Laois Surf Club founder to publish surfing inspired poetry collection, 'Stoked'

Former Leinster Express Editor and founding member of the Laois Surf Club, John Whelan, is releasing a surf themed book of poems entitled ‘Stoked’.

“The world is full of wonderful poems, but I am not sure if there are too many, if any, on the subject of surfing, certainly not by someone who comes from a landlocked location like Laois.”

So says John Whelan aka Johnny Renko, his creative writing pseudonym, who has taken the plunge with his debut collection of poems entitled ‘Stoked’.

The title poem is an ode to surfing, a pursuit to which the author was a late learner only taking it up in his forties in places like Tramore and Rossnowlagh with Lahinch being his favourite go-to spot.

“It would be an exaggeration to say that surfing saved my life, but at a certain stage in life when you have to give up team sports and I never took up golf, you need something outdoors, physical, something that requires your focus and attention to take your mind off everything else and surfing literally allows all that stuff that stresses and clutters up and messes with our heads to wash over. I can barely swim and can hardly surf but I have never gone to Lahinch where I didn’t come back feeling better about myself, in myself and everything else that goes on in our lives.

“Surfing is the ultimate immersing in nature experience, being at one with yourself and the elements, the environment around you and I cannot overstate the enjoyment, energy, exhilaration that feelgood factor it provides every time and that’s the essence which inspires ‘Stoked’. It’s cathartic and uplifting and that’s the exciting opportunity that I am trying to capture and share.”

John recalled how he always had a fascination with surfing. When James Russell, a New Zealander who married Portlaoise woman Rebecca O’Neill, came to work at the Leinster Express in Portlaoise he brought with him some knowledge of surfing. John discovered others locally like Niall Kavanagh, Nigel Keane and Steven Kidd who shared his enthusiasm for surfing. 

“There was an initial group there and we met in Kavanagh's and hatched a plan… of forming Laois Surf Club,” says John.  That was in 2003 and the idea took off despite the landlocked with the group beginning with trips to Tramore before hitting the west coast. 

“It is very much an individual activity. It is you and the elements. Nevertheless, there was a camaraderie,” says John. The group travelled to picturesque coastal spots and met nice people who gravitate towards surfing, enjoy nature and even have similar musical tastes. John also struck up life-long friendships through surfing and his anchor poem ‘Stoked’ is a reflection of that lifestyle. 

Similarly, the other poems in this collection celebrate the therapeutic benefits of embracing and valuing nature, the landscape with a particular emphasis on the midland bogs. One poem in particular looks at changes to turf cutting. 

“That is a poem reflecting on the changing culture and traditions of turf cutting and centres on how that has to some extent been misrepresented and maligned, in my view, by those processes of banning domestic turf cutting. I don’t think they have been fairly represented in this so-called Just Transition process,” he revealed. 

Two of the poems in the collection are translated into Irish, with the title poem also translated into another Celtic tongue, Galician.

“One of the really enjoyable aspects of this project over the past two years or so is the enthusiasm and fun from collaborating with so many other creative talents, such as the encouragement from Amanda Kelly and the Power of Words open mic ‘family’ in Abbeyleix; getting permission from Mickey Smith in Cornwall to use his photograph of his friend Fergal Smith getting barrelled off the west coast, the Irish and Galician translations by Cormac Ó Dúlacháin and Xan Guitian in A Coruna and the tremendous input from designer Gavin Cowley and Martin Connolly with the typography and printing. It is this team effort, this engagement that combines to bring the poetry to life and gives it energy.”

‘Stoked’ will be launched in Preston House, Abbeyleix on Sunday, November 9 at 4pm in conjunction with Power of Words Open Mic. All are welcome.

There will be a further reading from the collection in the Whiskey Lounge (upstairs) in The Palace Bar, Fleet Street, Dublin on Thursday, November 13 at 6pm There are plans too for a reading in Lahinch with details to be confirmed.

Stoked, is the first book of poetry by John Whelan aka Johnny Renko, his creative writing pseudonym.

This collection is heavily influenced by the irreverent, introspective, self-deprecating styles of Paul Durcan and John Cooper Clarke, all the while with a nod to the agrarian traditions of Kavanagh, Heaney and Máirtín O’ Direáin.

The poems are inspired by a grá for nature, the landscape, friendship and the frailty of the human condition.

Other books by the author are The Buddha of Ballyhuppahaun (2010), Growing Pains and Growing Up (2018), and The Last Beekeeper (2021). He also writes the popular travel blog Vanhalla Camper Heaven.

John is a former newspaper Editor having started his journalistic career as a junior reporter in the Leinster Express in 1978.