SURFING INTERVIEW WITH NICOLE MORGAN: Mary Hanniganmeets rising star Nicole Morgan who is determined to take her surfing talents to another level

SHE WAS, she admits, a source of some curiosity for the folk she first met on the beaches of the Gold Coast in Australia. With a surfboard tucked under her arm Nicole Morgan, initially, blended in with the crowd, but stood out from the moment she spoke, her Fermanagh-meets-Donegal lilt raising a mystified eyebrow or two.

"Where are you from," they'd ask. "I'd say 'Ireland'," she laughs, "and, with a bemused look on their faces, they'd say 'there are waves in Ireland?!'."

Then she'd head for the water and prove to her audience on the beach that there are, indeed, waves in Ireland. How else could the Donegal girl have learned to surf like that? But she did, in fact, spend some of her youth in the surfing nirvanas that are Australia and Indonesia, but, ironically, it was only when her family moved to Bundoran, Co Donegal, that Morgan dipped her toe - and surfboard - in the water.

Born in Belfast 24 years ago, she lived in Fermanagh until she was five, before her parents, both teachers, moved the family to Australia and, three years later, to Indonesia. Three years after that they returned to Fermanagh, before moving on to Bundoran.

She has inherited her parents' wanderlust, but the purpose of her journey is to become the best surfer she can be. "I just don't want to get to being round and fat when I'm about 50 or 60, saying to myself 'why didn't I stay with the surfing for a bit longer'," she says.

Three years ago Morgan took a year out of her UCD physiotherapy course to focus on her surfing and by the time she returned to her studies she had the British Professional Surfing Association title listed on her sporting CV.

"When," we asked her at the time, "did you realise that you were that good?" "To be honest," she said, "only really last month." It was then that Morgan, whose brother Mike is no less an accomplished surfer, decided that she wouldn't rest easy until she pushed herself to the sporting limit, and to achieve that, she had to retrace her steps.

Sport Northern Ireland had already provided the funding that allowed her and Mike return to Australia for a spell, where they were coached by Sasha Stocker, the then Australian team coach and former world champion.

With that experience in the bank, Morgan returned home to win three of the four rounds of the British championships, more than enough to take the title. Her progress thrilled her, and after successfully completing her physiotherapy finals she opted to put longer-term career considerations on the back-burner while she sought to discover just how good a surfer she could become.

Sport Northern Ireland obliged again, sending her back to Australia, this time to work with Mark Richardson, one of Team Australia's chief surfing coaches.

"The grant is just an immense help. Trying to get to a certain level doesn't allow you have a full-time job so it's very hard to balance the financial situation with the time you need. I'm just really lucky. There are lots of talented people out there trying to achieve things, but without this kind of support it's just impossible to even give yourself the chance of reaching the levels you want to go."

"Spending time in Australia has just been brilliant. I was very aware going there that the standard would be incredibly high, I'd competed against these girls at international events so I knew what to expect.

"But to be honest it didn't really faze me because it was exactly the challenge I was looking for. I just thought I could really bounce off what they were doing, learn from them. And nobody there expects anything from an Irish girl turning up to surf," she says.

"When you go out and show them that you can actually surf they're surprised by that anyway, they don't expect anything from you beyond that, so you've nothing to prove.

"But it's just such a beautiful place, with the perfect climate - all the time you're thinking it's winter back home, you're avoiding being in the wet suit, you're not freezing, you're not only getting an hour a day in the water, it's another world.

"Back home we're restricted by wet suits, we're getting cold after an hour, and your body can't really perform when your muscles are cold and stiff. You don't get to spend as much time in the water practising, so to be able to throw on your bikini whenever you feel like it and jump in the 30 degree water. . . well, it just makes it all so much easier."

Morgan returned from Australia last month to compete in three events: the first competition of the season in Portrush, the opening event of the UK Pro Surf Tour in Devon and, this weekend, the Irish National Surfing Championships in her home town of Bundoran.

So far? She won the Portrush event, the first of two qualifiers for October's World Surfing Championships in Portugal (the second is in Bundoran at the weekend), and she won in Devon. So far, perfect.

"It was a really great way to start off the season, I'm much more confident, fitter and stronger and just have a bit more faith in myself.

"Australia is definitely standing to me. This weekend, though, is really the big one for me. I won the Nationals in 2003 but for the next four years I kept finishing second or third - so that's a pretty frustrating record at home. But I'm going into this one on a high, coming home from Australia, feeling good, winning the first two events of the season, hopefully I'm on a roll."

After Bundoran Morgan will return to Australia for two months, part of her preparations for Portugal in October. "Winning contests back home is really good and it's great to have done that the last few years, but right now I'm just not satisfied being at the top level of British and Irish surfing, I'd really like to push harder, get closer to the international girls and try to catch up with their standard a bit."

"I've enjoyed those achievements over the years, but I think people can get too caught up with being a big fish in a small pond, there's a much bigger pond out there and I want to get into it and make a bit of an impact. A top-eight finish in Portugal is my goal this year, but a top-one finish in Bundoran this weekend is the dream for now," she laughs.

Wet suit at the ready, the bikini packed away in her luggage for her return trip to Australia. Different climates, same goal: to be the best she can be before she's round and fat and 50 or 60.

Mind you, one ambition has already been conquered: the folk on the beaches of the Gold Coast have long since acknowledged: the Irish girl can surf.