Storm Ophelia brought the country to a standstill on Monday, when Met Éireann issued a red weather warning and everyone was advised to stay indoors. Not everyone heeded that advice, however. On Tuesday's Liveline, Joe Duffy told us that many callers contacted the programme to express their concern or their upset at an incident near Dundalk yesterday morning. When a group of windsurfers took to the sea, the emergency services were alerted, bringing a rescue helicopter, the gardaí and the lifeboat service to the scene. Although not affiliated with the windsurfing group, Colm Murphy, himself a kite surfer, got in touch to tell Joe what he knew about what happened.

"It transpired that it was a number of windsurfers, very experienced, who had checked and measured and risk-assessed their site for yesterday morning, in advance of the main winds of the storm coming in."

So this group decided that they had a good two to three-hour window during which it was safe for them to engage in their sport. Although he's not a windsurfer, Colm, as a kite surfer, told Joe that the various kitesurfing groups he's affiliated with around the country made a decision not to go out during the storm, not because the winds were too strong, but because they were too unpredictable. That was not the case, though, he told Joe for windsurfers:

"The conditions were ideal for a lot of the guys to get a good two-hour window in."

What about the fact that their actions led to members of the public calling the emergency services? Colm – himself a member of the emergency services – said that he believes that groups like windsurfers and kite surfers should look at logging or registering their presence and informing the emergency services that they would be going out on a particular day, in particular conditions, in a certain part of the country. The emergency services are, Colm said, well used to members of the public who instigate what they call a false alarm with good intent and yesterday seems to have been one of those times. But, Joe said, the rescue helicopter was dispatched, the lifeboat was despatched. What about the danger to the first responders?

"On the back of the response yesterday at 10.20am, a lot of groups backtracked from their plans."

Having spoken to the windsurfers, Colm told Joe that they came in when the emergency services arrived, there were red faces, but nobody was chastised. Groups who practise extreme sports know very well when a storm is imminent is and when it's several hours away.

When it was put to him by Joe, Colm said that, from his personal experience of both extreme sports and being a member of the emergency services, he wouldn't be critical of the windsurfers in Carlingford. Other callers were less forgiving. And you can hear their points of view, as well as the rest of Liveline, here.

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