travelling-blogger

comments

Think of a place that is known for the quality of its surfing, and a few destinations may spring to mind.

Australia, certainly, with its long sandy shoreline and near-obsessive love for the sport that plays out on beaches from Brisbane to Perth. The glorious coastline of California.

Even our own Cornwall, with its busy boarding scene.

But Iran? This enormous Middle Eastern country does not, probably, feature in too many people's perceptions of a perfect haven for surfers – despite its being able to lay claim to some 1520 miles of seafront along the edges of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

Riding the waves: Easkey Britton has spent three years surfing and teaching in Iran

But try telling that to Easkey Britton. The 28-year-old Irish surfer has spent several weeks in the past three years riding the waves in a remote region of what is – to Western minds – a little-understood state. In doing so, she has helped to break down cultural boundaries, and introduced Iranian women to a sport that was always waiting on their doorstep.

Now her achievements are the subject of a new film, Into The Sea, which will premiere tomorrow (9 October) at the London Surf/Film Festival.

It is a fascinating spectacle which sees her travel to the south-east corner of Iran, very close to the Pakistan border, and don a head-covering hijab to ensure she observes local custom while surfing.

Britton's odyssey began when she decided to seek a fresh challenge.

Born in County Donegal, she was introduced to the art of surfing by her father at the tender age of four – and had won the Irish National Surfing Championships four consecutive times by 2008.

Female surfers in Iran, a first look at 'Into the Sea'...

Helping hand: Easkey Britton (middle of shot, green hijab) has been teaching women to surf in south-east Iran

In 2011, she looked to new horizons, teaming up with French filmmaker Marion Poizeau. Together, the two women decided to head to Iran, to see if it had any sort of surf culture.

'It started off as a wild idea, passed along through friends of friends who also love to explore off the beaten track,' Britton explains.

'When I first heard about Iran, I realised how little I knew about the place or the people – and that most of what I did [know] was shaped by preconceptions fed to me by what we hear in the media, which is overwhelmingly negative. We didn't know what to expect and I couldn't resist that sense of adventure: to explore and possibly find waves with no-one.'

Her wanderlust carried her to Chabahar, Iran's most southerly city – a distant outpost which sits a full 1,130 miles south-east of the capital Tehran, but just 70 miles from the frontier with Pakistan, in Baluchistan, Iran's poorest (and arguably its most dangerous) region.

She was led by the thrill of the unknown and the roar of the waves – Baluchistan is home to the only sections of Iran's long coastline which are ideal for surfing. And she found both around the little seaside village of Ramin, which lies directly to the east of the city.

Unlikely surf destination: Easkey heads to Iran to surf and to teach others how to ride the waves

Of course, when she and Poizeau reached the beach, there was nobody in sight.

'There was no surf culture in Iran,' Britton remembers. 'No one was surfing there.'

No one, that is, until she took to the water. During one of her first forays into the waves of the Gulf of Oman, a police car pulled up by the beach. Britton confesses that, despite being properly attired, she was concerned. Had she inadvertently broken the rules?

She need not have been worried. The police were intrigued by the novelty of her actions, but otherwise just wanted to check that the two women were OK. They also pointed out rocks on the beach, and in the shallows, which could prove hazardous.

'I was quite naive on that first trip,' she recalls. 'But this left me open to the unexpected. Leaving behind expectations and being open to new experiences can be very surprising in a positive way.'

The trip resulted in a short film, made by Poizeau and released online in the summer of 2012.

The four-minute clip showed Britton on her board, but also captured her travel across Iran to reach the deserted beach, as well as the reaction of the locals – quizzical young men and captivated children, fishermen waving from boats at an unusual sight.

Easkey, pictured in the Iranian desert, will be featuring in a movie at the London Surf Film Festival

It ventured into Chabahar too, showing a city of welcoming people where Britton and Poizeau shopped in the bazaar, strolled on the waterfront and mingled with young women.

The response when the footage hit the web astonished them both.

'The impact came when Marion released her first short film online,' Britton explains.

'There was such disbelief. By sharing our story, with its counter-stereotypical images of how we perceive Iran – as well as images of women and surfing – we created a shockwave.

'That motivated us to want to explore some issues more deeply, in particular the role of gender in places such as Iran, and opportunities for women to try a new sport.

'Especially surfing, which is so synonymous with freedom.'

It was the beginning of a love affair with Baluchistan that saw Britton to return to the region last year – not, this time, as a tourist, but as a surfing teacher and a gender role model. The online film clip also led to contact with Iranian female snowboarder Mona Seraji, and swimmer and diver Shahla Yasini – and an exciting project was conceived.

Easkey says there was no surf culture in Iran before she starting teaching there

'The idea to go back [to Baluchistan in 2013] did not come from us, but from [these] other female, pioneering sportswomen from Iran who were excited at the possibility of learning to surf in their own country,' Britton says. 'That seemed like a story worth telling – the first surfers in Iran, who are women. A surf history that is being shaped by women.'

This return visit resulted in Into The Sea – footage again filmed by Poizeau.

It shows the former Irish surfing champion teaching the basics of her sport to local women and children – with female surfers taking to the waves wearing hijabs and full ankle-length wetsuits.

'The key rule we must follow as women if we want to surf there is to respect the hijab,' Britton continues. 'We have to keep our heads and bodies covered at all times.'

However, surfing has proved to bring a sense of togetherness to the beach.

'For now, the beach and sea remains an open space for surfing, although we created flagged "surf zones" for men and women during the surfing workshop,' she adds.

Shared experience: Easkey says surfing is a way to bring people together in Iran

'That said, in the end, everyone ends up mixed together in the surf, helping each other out. And because some of the best surfers are female, it is often a case of women teaching men.'

She has been thrilled at the impact the classes have had on the local community.

'It is great to see husbands and fathers asking me to take their wives and daughters surfing,' she says. 'On my visit, we actually ran out of surf hijabs – kindly donated by Capsters, a surf company who specialise in making sports hijabs for Muslim women.

'We were asked by the village leaders and fathers if we could send more so that more women and girls could go surfing.'

The story does not stop with the tide, however.

Inspired by their journey into the unknown, Britton and Poizeau have set up Waves of Freedom, a non-profit organisation that – to use its own words – 'uses surfing as a medium for empowerment, transforming the most vulnerable and marginalised members of society, especially women and girls.'

The body's first project will be Surf Seeds, an attempt to establish surfing in Baluchistan, via the donation of equipment, formal lessons and workshops on how to build and create surfboards – with the end ambition of forging Iran's first surf club.

But in many ways, Easkey has already achieved a good deal.

'It's really about connection,' she says. 'About seeing people who might seem worlds apart come together in shared experience, connecting through a common bond of surfing.

'It's about boundaries dissolving in water.'

Into The Sea will have its first screening as part of the London Surf/Film Festival (http://ift.tt/ULhmRu), on Thursday 9 October.

For more information on Waves of Freedom, see http://ift.tt/1shN0WO.