Last Saturday at Tom Butler caught one of the waves of the day, if not the winter, at Mullaghmore. We chatted to the UK charger about that wave and that session.

Surf Europe: What a winter Tom!
Yeah I didn’t arrive in Ireland till around Christmas, but the boys were saying they have already had 20 good days out at Mully already and it seems there is plenty more to come. On average they tend to have maybe five days each year, so it has been pretty special.
On the weekend you scored a bomb (above), how did it all go down?
Well we had problems with our ski when a part broke and couldn’t replace it in time. So I had just geed myself up to paddle. I went out there on my 8 footer, and kinda hoped that one of the boys might tow me into one – they are pretty good like that.
How’d the paddling go?
Not very well (laughs). I tried to sit on the peak, but it was pretty impossible to catch anything so I went back to the channel and sat and watched. Dylan Scott got some mental ones, Kurt Rrist did too, little Connor Macguire, a local lad, charged a big one and Sancho got some bombs.
Must have been frustrating to watch?
Well yeah, but still amazing. Then Connor hurt his ankle, and then so did Kurt. Dylan drove over to me and asked Connor if he wanted a wave, but he couldn’t cause of his ankle. I was the only one that hadn’t had a wave, so I said, “C’mon Dylan get me one.” So it was through the misfortune of others that I scored that wave.
Tell us about that one?
After ten minutes of waiting, that wave came through. I saw spray coming off the back of a  wave in place where I had never seen spray before,  about 400 metres further out than the ledge, so I knew something big was coming. Then I saw this massive wall just coming and I said to Dylan just drop me as deep as you can and we’ll go from there.