In the 1960s, Irish hotel owner Mary Britton went on a trip to California. She returned to Ireland with a couple of Malibu surfboards.
Her intention was to offer them to hotel guests, but instead her five sons […] took the boards to the waves, making the Britton boys some of the first pioneers of Irish surfing.
One of her sons, Barry, went on to have two daughters. Both of these daughters took to surfing. In fact, the elder daughter was so successful at it that she became a professional surfer.
This particular daughter, born in 1986, happened to be named Easkey “after a famous surf break off the west coast of Ireland.” The wave got its name from a nearby village, which in turn was named after the Easkey River. The river’s name comes from the Irish word iascaigh, which is based on the word iasc, meaning “fish.”
Together with her sister Becky-Finn, she grew up balanced on a surf board, more often than not riding the very wave that she is named after.
Perhaps Easkey Britton’s younger sister Becky-Finn was named with the ocean in mind as well…?
In 2007, Easkey Britton became the first female surfer to ride one of Ireland’s biggest waves, Aill na Searrach (“cliff of foals”), located off the coast of the Cliffs of Moher. She was featured in the 2008 documentary Waveriders.
Sources:
- Bio – Easkey Britton
- “Easkey: surf’s new role model.” Irish Independent 23 Dec. 2012.
- McCann, Nuala. “Irishwoman Easkey Britton makes surf waves in Iran.” BBC News 2 Oct. 2012.
Image: Adapted from Easky Beach by Robin Mais under CC BY-SA 2.0.
