DAVID RICE

Another lovely day today and I decided to spend some time clearing my head with some fresh sea air. Portballintrae (or PBT for short) is one of the beaches farthest East on the surf-able North coast of Ireland, and it is by far the messiest. On any given day the breaks will invariably be bigger than Whiterocks beach (perhaps my favourite of the lot) but there’s a lot to put up, like the really noticeable currents, an abundance of rocks, the lack of showering facilities and a long walk from the car park.

So today with Whiterocks offering very little for me to get naked in public, we decided to give PBT a turn. A decision that was perhaps against my better judgement for the aforementioned reasons. It was totally like paddling through toffee, I can remember swimming out for at least a good five or ten minutes to look back and see I was a mere couple of metres from shore. Lame. I got all the workout of a usual surf and more! but without the fun

Lesson learned. Portballintrae, I am officially crossing you off my Christmas card list.