Remnants of a hurricane drive huge waves off the coast of...

The dramatic surfing conditions in the Atlantic, caused by the remnants of Hurricane Epsilon, saw waves exceeding 18 meters off the coast of Sligo.

Elite surfer Conor Maguire, who caught the waves in Mullaghmore, said it was a rare and special experience.

“There are only a handful of days like this in your entire life to experience that today was very special,” he told RTÉ News.

Conor from Bundoran in Co Donegal was the only surfer on the waves off Mullaghmore today, accompanied by a security team and a Red Bull film crew.

Met Éireann said the data collected by the Irish Marine Data Buoy Observation Network showed that during the daytime “significant wave heights” were recorded between ten and 16 meters, with buoy 6 having a maximum height of 21.7 meters.

In 2013, waves exceeding 15 meters or 50 feet were seen off Mullaghmore.

Seasoned surfers Barry Mottershead and Dylan Stott were part of Conor’s security team today.

“They’ve been surfing there for about 15 years and have never seen anything close,” said Conor.

“It was pretty special to see this size, it’s pretty rare.”

These waves were expected, as Met Éireann meteorologist Gerry Murphy explained.

“Right now there is a very deep depression in the North Atlantic, which is actually the remains of Hurricane Epsilon.

“In the past 24 hours, the depression level had dropped to 955 hPa, which is a very low pressure. This enabled very high waves to be generated far out in the Atlantic, resulting in significant swell and, consequently, very high waves moving near the Irish coast. ”

Fortunately, the risk of flooding on land is low.

Tomorrow Conor will be back on his board.

“There are remnants of that swell hanging around tomorrow, so it will still be six to nine meters, which will feel small after today,” he said.