Born and raised in a family of Irish surfers, and named after a surf break, Easkey Britton is a renowned Irish pro surfer, five-time National Surfing Champion and one of the top female big-wave surfers in the world. She's also an explorer, artist and scientist with a Ph.D. in Environment and Society.
On any given day, she may be traveling the world, getting towed into waves 10 times bigger than her, screaming down the face of walls of water that move like a steamroller, doing everything in her power to dance with the wave, rather than be crushed by it. Or, she may be researching the environment or bringing people to disparate parts of the world to come together and create social change around surfing.
I had a chance to sit down with Easkey and learn about her lifelong love of the ocean and relationship with water. We explored surfing not just as a feat or an activity, but a metaphor for life and growth. We also talked about how she is using surfing as a form of social impact, empowerment and cultural education, co-founding the Waves of Freedom Foundation and filming a documentary about her trip to bring together women from local communities around surfing in one of the poorest, most remote and dangerous regions of Iran.
