An Irish Surf Odyssey

“Many people who visit the Cliffs of Moher are unaware of what happens there,” says Ken O’Sullivan.  His film captures the action as it unfolds.  Aileen’s, one of the world’s most formidable waves, starts to roll in from the Atlantic.  As the swells approach Ireland, they hit a narrow shelf of land.  The wave rears up to 50 foot in height and offers surfers a challenging ride right up to the dramatic 700-foot-high cliffs.    

Easkey Britton, the first woman to surf the wave, describes it as “addictive.  With the cliffs rising up in front of you and a big mountain of white water coming up behind you, you just want to do it again and agin”.

Sea Fever documents the history of this wave and the enthusiasm of those who surf it.  It also travels back in time to explore the development of surfing in Ireland, a culture that is merely a few decades old.

Rod Bennett, who has been living in Ireland for 21 years, first visited the country in 1973.  “Friends told me about the surfing and the Guinness so I came to try it for myself,” he recalls.  “I spent three weeks traveling from Waterford to Clare, surfing along the way.  I didn’t meet one single surfer.”

 

Unbeknownst to Rod, there were some surfing enthusiasts in Ireland at that time.  The young Kevin Cavey had seen a picture of a surfer in Reader’s Digest and was inspired to try it for himself.  He ordered a board from Cornwall, placed an ad in the Irish Independent asking others if they were interested and in 1965 organized a “surfari” to the west of Ireland.

The sufari included stops in Sligo and Donegal, where the surfers met the Britton brothers.  Together, they started off a tradition of surfing in the North West of Ireland.

The film has archival footage which expresses the pioneering spirit of the time. Viewers are shown images of young men racing joyfully into the sea, lugging rudimentary surfboards.

Easkey Britton is the second generation of the Britton family to become passionate about surfing.  In the film, she recounts how her father and his brothers learned to surf.

 

Her grandmother brought back surfboards from California, intending to use them as decorations in her Donegal guesthouse.  “My dad and his brothers paddled on them when they were young,” says Easkey.  “But it wasn’t until they saw a visitor stand on them that they realized what they were really for.  Before long, they were up on the boards and it all progressed from there.  My nana probably regrets it now.  We’ve got salty blood because of her.”

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Nster.com