Easkey Britton
on Wave Riding and Blue Mindfulness
BLUE Mindfulness
That sense of aliveness. That multi-sensory experience. That art of letting go.
Surf is pure presence. It is the mentor who teaches you to live in the moment, and who dares you to fail. To fall well and safely. A sweet encounter with fear. Moving through it “to discover something far more powerful than the fear itself on the other side.”
The wave is a mirror. It reflects hidden fears, but also the courage to face them. There is only place for full disclosure. You cannot commit to wave-riding if you doubt yourself, if you hesitate: “the wave reveals what is most alive in me; any emotional baggage - the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. It can leave me feeling quite exposed or raw. But that’s the magic of water. A powerful place to meet yourself, again and again. It gives you permission to feel exactly what you’re feeling.”
Born with a desire to embrace the unknown, Easkey Britton is a wild-hearted free spirit. In Irish mythology, her name, “bradán feasa”, is “the salmon of wisdom”. In her family, surfing was a celebrated part of life, her father being her favourite companion and a pioneer of Irish surfing.
Her curious mind determined her to become a scientist, academic and social activist.
Ebb & Flow: Connect with the Patterns and Power of Water, her book, is a feminist reimagining of the meaning of power through the lens of water.
In Saltwater in the Blood, she recognizes the value of the ocean and of nature’s cycles in our lives.
A journey to Iran fueled Easkey’s spirit to introduce surfing to women and local communities and is featured in the award-winning documentary film, “Into the Sea”. She is fighting against the invisibility of women in the surf sector. The ocean doesn’t care about gender. Easkey brings back the femininity of surfing: “the sensuality of the experience, the fluidity of water, how we are in movement with waves.”
Like Water is the platform where she explores the “Human-Water connection”. The ocean teaches you how to deal with whatever comes your way. You have to ride the wave and see where it takes you. As Easkey says, “we take something of our watery experiences with us when we leave the water. When we return to shore and life throws challenges at us or when waves come at us unexpectedly in our lives, the body knows - it remembers and knows it is possible to move through turbulence.”
Always remember - regeneration means moving like water: cyclically, honouring our inner ebb and flow!
Thank you, Easkey, for being a Wave Rider!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Easkey Britton
Company / Institution: Liquid Therapy
Title: Surfer and Marine Social Scientist
Website: www.easkeybritton.com
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/easkey-britton-72297663/
Country of origin: Ireland
Country you currently live in: Ireland
Your personal definition of Regeneration: For me, regeneration means cultivating relationships of reciprocity with the living, breathing, more-than-human world. Regeneration is about moving like water - cyclically, honouring our inner ebb and flow.
Main business challenge you face: How to create a more beautiful world on a planet that is dying.
Main driver that keeps you going: The power of transformation and renewal that can come from even the darkest depths. It’s from darkness and decay that life regenerates itself.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: Curiosity.
The trait you most value in others: Generosity.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: Surfing. The immersion in all kinds of water bodies. Playing with my kids on the beach. The wonder of rock pools, beach combing and watching the patterns the wind makes on the surface of a body of water. Ocean waves as they meet the unique indentations of the shoreline.
The #inspirators who determined you to take the regenerative path:
Irish artist Pauline Bewick
The founders of Red School, Alexandra Pope and Shane Hugo Wurlitzer
Matt Smith, CEO of Hometree
The writings of Robin Wall Kimmerer, to name a few.
A hint or starting point for companies or professionals that are taking the first steps in the regeneration journey: Slow down… slowing down gives us space to move from our heads into our whole bodies. To sense and feel ourselves in the world again. Connecting with nature, our bodymind naturally calms and slows, offering us a change in perspective: the ability to see, sense and feel from more-than-human perspectives.
Most used and abused clichés about sustainability that bother you: Reducing the complexity of such an intricate and entangled system as Earth to a handful of measurements and metrics, as if it was something we could control. As if it were simply a numbers game.
The harm of misleading words and terms such as ‘carbon neutral’ and the false promise of corporate carbon neutrality. Or the individualised ‘carbon footprint’, first popularised by British Petroleum in the early 2000s, disempowering collective action and the need for systemic change.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope: My grandfather used to always say to us in hard times: “Out of the hottest fire comes the finest tempered steel” - a saying he borrowed from a Chinese proverb.
Books that had a major impact on you:
Rachel Carson - The Sea Around Us
Robin Wall Kimmerer - Braiding Sweetgrass
Wallace J Nichol - Blue Mind
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
Antoine de Saint Exupery - The Little Prince
Maurice Sendak - Where the Wild Things Are
Must-reads for any Regenerative professional:
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis - edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine Wilkinson.
My new book - Ebb and Flow: Connect with the Patterns and Power of Water
Movies / Documentaries you would watch all over again: The stunning animation - Song of the Sea. A beautiful retelling of an ancient Irish myth about selkies (seal people). The power of storytelling in the form of animation and myth should never be underestimated.
Blogs / Websites / Podcasts etc. you visit frequently: I recently discovered The More Than Human Rights (MOTH) Project and I’m fascinated…
I love the Water People podcast!
I subscribe to the Dark Mountain Project and Where the Leaves Fall.
Big fan of Oceanographic - stunning storytelling about our Oceans.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: Listening to a lot of Rising Appalachia lately. And LOVE PJ Harvey’s new album, ‘I Inside the Old I Dying.’
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: Iran.
Global Regenerative Voices you recommend us to follow:
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson - marine biologist, writer, climate policy nerd and co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab
Sophie Strand
Hometree charity
Trends in Regeneration we should keep an eye on:
Wild Atlantic Rainforest Project and the growing ‘rewilding’ trend.
Best places for business networking (online or offline): House of Beautiful Business.
Events we should attend: Blue Earth Summit in Bristol.
Associations, business clubs, tribes you belong to – and why:
Finisterre ambassador: B-Corp certified tackling issues of sustainability and regeneration along the entire supply chain, including addressing the use of toxic materials in the production of wetsuits, making the switch to plant-based rubber, yulex.
Sustainable Development or Regeneration courses, trainings, or certifications that really teach us how to have an impact:
Becoming Crew’s (un)learning adventures (www.becomingcrew.com), and the Wavemaker Collective (a leadership retreat I co-facilitate in Portugal usually once a year!)
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030: That even in a broken state the world still offers us so much wonder. Even as the Earth’s systems falter and break down, still we are supported, nourished, held and healed. Now is the time to give back.
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: The ocean is changing and warming at an alarming rate and in ways I could never imagine in my lifetime.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Radical acts of courage and compassion.
The #inspirator you are endorsing for a future edition of the newsletter is:
Linzi Hawkin, co-founder of Protect Blue.
Quote that inspires you:
“Give thanks for what you have been given. Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.”
(Robin Wall Kimmerer)
Your own quote that will inspire us:
