Easkey Britton

surfing

Once there was a girl called Easkey, whose parents named her after their favourite wave. They were both surfers and passed their love and respect for the ocean on to their children. Easkey learned to surf when she was four. She was the u8 national champion by the time she was six and made the Irish surf team when she was only twelve.

Competing came naturally to Easkey and it was no surprise when she became senior national champion. For Easkey though, surfing was about so much more than competition. It was a chance to see the world, experience different cultures and promote a positive message about the ocean.

When Easkey was growing up there weren’t many opportunities for female surfers to share their stories. She thought maybe she could change that, so she started looking for something a little bit different to do. She was only sixteen when she travelled to Tahiti and became the first Irish person to surf the famous ‘hell-wave’.

In 2007, she was the first woman to surf the big wave spot, ‘Aill na Searrach’, at the Cliffs of Moher, and when the moment was featured in a documentary, Easkey’s profile began to rise. Four years later, she realised the world was watching when she became the first, and still only, Irish woman to be nominated in the global WSL Big Wave Awards.

Easkey decided to use her profile to bring surfing to parts of the world where it had never been seen. An iconic image of her surfing a wave in Iran wearing a hijab was captured for a documentary called Into the Sea. Up to that point, no woman had ever surfed in the waters in Iran. Easkey feels that in the ocean you are free to be whoever you want to be, and she used that belief to create an initiative called Waves of Freedom, to empower people through surfing.

Easkey travels all over the world giving talks about the positive impact the sea can have on people’s mental health. It is fitting that she was named after a wave, because she has dedicated her life to teaching people about the power of the ocean.