The wave is pretty short, just a big tight peak. This shot reminds me of the '100-Foot Wednesday' film about Mavs.--All captions Al Mennie; photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk

Andrew Cotton on a screamer. I remember towing him into this one and looking over the shoulder of it as it threw out. It was SO hollow. In fact, the waves out there were probably the hollowest I have ever seen. Photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk

Cotton, again. Some of the smaller ones actually drew so much off the reef that they ended up as big as the set waves. Photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk

This is Cotty and I checking it out. We were going to paddle at the start, but as the tide dropped and the swell rose the peak got tighter and bigger. There are no lineups out there, just open ocean and hills in the distance. Having a solid crew was the key factor to this session. Photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk

This is me on my first wave. Aussie Paul O'Kane towed me into this. His driving was perfect, putting me right on the peak. When I let go of the rope, the wave jacked and I accelerated really fast. Photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk

Tunnel Vision. Photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk

This is me again on my best one. Paul again positioned me perfectly. I remember going down this one and thinking "is this ever going to break?" So I looked up to see if it was just going fat and realized it was doing this! Photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk

"The low pushed off of Greenland and quickly setting up just east of Ireland," says Surfline's Mike Watson. "The low then tracked towards the northern French coast. This strong low pressure had winds up to hurricane force, greater than 64kts, which set up the solid blast of swell for the Irish coast. (Hurricane Tomas had nothing to do with this swell.)"

I towed Saffa Barry Mottershead onto this one. He was like, 'just give me a warm-up one, Al.' I watched him from the shoulder go down this thing right to the bottom and it emptied on him. He collapsed and bent over in two -- still standing, but doing some sort of disco dance thing as he reached forward as if trying to find something to push himself straight up again with. He somehow made it. Photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk

Christmas came early to Ireland this year.

This is Saffa Jeremy Johnson. He flew in the day before the swell for the start of a two-month trip. He borrowed Ritchie's tow-board and Barry put him into this beast. Not bad for a first wave of a trip, eh? I remember watching as the wave grew faster than his board would carry him. Photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk

Aussie Paul O'Kane and Ritchie Fitzgerald, sightseeing at Niagara Falls. Photo: Conn Osborne/www.surfingphotography.co.uk