gets me. I don’t know who I’m against but it’s not going to be an easy task and the standard is going to be very high and I’m up to the challenge. I’m excited about it.”