19 year old Irish sensation Gearoid McDaid has signed last week with Rip Curl Europe. The young man from Sligo on the west coast of Ireland first started surfing when his dad pushed him into waves as a 10 year old.
The cold water and harsh winters did not put him off and in his words – “I pretty much surfed every day since”. Explains Gearoid.
As he got older Gearoid realized that Irish waves could be as good as any others on the planet and he set himself goals to be as good as he could be, by relentlessly training in cold conditions even when alone. Some standout performances on the Pro Junior circuit established Gearoid as a genuine name in European surfing and the future looks bright.
“My goals for next few years are pretty much to try and score the best waves anywhere I can. Both at home and travelling to new places. I want to try and make some really good edits and get some solid coverage from every trip that I do. I’m going to keep doing some of the QS contest to keep my rankings up. I love competing too.”
Gearoid recently welcomed 3 times World Champion Mick Fanning to Ireland and the pair had a week of amazing waves together.
“It was amazing spending time with Mick. Yeah he came to my house for tea and I showed him around a load of spots. It was one of the best runs of swells we’ve had at home and I couldn’t believe I was surfing with him each session. So thankful to Rip Curl for the opportunity.”
“Im stoked to be part of a team which has some amazing riders. I’ve always looked up to goofy footers especially like Matt Wilkinson and Medina. And the whole SEARCH program too. I can’t wait to get on some Search trips – I don’t mind where so long as it’s somewhere with some crazy pumping lefts, ha ha!”
Welcome to The Search Gearoid!
