Displaying items by tag: Freedom Surf School

20th May 2013

Learn To Surf - Through Irish!

#Surfing - Fancy learning to surf as Gaeilge? One surf school in the sunny southeast is giving international visitors the opportunity to do just that.

The Freedom Surf School in Tramore, Co Waterford offers 'Ireland's only accredited surfing certificate course through the Irish language'.

And in time for The Gathering initiative, this summer the school is running a series of surf camps for developing oral skills through actively learning the language.

These five-day camps involve classroom tuition in the mornings, while the afternoons will be spent surfing trí Ghaeilge - all led by qualified Irish teachers and surf instructors.

For more details visit the Freedom Surf School website HERE.

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Surf2heal a Success in Tramore

This year's Surf2heal programme in Tramore has been hailed as a huge success, Waterford Today reports.

http://www.waterford-today.ie/waterford-sport/13528-high-five-for-surf-2-heal-13528.html

The annual nationwide surfing camp for children with autism pairs each child with four volunteers to help them have fun with the surf experience, with the aim of building their confidence, balance, co-ordination and communication skills.

http://www.afloat.ie/watersport/surfing/

In Tramore, Freedom Surf School provided its facilities and equipment free of charge to both the volunteers and children.

"Each year the camp keeps getting bigger and bigger," said Pam Butler, Surf2heal co-ordinator in Tramore. "But without the invaluable volunteers we couldn't make it happen."

This year's Surf2heal programme in Tramore has been hailed as a huge success, Waterford Today reports.

The annual nationwide surfing camp for children with autism pairs each child with four volunteers to help them have fun with the surf experience, with the aim of building their confidence, balance, co-ordination and communication skills.

In Tramore, Freedom Surf School provided its facilities and equipment free of charge to both the volunteers and children.

"Each year the camp keeps getting bigger and bigger," said Pam Butler, Surf2heal co-ordinator in Tramore. "But without the invaluable volunteers we couldn't make it happen."

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About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour