Easkey Britton: There was always a sense that I had to overcome my female body

At a time when so many of us turned to the water and the sea during the pandemic, surfer Easkey Britton’s new memoir Saltwater in the Blood focuses on the power of the ocean

Easkey Britton is an Irish surfer, scientist and author. Picture: James Connolly.

If one thinks of a multipotentialite or a Renaissance woman, one might picture Dr Easkey Britton. The Donegal native is a surfer, an academic with a PhD in Environment and Society, an artist, a filmmaker and a writer.

In the world of surfing, she is up there with the very best, winning multiple Irish national surfing championships. She was one of the standouts in the surfing documentary, Waveriders. The pandemic gave her more time to write and her latest book, Saltwater in the Blood, comes at a time when many of us have realised the healing power of swimming and the open sea through lockdown after lockdown.