Bundoran's Richie Fitzgerald continues to surf the waves of success 

Back in his native Bundoran for four months, surfer Richie Fitzgerald can now add the accolade of top selling and successful author to his surfing accomplishment, as Ireland’s first pro surfer.

Michael McHugh caught up with Richie as he shares his time between his native county and his adopted home of Australia.  

His ground-breaking surfing autobiography ‘Cold Water Eden’, including an early baptism with marigold gloves to ease the chill, has already reached legendary cult status amongst his peers, surfers and other pond stirrers, after its launch last September.

It is now well into its second print run and has also gained a strong momentum across the Atlantic in the United States, as well as through ‘Ozmosis’ down in the southern hemisphere, which he is also blessed to call home.

It has become a firm favourite at airport book stalls and its dimensions (not word count) have even been slimmed down to make it an easy carry for those traversing the globe, as the Bundoran man once did, when he basked in the glory of being one of the Kings of the Big Wave. 

Richie's memoirs 'Cold Water Eden' is already in its second print run 

Before the conversation even starts, Richie is giving some advice on local waves to a braided hair surfer at his shop, Surf World Bundoran on the resort’s Main Street. 

A+ grades in affability as well as adventure are part and parcel of the Fitzgerald DNA.  

He probably would have made a great politician, but you could never see the smell of the sea in the nostrils even being surpassed by the nasal nuances of the Dáil Éireann whiffs of power. 

Richie is not content until a coffee is dispensed to my lips from the adjoining Waves Surf Cafe and we are quickly ensconced in conversation against the backdrop of an array of Star War figurines and memorabilia that began as a childhood hobby.

Richie at one of his earlier book signings

But keeping him on track about himself can be a hard thing, as he always appears more interested in everything and everybody that surrounds him. 

An adventure might be recalled about a wave or scéal, cut from a younger versioned cloth, but hardly mentioning the fact that he was instrumental in the aforementioned adventure himself. 

But that should never be mistaken for the die-hard single minded dedication that was required to reach pioneering status and success within the surf community, including a couple of brushes with oxygen deprivation and concussions at nearby Mullaghmore. 

He remains humble despite his literary success and is always grateful, almost wondering if he will wake up some day and believe that earning a living from what he loves the most, was but a dream. 

And you would be hard pressed to get a bad word from him about anybody. 

He tells me: “Spending your time between Australia and Ireland may sound idyllic, but it's not. You do miss your own country, but having one foot in each place suits me at the moment. I like it and that has been continuing for about seven years. 

At Mullaghmore Harbour in 2012, Paul O’Kane, Richie Fitzgerald (centre) and Neil Britton

“Hand on my heart, I would love to be home but it has done me the world of good to step away. Amongst other things, it gives you a greater appreciation of what we have here and maybe a better insight into how things are in Bundoran, Donegal and the north west in general.

Although Richie has travelled the world in his pursuit of the big waves, he hadn’t lived for more than a year away from home, but he has more than made up for that now, including an enforced extra long sabbatical in Australia, during Covid and lockdown.

He is quick to point out that his two children with wife Briohny, who is Australian, were born in Ireland, “so I want then to feel Irish and be Irish and jump off the rocks at Rougey or dip in the thruppeny or west end pools, as I did, when I was a kid. 

A fresh faced Richie pictured in Bundoran back in 1991 as a Tiki team member

“While Ella is more chilled and an aspiring and talented soccer player (something he suggests was not inherited from him), the younger, Kai is a real Bundoran man and thinks he is in Disney Land, every time we travel here. All long as they are happy and healthy, that is the main thing, they love the sea, the surf and the football.”

Briohny’s brief absence is extolled as she is out getting a set of spare keys cut for something or another, he explains casually, again the practical rather than the panache.   

While the bug for the writing has continued, Richie says that this will probably form part of an expanded portfolio ambition into the future but the surf business will also always remain an important part of his life.

“At the moment we are still doing very well at Surfworld. It has been a tricky summer but you can only do what you can do. 

“I still have plenty of enthusiasm for the business side of things in Bundoran and elsewhere. There is so much of me in the surf business, that I think it will remain a core part of what the future holds, with possibilities of expansion or even moving premises, but that also depends on which direction the waves are moving.”

Ian Hill surfing Bundoran's main Beach in September 1964, one of the first to do so 

Last year it was a leg injury that he sustained that put out of commission and the dainty dance of the crutches that invariably followed and then that was followed by a tour to promote his book.  

Its expanded distribution in May has also given the book a wider audience, especially in the US, “where I have got really good feedback for it”. 

“It is especially pleasing with the HarperCollins releasing a second edition within a calendar year,”he explains.

He is happy to admit getting a “wee buzz” as well when seeing it for the first time on sale at an International airport book shop. 

Looking out from his abode up Brighton Terrace towards the Peak, his mind flickers to more local things, like the hope of getting more people to love in the centres of towns like Bundoran and elsewhere.

He has the air of a man that is itching to get back to Donegal full time and he is happy to reveal that while it may not be a short term goal, it is certainly something that is on the horizon in the medium term. 

He explains: “I still want to have my hand in things ocean and surfing maybe within a different auspices, as there can be many different moving parts to it, there are developments taking place and I can see that there are opportunities out there in the next few years to come back but I would also like to keep writing in some guise   

Rich talent on horizon

Reflecting on the current crop of talented surfers from the area the Bundoran man mentions Gearoid McDaid from Strandhill, who not alone has many family connections in south Donegal, “but he spent most of his formative years surfing up in Bundoran”.

Richie says that Gearoid McDaid from Strandhill with many south Donegal family connections is one of the brilliant talents now on the international surfing circuit and a recent silver medal winner at the European Surfing Championships

Richie reflects as he suggests modestly that the new batch of Irish surfers  are much better than he ever was:

“Gearoid went out and he beat the world champion a couple of months ago and that would be akin to an Irish tennis player going out and defeating Djokovic at Wimbledon. It is an incredible result and was not a fluke as he has done close to that as well before and picked up a silver medal at the European Surfing Championships in Portugal. 

“That at pro level shows that the pedigree is there - the best result ever for an Irish surfer at that level - and putting him in good stead to qualify for the Olympic Games and that would be a game changer for lifestyle sports in this country.”

“You really need that, whether it is Camogie or Gaelic Football, soccer or boxing, someone to get to the highest level and if he qualifies for the Olympics next year that would frame, like Mona MacSharry in the swimming arena, although done before, surfing at a whole new pitch, it being an Olympic sport in Ireland. 

“So that would be at the cutting edge and there is a good competitive generation emerging both nationally and especially within the region which bodes well for surfing in this country.”

Cold Water Eden has been a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic

Richie himself admits that “a driving ambition” on his own part was as much an ingredient for success as any skill level and that there is “a huge amount of hard work involved” in focusing on his own surfing successes and creating a changing surf culture in the region to wider audience around the world, where waves off the west and north west of Ireland are as well known, as more other exotic locations.

So there we take our leave of Richie again, as he saunters out the door with surfboard in hand, as he has promised Ella and Kai a surf at Rossnowlagh beach.  

Living the life as they say and ready to create the next chapter in his book of life. 

And if you have not purchased Cold Water Eden yet, try it out and you’ll find the quaint glow of growing up in the north west, just as mesmerising as the big waves he later surfed.