Riding the crest of a wave

The Irish Times/Mitsubishi Electric Sports Woman for November: To be honest it was a bit of a disappointment when we tracked down Nicole Morgan - The Irish Times/Mitsubishi Electric Sports Woman for November - on her mobile phone yesterday.

She's a surfer so, naturally enough, we assumed we'd find her in an exotic location, chasing waves or chillin' out, the kind of things, we assumed, surfers do to pass their days.

"Hawaii," we guessed.

"I wish," said the 22-year-old from Bundoran, Co Donegal, who was, in fact, about to start a practical physiotherapy exam in Dublin. "I like to be different," she laughed, when we complained that she had ruined the stereotype.

It is, then, back to reality, with a bump, for Morgan a month after winning the British Professional Surfing Association title, a feat that surprised her more than anyone else.

When did you realise that you were that good? "To be honest," she said, "only really last month."

It was this year that Morgan decided to take a break from her UCD course so she could see where 12 months of full-time surfing would take her.

"I knew I had the potential to get better and that's why I took the year off, I was getting frustrated that I wasn't improving. My aim was to finish in the top four of the British championships so to win it was, well, just amazing."

Morgan, whose brother Mike is the Irish men's champion, won three of the four rounds in the British championships - the final round of which was held in Cornwall last month.

Among those she defeated was the British number one Kay Holt, unbeaten in a British event before coming up against the Donegal surfer.

"In the end, winning the title more than justified taking the year off college, it showed me what can happen if I apply myself to it. I still have a long way to go before I can be happy and classify myself as a really good surfer, but this year has been a fantastic boost."

During her year off, funding from the Northern Ireland Sports Council allowed her and Mike to go to Australia for a spell where they were coached by Sasha Stocker, the Australian team coach and former world champion, at the "surfing high performance capital of the world" in New South Wales.

"Without the Northern Ireland Sports Council we could never have gone there, I would never have learnt what I did and I certainly would never have won the British championships."

To go further, though, she says, she desperately needs sponsorship, not least because her 2006 schedule includes trips to Sri Lanka for the Champion of Champions competition, to California for the World Games and, in May, she starts the defence of her British title.

Born in Belfast - hence the funding from the NI Sports Council - Morgan lived in Fermanagh until she was five, then moved to Australia and, three years later, to Indonesia. Three years after that her family came back to Ireland, returning to Fermanagh before moving on to Bundoran. "Bundoran's the longest I've stayed in one place," she said, explaining that her travels were down to the wanderlust of her parents, both teachers.

You assume, then, that the surfing bug was caught while she was in Australia. Not so. "I didn't take it up until we moved to Bundoran," she said. "And it's pure addictive. All surfers are so addicted to it and, really, their lifestyle revolves around it.

"I can't explain it, there are just so many different aspects to it that attract you - it's outdoors, it's in the water, it's fresh, it's active, the fact that you're riding on a wave is just amazing in itself, you just get a great buzz out of it.

"It's a bug. Definitely. I don't know how far I can go, but I don't want to be in my forties with kids saying: 'God, I could have been so much better.' I'll just play it by ear and try and get better and better. All I really want is to realise my potential, if I can do that then I'll be happy."