Mikey remembered on his birthday

?¢ In January, Mikey Clancy, from Raheny, passed away aged just 22. The professional world-class windsurfer featured in Northside People on numerous occasions throughout his career. Here, Mikey’s father, MICHAEL CLANCY, pays tribute to his son ahead of what would have been his 23rd birthday on May 14.

FROM the earliest days Mikey was a small kid with a big heart. He was a star midfield player with Raheny United Football Club. Although one of the smallest kids on the pitches in Dublin, he had similar competitive qualities as a player to Roy Keane.

At secondary school he played scrum-half for both St Paul’s College, Raheny and Clontarf Rugby Club winning many accolades for his feats of bravery. His summers were spent at Fingal Sailing School at Malahide Estuary. It was there his passion for windsurfing took off. John Power, owner of Fingal Sailing School, enrolled Mikey on a Peter Hart Windsurfing Masterclass clinic at Magheroarty in Donegal.

Mikey, then in transition year at St Paul’s College, Raheny, excelled in the huge waves on the north west coast and went on to collect the top windsurfer award aged just 15. He then started to sign up many sponsorship deals after first featuring in Northside People with a host of windsurfing and Irish brands.

Mikey soon embarked on many trips to the Canary Islands to train professionally over the following summers. His dedication and agility helped him transition quickly into the extreme end of professional wave windsurfing with huge aerial jumps and start to compete internationally.

Mikey combined his college studies at St Paul’s with his windsurfing career at the best windsurf spots in Dublin and on the west coast of Ireland. Over the next five years he competed against the world’s best in BWA, PWA, at Wave Classics and IWA events.

In 2009 Mikey was ranked 25th overall in the world at the end of the year. He then suffered a major ankle injury windsurfing in Tiree Scotland after which he was told he would never windsurf again.

After almost a year off the water Mikey defied the odds returning gradually to windsurfing. Soon the DIT marketing student returned to the top ranks of windsurfing once again by competing at the PWA World Championships Pozo event in Grand Canaria in 2011 and winning the Surfdock Irish Championship event in Belmullet, County Mayo.

Mikey continued his excellent return into 2012 with a career best 13th place in the Professional World Wave Championships at Klitmoller, Denmark, in September, the highest ranked Irish windsurfer ever to do so.

Mikey qualified with a merit award at DIT in Marketing and was awarded outstanding sportsperson at DIT for 2012. His untimely passing has left a deep sadness for his family and friends. However, his remarkable life story and spirit will live on in the hearts of those left behind.

This month Mikey would have been 23-years-of-age and preparing for another tilt at a top 10 place in the World Windsurfing Championships. No doubt Northside People would have continued to report on Mikey’s sporting achievements as they did over the last eight years.