Brendan Gannon (16), from Rochestown, Co Cork, is making waves as a surf-boarder among the white-crested waves of Cocoa Beach, Florida. Five years ago he emigrated to Florida with his parents and sister, Billie.
A year later, in spite of his father Tony's misgivings, Brendan took up surfing. He had earlier shown promise as a football and hockey player, and Tony Gannon, who works in the education department at the Kennedy Space Centre, would have preferred him to continue with these sports.
"Surfing is to Florida what the GAA, rugby and soccer all combined are to Ireland . . . surfing seemed such an alien sport to my wife Maureen and I," he said. But in 1995, Brendan started surfing in Cocoa Beach - home of the six-time world champion, Kelly Slater. It turned out that the Cork lad was a "natural".
Two years after his introduction to the sport, he returned to Ireland on holidays and entered the Sligo Open Championship as well as the Tiki Junior Classic at Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal. He turned some heads in the Irish surfing community, winning all his four heats as a 14-year-old and going on a few weeks later to become the Irish Junior Champion.
In August 1998, the Cork-born youngster was invited to surf for Ireland at the Junior Championships in France as well as at the World Surfing Games the following month in Portugal. There, he became the first Irish surfer to reach the fourth round of the contest, scoring 1,120 points for his State, bringing Ireland's world ranking to 15th and his own to 34th.
This month, Brendan's ranking back in Florida rose to fifth. He has become a serious contender.
He is about to test his mettle on the European Junior Professional Tour this summer. Ireland could be within sight of having its first European surfing champion. The preliminary rounds will begin in early June in Cornwall and as the summer progresses, the tour will move on to France, Spain and Portugal. Brendan is determined to make his mark on this event.
Naturally, the pursuit of such dreams is not inexpensive - the cost of maintaining himself and competing will be in the order of £2,000. But some sponsors have come through. They include Gul Wetsuits of Cornwall, Hawaiian Island Creations of California, and the original surfboard sponsors to Slater, the standing world champion - Quiet Flight Surfboards of Cocoa Beach. The Gannon family are still hoping that organisations, such as an airline, will offer a deal to the rising star. It would be nice if that happened.
Brendan is planning to hire a camper van and drive around Europe for his first professional tour. The standard of surfing in Florida is very high and he suspects that in Europe he will also come up against stiff opposition. But he is not at all put out by the prospect. He has been given great support by the Irish Surfing Association and by Peter Cook, the Australian coach to the association. In the Celtic Tiger economy surely they will be queuing up to help an emerging talent reach its goal?