32 years and lots of roadtrips later I am driving a very different car to a place called Ireland. It´s a brand new Mobile Home from Dethleffs, we just picked up at the Dethleffs Office in Southern Germany, and we supposed to spend the next two weeks in it with a girl and a few boys of the team. Klaas and I had to go from the very north of Germany to Munich to meet up with the film crew and to pick up the latest boards and wings at the Boards & More Head Office.

We left the next day with 2 Dethleffs Mobile Homes and Klaas private Van towards Paris. The plan was to pick up our french team rider Clement and the Caboverdian Wesley Brito. The only problem was Wesley arrived at the southern airport and clement at the northern, both pretty much at the same time late at night. Its good they arrived at night, so the traffic wouldn’t be too hectic. We decided to split up so Klaas could pick up Wesley and the film crew and I could collect Clement. We meet later that night outside from Paris and found a spot to camp for the night. In our Opinion it was clever to be at least one hour outside of Paris, since it can be sketchy close to town to find safe parking to sleep.

It was great to see Clement when we picked him up at the airport. He was already waiting for us for more than 3 hours, but he is always chilled, so when we arrived he just smiled and hopped into the car. I know Clement from last years Mauritius trip. It´s always fun to hang out with him, always positive, at some parts slow, but great company! We started talking right away and the time was flying by until we meet up with Klaas and Wesley. Everybody was tired so we slept for a few hours and continued the journey next morning to reach our ferry in time.

I remember we stoped at a truck-stop to get some food and Wesley had a package of spicy chips and a big monster energy drink for breakfast, I laughed so much when I saw that. I never met Wesley before, but we wrote a lot via Instagram, and it was great to finally meet him in person. He is like a big baby, I thought, huge guy! Very friendly, but in a good way like a child. Anyway, we needed to rush to get to the harbor right on time.

When we arrived in Dublin, we camped at some local mall parking to wait for Si. Two hours later Klaas and I went to pick up Nia and Jerome at the Airport. At that time I did not even know that Nia was half German, so I talked English from the arrival at the airport until we were at the car, where Klaas started talking German to her. We laughed and they made fun of me, fair enough I think!? When a little later Jerome arrived we hit the road all together to the west coast of Ireland, since on the next day there was the biggest chance of wind and waves for most of the trip.

Ireland was nothing like I was expecting it to be. I heard so much about big storms, cold wind, rainy shitty weather and massive sea.

But it happened to be nice and sunny almost every day of the trip. We never got a hauling storm, and the waves were max. medium sized. The Landscape was incredible tho, even more wild, green and fascinating than I thought.

We saw beautifully rainbows, endless green hills, wild beaches ruff Coasts and narrow Roads. The people were extraordinary friendly and food was great, even the Coffees at truck-stops were good.

We did lots of driving from west to east and from north to south and back. We have grown together as a team. Even though we couldn't get Wesley back, which was sad! But he ended up in Mauritius for a private shooting, cause it was easier to fly him there than to Ireland. Which wasn't too bad for him either....

We scored lots of sessions during our stay. We drank Guiness. We would have hoped for more wind and wilder waves, but it was great seeing all these different spots. A road trip is always something unexpected. It´s the unknown that makes a trip like that a success. Even if Clement and Nia were driving us crazy sometimes, we love them and you have to blame it on the Road. You feel how processes repeat themselves over and over again and some things falter. But it´s actually not the truth. Its always a big part of the journey and even the wildest things can get you somewhere. The Fact that we lost a friend before it really started, that we got into arguments because of dinner decisions, that we found empty spots and unexpected wind. We met friends and got invited into peoples houses that we never met. We grew together and I miss all of them!  But I still can’t really get over the fact, that we hit the biggest storm of the Season so far, on the ferry back from Ireland to France. But that too, was part of a trip I´ll never forget!

Ahoi Henning