Cover design by Fonda Shae My new book, The Nazaré Notebook, is now available to pre-order. In November 2010, I travelled to Nazaré to join the North Canyon Project. I carried a small notebook and wrote down what was happening as we worked to understand the waves at Praia do Norte and how we could surf them. Earlier this year, I found that notebook in a drawer while clearing out a storage container. Its cover was marked with white mould, but inside were the handwritten entrie

Aurora Causeway Coast Oct 10 2026 I arrived at the beach last night for a night swim and saw the sky lit up as soon as I stepped out of the Land Rover. The Northern Lights were changing as I watched. At times, colour spread across a broad area of sky. Then the display would shift into distinct beams of light reaching vertically overhead. I walked down to the sea and swam for about half an hour beneath them. The display lasted throughout my swim and was still going when I came

Dawn Nazaré November 18, 2010. Photo Copyright Al Mennie. Since finding my old notebook, I’ve been working through its pages and bringing together photographs from the same period. The notebook contains brief entries, handwritten observations and reminders I made for myself. Some are only a few lines long. Turning those notes into a book has meant returning to them and expanding on what was happening around them, while keeping the original handwriting alongside the fuller acc

The Nazaré Notebook, shortly after being found in a shipping container in Coleraine Harbour. While clearing out a storage container in early July, I came across a notebook in a drawer. The drawers had belonged to my father. They were part of his office furniture and had eventually become mine. The cabinets were too heavy to lift, so I was pulling the drawers out individually to make them easier to move. When I pulled out the top drawer of one cabinet, the notebook was sitting

By mid-August, I’m usually looking across the Atlantic for the hurricanes that can send swell towards our coast. That’s often when I start looking forward to the change from summer into autumn. This year, the surf I’d been waiting for has taken longer to arrive. There has been plenty happening away from the water, and I haven’t been putting much of it online. But getting back out for some decent waves is something I’ve been looking forward to. I took this self-portrait in the

Fish and chips at the beach with Blyton is one of my favourite ways to spend a summer evening. We do this regularly. In between work and everything else that needs doing, we head down in the Land Rover, have a walk and spend some time beside the sea. The long evenings make it easier to fit that into the day. Even when there isn’t much surf, I still want to be at the beach. It’s where so much of our everyday life happens, and Blyton is always beside me. These photographs are f

I was recently asked by a prominent university, to take part in research on both competitive surfing and lifestyle surfing in Ireland. We looked at Irish culture, surfing culture, social media and the reasons many people may or may not follow a traditional competitive route. The project is confidential at present but is due to be made public this spring.

I've lost count of the amount of incredible surf days there have been on the north coast this winter. I've surfed more on my own door step than I have in many years. Great swell direction and well set sand banks have made for extremely consistent conditions for weeks on end.

I have had a few surf sessions this year at Finn McCool's at the Giant's Causeway. An unusual amount of large northerly swell has presented numerous days of sizable surf at the causeway but most often the surf was accompanied by wild wind and dangerous sea and tide conditions. I have however found windows in the weather to have three sessions out there in the past few months. On the day in this photo conditions were treacherous to say the least. A heavy current raged to the n

It has been a genuine privilege to be photographed by Wolf James Creative . Debbie works with rare attention and care. She doesn’t rush the moment or impose herself upon it, she listens, watches, waits. In doing so, she captures something deeper than appearance: a trace of the person beneath the surface. She is an incredibly hard-working, talented, and multi-dimensional human being. Her ability to connect and really see the person in front of the lens is rare, and I’m gratef

I've been lucky recently to ave two nights of swimming under the aurora. Both nights visible with the naked eye....

I have been using Tiktok (and soon youtube) to add video archive etc. I have footage and stills captured over decades I simply haven't had time to use or post anywhere but I'm trying to get round to it now. I have messages, comments etc turned off. I apologise for anyone reaching out on there but I find it difficult and distracting to use numerous apps so I'm simply posting and closing it down again for the most part. On that note I've pretty much abandoned twitter now and am

Endless easterlies have been producing perfect surf for weeks. I've been on the road solo numerous times chasing swell after swell along the west and north coasts....more on insta and more to come.

Night Swimming Audiobook now available Night Swimming Audiobook available at this link... https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Night-Swimming-Audiobook/B0GFXY9PX3?qid=1768329814&sr=1-1&ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=56YJS956XCM55Z07VXCN&plink=o763wapav0PFzL47&pageLoadId=zEyRO7kNHhz3q72z&creativeId=41e85e98-10b8-40e2-907d-6b663f04a42d&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1

This years campaign ran from December 1st-31st 2025. There has been a different approach of emphasising help rather than the nightly swim challenge. This involved a much more cut down, streamlined and consistent social presence and a slightly shorter swim distance of 0.5miles swam per night. No donations were asked for but donations have come in for the charity Aware NI. Next The figures around mental health struggle in NI have continued to rise. I have found it difficult to

I recently worked with a studio in England alongside publishers to produce the audiobook version of Night Swimming. I'll update when I have release details early next year.

Night Swimming will have a German language audio version. I'll update more here in due course.

I'll be speaking tonight at a Tech Conference in Northern Ireland. I believe it is sold out so if you have tickets, I'll see you there.

Rich Robinson and I spoke at Ireland Active Industry Awards and Conference in Meath recently.

A new film will become available online tomorrow October 19. It is a film for all the family based on a story passed down through generations in this local area. The film was produced in Hawaii by Alison Teal but all filmed here on the Causeway Coast. A huge thank you to Lauren Chambers, Mark Millar, Leigh Hawthorne and Crindle Stables for their help along the way. The final scene