Dr. Easkey Britton
Surfer / Author / Scientist
Photos: Andy Hill | @troggssurfshop
For many years now, Easkey Britton has been pioneering women’s big-wave surfing in Ireland. A professional marine social scientist with a PhD in Environment and Society, Easkey’s work ‘explores the relationship between people and nature’ and more recently has revolved around ‘exploring the use of blue and green space to restore health and wellbeing.’ Her research through collaborations such as the SOPHIE (Seas Oceans and Public Health in Europe) and INCLUSEA projects, have been successful in helping to better understand the healing power of water and ‘how to restore our relationship with it, as well as exploring how we might create more inclusive ocean spaces.’
Photo: Easkey Britton
“Surfing is something that is border-crossing if we use the sea as a kind of a metaphor in terms of its boundlessness, but in a real sense, my experience is that surfing is an experience that, when shared, can transcend social or language barriers.”
Photo: Easkey Britton
Born in Rossnowlagh, County Donegal, surfing was in Easkey’s blood (and name – she’s called after her parent’s favourite wave near their home!); years before her birth, her grandmother, hotel-owner Mary Britton, returned home from California with two surfboards and the intention of offering them to her hotel guests for use in the ocean nearby. Instead, her five sons took the boards to the waves and by the time Easkey came along, ‘surfing was a regular part of her family’s life.’ At just four years old, she was taught how to surf and has been doing it ever since, becoming the first Irish person to surf the 'hell-wave' Teahupoo in Tahiti when she was just 16 (she’s also a five-time Irish national surf champion!)
Photo: Andy Hill / @troggssurfshop
It’s Easkey’s ‘intellect and her quest to learn and create change in an often-unfair world’ that drives her and defines her, more so than her many accolades in the surfing world (she was the first Irish woman to be nominated for the Global WSL Big Wave Awards!) Easkey attended University of Ulster and in 2013 she graduated with a PhD in Environment and Society. Over the years, Easkey has combined her education and passion for surfing with activism, and in 2013 she travelled to Iran to introduce the sport of surfing to women there, which was featured in the award-winning documentary film, Into the Sea. On a previous trip to Iran in 2010, she had become the first woman to surf in the country and on subsequent visits over the years she co-initiated the Be Like Water programme for women and girls with Iran’s first female triathlete Shirin Gerami.
“The Iranian women had really pushed for this project and were instrumental to it. It’s important to have local female role models. There was no surfing culture there at all, so everyone experienced it through women initially, which proved inspiring for the young boys and men too, because everyone started surfing.”
Taking lessons learned and inspiration from her time with Iranian women, Easkey went on to found Like Water, ‘a platform to explore innovative ways to reconnect with who we are, our environment and each other, through water.’ Through this endeavour, Easkey ‘draws on the sea as an active metaphor to dive deep into the power of presence and embodiment of natural cycles.’
“I look at the world … entirely influenced by that connection I have with the sea because it’s been there my whole life, literally since before I can remember.”
More recently, Easkey has been an outspoken advocate for the health of our planet and as is usual for her, tries to approach the topic in innovative ways. “I think storytelling is really important and needs to be made relative to people through lived realities,” she says, “and show it through more creative ways. There is so much more room for looking at things in a different way and seeing how it influences our lives.”
““Looking back now I can see the power of telling your story in a way that can help and inspire others, regardless of what sector or sport you are in.””
In 2021, Easkey released her book Saltwater in the Blood, ‘a hybrid between a memoir and nature writing, with a strong undercurrent of feminism.’ In it, she explores everything from starting new chapters in one’s life to the integral connection between the ocean and humans.
When last she spoke with us, Easkey was deeply immersed in mothering twin babies, keeping balanced with getting in the ocean as much as she can and plans to launch her next book in April 2023, Ebb and Flow: Connect with the patterns and power of water, a ground-breaking guide to restoring our relationship with our planet’s waters.
Thank you to Easkey Britton for collaborating with us on her biography. You can get a copy of her book, and stay up to date with new releases, here.
Sources:
Banner image: James Connolly
‘Easkey Britton,’ on Seas, Oceans & Public Health in Europe (SOPHIE) online at: https://sophie2020.eu/people/easkey-britton/ [accessed 21 Nov 2022].
‘About Easkey Britton, PhD.,’ on EaskeyBritton, online at: https://easkeybritton.com/bio/ [accessed 11 Nov. 2022].
Irish Examiner, 11 Sep. 2021
‘Irishwoman Easkey Britton makes surf waves in Iran,’ on BBC, online at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-19802822 [accessed 23 Nov. 2022].
Irish Examiner, 10 Aug. 2014.
‘Easkey Britton: ‘The sea is a powerful mirror to what’s going on in society’ on siliconrepublic, online at: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/easkey-britton-surfing-plastic-waste [accessed 23 Nov. 2022].
Britton, Easkey, Saltwater in the Blood (2021).
‘Easkey Britton on her new book, feminism and respecting water,’ on BUZZ, online at: https://www.buzz.ie/news/easkey-britton-new-book-feminism-25102149 [accessed 23 Nov. 2022].