Simply put, Richie Fitzgerald is a legend in the Irish surfing community. He was a key player in pioneering the country’s big wave scene, helping place places like Mullaghmore on the map. Today, Fitzgerald is a family man and businessman, but still every bit as influential in Irish surfing’s culture.
“I feel I’ve crammed enough in for 10 lifetimes,” he says. “At 43 years old, I’ve had a pretty good life so far.”
So, give us the Richie Fitzgerald bio in a nutshell.
I was born in Co. Sligo in 1974 and grew up in Bundoran Co. Donegal about 100 yards from the world famous reef break of “The Peak.” I was always a beach boy. Even as a kid, I’d be down there in winter and summer in and out of the water, building sandcastles, fishing, swimming, body surfing, or playing in rock pools. My older brother and sisters surfed so I inherited their gear and hit the water in earnest for the first time in November 1983.
I got pretty good at surfing quickly, made the Irish Junior surf team at age 15 in 1988, and went onto represent Ireland at many European and World Surfing Championships around the world. It was a great way to see the world at a young age and be involved with team members from Portrush to Tramore and everywhere in between. Some of the friendships I made on those trips have lasted ever since.
My family started the first surf shop here in Bundoran in 1990, Surfworld, and it has remained our business ever since. I’d say I have a pretty rounded, experienced, and cultured view of surfing from an individual, competitive, and business point of view. Being in the surf business for 28 years has definitely taught me a lot and exposed me to the good, the bad and ugly side of surfers, surfing and the surf industry.
How has Bundoran changed since those early days?
You know, the only constant in life is change and the landscape of surfing in Bundoran has changed beyond all recognition since I was a child. I think sustainable change is good and stagnation in anything is a non-starter, so you can only move forward and always embrace change as best you can. The only thing that stays the same, thank God, is that we are blessed with so many world class waves in such a small stretch of coast. I always feel that during the ’90s, Ireland was getting busier from the outside in with all the international surf media attention it got through magazines, film, and TV. Since the 2000s, I feel the international surfers have kept coming in increasing numbers but they have been eclipsed by the uptake of new Irish surfers hitting the water. Reasons for this are wide and varied — more exposure in the media, the economic growth of Ireland in the 2000s with more disposable leisure income, improvements to our national infrastructure making our west, south, and north coast more accessible for the urban population centers like Dublin and Belfast, plus the vast improvements in wetsuits and surfboard technology made dipping a toe in the colder North Atlantic much more bearable. And of course, more surf shops and surf schools dotted around the coast.
Now, Bundoran has a fully viable surf industry with six big surf schools, three surf shops, eight surf hostels, surf yoga centers, surf cafes, pubs, and restaurants that cater for the surfing clientele. We also host lots of surfing contests and events with the annual Sea Session Music and Surf Festival being the most well known. It’s hard to quantify what surfing is worth to the area in employment, promotion, and revenue but it attracts tens of thousands of visitors to the area every year from every conceivable country and every demographic.
You have a growing family. Are they going to follow in their father’s footsteps?
Family is all important to me. I guess as you get a little older the goalposts move. I’ve achieved an awful lot in surfing and I am very proud of the things I’ve done. I’ve hit a lot of high points, but as the years go on my professional achievements in surfing and business pale in comparison to my personal relationship with family, friends, and my wife and kids. That’s what is important to me now. Ella is going on 7, and she is already a good wee surfer. I’ve never forced her to surf and only bring her when she asks. She is just like any other 7-year-old who does lots of sports and activities, but she really loves the water and the beach. If she continues, of course, I’m all in but I’ll never force it. I’ve seen too many bad results from pushy parents. And I can’t forget my extremely determined son, Kai, who is going on 4 and is a demon on the bodyboard. I really get a lot more out of bringing them for a few waves than I do surfing myself, so that’s where I’m at right now.
What’s your biggest career highlight?
I would have to say that pioneering the big waves of Mullaghmore is what I’m most proud of. Gabe Davies and I started tinkering with Mullaghmore in the late 1990s. We were the first to take it on and spent many winters out there alone with only Gabe’s wife watching from the cliffs. It’s in stark contrast to the huge crowds watching there for every swell now. I stepped back from surfing Mullaghmore in 2011. I do keep an eye on what goes on there now and some of the surfing is incredible. For my money, fellow Bundoran sham Conor McGuire is ahead of the pack. He is ridiculously humble and fearless in the eye of monsters.
Myself and Gabe had a lot of baptisms by fire out there. We were the first guys in the UK and Ireland to get a Jetski and boards to see what was possible. At the time, there were only a few other surfers in the whole of Europe chasing big stuff. We had spent the previous 10 years honing our paddle in surfing in big waves and had a few seasons in Hawaii under our belt, so we had a lot of experience in big stuff by the late ’90s. In those early years, we were totally alone out there and had to have a strong bond of trust, professionalism, and friendship because it was all new and we were going into some seriously big and dangerous stuff. We had a full range of emotions from pure terror to absolute euphoric adrenaline. I guess it all came together when in December 2007 when we surfed massive 14-meter Mullaghmore. At that time, those were the biggest waves ever surfed in Europe.
It grinds my gears sometimes when I read certain articles on surf websites and printed publications about the history of Mullaghmore written and contributed to by big wave surfers that think they are speaking with absolute authority about how it all came to be. I read one article in a now defunct British/Irish surf magazine that was absolute verbal diarrhea and failed to mention either Gabe or me. I’m not being a megalomaniac, but the truth about Mullaghmore is Gabe and I were ground zero out there for many years and worked out everything from swell, wind, tides, equipment by ourselves because there really was no one else to bounce off for advice or help. It was just him and me back then.
Surfers like Big Al, Fergie, Blounty, and Mac are fellas I have massive respect for and they really pushed in those early days in huge surf up here and in Co.Clare.
I feel I’ve been very lucky and surfing doesn’t owe me anything. I’ve had fantastic opportunities in the past to be involved in lots of film, TV, advertisement and printed media of every description. To work with the boys on Litmus and Thicker than Water was a great experience and they became seminal surf movies of the ’90s.
Any parting advice?
I know its a cliché, but really live every day as if it’s your last. Surround yourself with people you love, use mobile devices sparingly, engage in the real world, and ignore the begrudgers and haters. I feel its very important to embrace disappointment, rejection, and regret. It’s how you deal with these and the bad times and how you bounce back that strengthens and defines you much more than how you deal with success.
And also, knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it into a fruit salad.
