Hurling Tournament in San Diego

Tuesday 20th:

Once training’s finished, Dara asks me if I want to come along the Joseph Mary Plunketts for a hurling tournament down in San Diego.
It’s a 10ish hour drive back-and-forth down the state – basically 2 days of driving out of this 4-day weekend.
This sounds like a plan: I’m down for it.

On Wednesday I ask my accommodating boss if I can take friday off. It’s a green light, let’s fucking go.
Monday 26th is Memorial day, a holiday here.

To give you a bit of context, San Diego is the most southwestern city in the states. With about 1.5 million inhabitants, this city is only a couple of miles away from the American border. Only 40 minutes away from Tijuana (Mexico).
If you want a taste of the Californian vibe as you imagine it, you should definitely go down to San Diego. Waves, Californian sun, weed and pretty girls shape the landscape around.

Thursday 22nd:

After work, I get on the Bart and go meet Dara, Daniel and Killian to hit the road.

We are spending the night in San Luis Obispo where a good few of the lads from the team are for college. Very lively town with great bars and an insane amount of students.

Dara, whom I mentioned earlier, started his own hurling club with a couple of friends from high school. Some of them are Irish Americans, other ain’t, it’s just great to watch the enthusiasm this sport provokes.

Friday 23rd:

The +/- 10h drive to get there is a trip to itself. Part of the drive is on the scenic 101, probably one of the most iconic and stunning road in America. This road runs along the coast. On one side there is a crazy landscape composed of roasted hills and farms for the most part, and on the other side, you got the Pacific coast sprinkled with iconic coestral cities and beaches such as : Santa Barbara, Los Angeles etc…. .

We get to our B&B late in the afternoon, went for a puck in the parc, some Jenga and then the bed was calling for us.

Saturday 24th:

We has 3 games altogether spread out during the day. Luckily for us, we had about 5 irish lads playing with us – would have been way tougher without them.

After a long sunny day, this is it: The Joseph Mary Plunketts are officially junior A champs! It is tough at the top.

We go out to celebrate the victory.

Sober since January 1st, I did take a break this night – I really enjoyed it. I reckon the social drinking is deeply implanted into the Irish culture. It appears to me this could very well determines the quality of exchanges and relationships for some people. Anyways, let’s not overthink it, it was brilliant.

Sunday 25th:

Slept in and headed to El Pescador Fish Market for lunch – a lovely seafood restaurant by La Rolla.
Next on the list was Pacific Beach to chill soaking up the sun. After puking the sliotar around for a bit, we got into the water.
There, probably the biggest waves I ever been into. You could really feel the strength of the ocean. I am starting to understand why this is such a spot for surfers.
I did forget to put on Sun block this day, my back still remembers it…Once we had enough, we went to Baskin-Robbins for Ice Cream. We head back to the BnB, got a filling dinner at Outback Steakhouse and started a Batman movie – never saw the end.

Monday 26th:

Time to go. After some quick cleaning, Dara drove for about 10 hours to got us to SF. We only stoped for gas and food. Speaking of I think I am becoming adicted to Chipotle.

From the passenger seat, you get to see people working under the beating sun, harvesting veggie, fruits or nuts in the driest environment ever. A while after down the road, there are wellhead pumps (cf photo) making sure we can keep drilling baby !

This seems normal and makes you question the sustainability of it all.

I said it and I am going to say it again ; hurling is probably one of the most interesting, versatile and fascinating sport I have come to encounter.
Players have to be all rounders. This is the reason why it takes so much time to become a skillful player.