‘IN THIS MOMENT, I BELONG. I FEEL ALL OF WHO I AM. I AM HOME’
The North-West coast of Ireland is weathered by relentless storms. Growing up there, I felt an intimate connection to its raw, wild, hard edges. As a child, we’d go on family road trips and camp next to the breaking surf. My little sister and I curled up between our parents in the back of the van, the waves crashing on the reef. I remember staying up late to listen for a rise in the sound of the waves signalling a shift of tide or the arrival of a new swell. I learned about the reef, the swell and tides from time spent in rock pools, observing what the sea left behind when the tide ebbed and watching them fill in as my father timed his surf for the flooding tide. The sea taught me that life is a continuum, a constant, moving energy with no set beginning or end, no hard destination or pressure to arrive at a certain point in time.
Surfers are seekers. We search remote, forgotten coastlines, watching patiently for hours, days, weeks. We make ourselves available to possibility, reading changes in nature, looking for the smallest signs that the next wave will be the one.
One of those moments was at Mullaghmore Headland, Co Sligo, on winter solstice, close to sunset. The light was soft and golden breaking through the clouds. The wind died while the swell peaked just before dark. I felt the biggest waves I’d ever been out in and the sense that I was right where I was meant to be. I was fully present in nature, on the edge where sea collides with rock. A place beyond borders. I found life in this temporary place of practise and action. At its apex, at the height of its speed, I catch the wave. I am struck by the sound. Through my hooded wetsuit I can hear a deep rumbling intensify into a roar like all the world has become sound. It darkens as the wave opens up, breaking over my head, blocking out the weak winter sunlight. Nothing exists but total awareness. In this moment, I belong. I feel all of who I am. I have arrived. I am home. Dr Easkey Britton, Donegal