October is the strongest month of the Irish year that is still comfortably usable. The lows are lined up across the Atlantic, everything on the west coast has something to work with, and there is still enough daylight that a wasted morning is not a wasted day.
The size is what separates it from September. The swell steps up a grade, which turns the sheltered corners from an option into the plan: on a big October week Lahinch's open sand can be unrideable while a bay two headlands north is head high and clean. This is the month the west coast rewards knowing it, and the month most people book a guide for.
The water is down to 13°C and going. The hood comes back out towards the end of the month, and the sessions shorten with it.
