WATCH: Over The Ledge With Gearoid McDaid

Although highly coveted by surfers everywhere, growing up in the Emerald Isle, along one of the most world-class wave-dense coastlines on earth, certainly comes with its own set of challenges.

Primarily, because the world-class waves in question are fickle, freezing and heavy as fuck. And because for any local young surfer trying to make his way in the world, there comes a time when there’s no choice left but to try and tame them.

For much of his teens G-Man ploughed his efforts into high-performance surfing, fine-tuning his rail game, working on those air revs, prepping for the QS. By his own admission, he watched the lumps of Atlantic folding onto almost-dry shelves with trepidation.

But then, over the last few years, while still working on the QS grind, he’s been breaking down that fear barrier, stepping up and whipping in. This winter, come rain or shine, gale-force offshore or rare evening glass off, he’s been out there, pushing himself a little deeper on the shelf, looking for the biggest, throatiest ones. Bouncing over boils and wrestling the foam ball on the kind of waves he used to tear off the front of mags to stick up on his bedroom wall.

In his latest edit, cut by formidable Irish filmmaker Clem McInerney, and featuring Monster teammates Nic Von Rupp and Willy Aliotti, we see his efforts manifest and while there are some truly mental snippets of surfing in here, we know this is really just the beginning for the young Irish charger.