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020: Easkey Britton/How To Be Like Water

Mullaghmore. Photo: John Carter

“Surfing is the one thing I can’t do without. It’s shaped everything in my life. It’s where I find my aliveness and joy”.

For the third and final part of my Irish omnibus, recorded on my trip to the west coast at the end of September 2017,  I headed to Galway to see the great Easkey Britton.

Easkey is a surfer, XXL nominee, swimmeracademic, artist, thinker, activist, environmentalist and explorer from Donegal. Part of the legendary Britton clan, she grew up surfing the great waves around Bundoran and Rossnowlagh, and is today famed for surfing some of the scariest waves around, like Mullaghmore and Aileens.

Iran. Photo: Jelle Mul

Yet as I discovered, there’s much more to Easkey than a penchant for taking on big waves. We covered a lot of ground during during our wide-ranging and captivating chat – obviously her background as a surfer, but also her academic work, her family’s role as pioneers of the Irish surf scene and the way she is linking these threads together through the many different projects she’s involved in, such as Like Water and the new Ocean Collectiv, of which she’s a founding partner.

Papua New Guinea. Photo: Robert Weber

Among the highlights:

  • Easkey on the experience of surfing waves like Mullaghmore
  • Her travels in Iran
  • How her family helped introduce surfing to Ireland
  • Easkey on the disconnect between people and nature.

Ultimately this one is about connecting threads, and how through curiosity, openness, generosity and striving you can create links between the things that interest you for the greater good. Thanks Easkey! It was great to talk to you.

If you only have five minutes…

Listen to this section - Easkey on the experience of surfing big waves

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