“The normal clichés about being a ‘surfer girl’ don’t apply when you live in County Clare,” Sophie Hellyer tells me. Sophie is poised at the wheel of her wagon, looking out across a wind-blasted Atlantic coastline just north of Doolin, in the far west of Ireland. No placidly perfect, cobalt blue waves today. No California dreaming for this girl.
“Surfing here and for me is more about finding empty waves out on the edge of things, pulling on that wetsuit and having an amazing experience with your friends. You don’t need to look like a cute, mindless chick in a bikini to have a real link with the ocean.”
26-year-old surfer, environmentalist and farmer Sophie Hellyer grew up on the wildest edge of the North Devon coast. It is a place of nautical heritage, brutal Atlantic storms and an aesthetic of otherness.
“I’m still in the process of finding home,” she says. “There’s something to be said for leaving the place you grew up in and exploring what is right for you. Eventually, hopefully, you can find a place that you have created as your home, rather than just having it as a static thing.”
The nature of the place in which she grew up is deeply encoded in her identity – and though her surfing life of travel, exploration and discovery has taken her across the planet – the Atlantic continues to define her.
In the past 12 months Sophie has adopted a new home at the farthest possible edge of the Atlantic Coast. She lives now in Ireland’s County Clare amongst a community of big wave riders and farmers; a group of individuals deeply committed to a life with the ocean and the land at the heart of things.
These days she tries to avoid the stress, the rootlessness and the carbon footprint that is afforded by a sponsored surfers’ peripatetic life of long-haul plane travel, eschewing the air for the road.
“Someone told me the other day that when you travel by plane your soul takes a few days to reconnect with you,” she said. “That’s why I choose to stay closer and to travel by road these days.”
Finding Home is a short documentary profile of Sophie and her search for a way of living at one with the ocean and the earth. Film makers Michael Fordham And Ed Andrews travelled with Sophie from her childhood home to the incredible coastline of Clare – discovering that perhaps the most important journey she has taken is the one inside herself.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck
In a city of rapid gentrification, one south London estate stands firm
A Portrait of Central Hill — Social housing is under threat across the British capital. But residents of the Central Hill estate in Crystal Palace are determined to save their homes, and their community.
Written by: Alex King
Analogue Appreciation: Maria Teriaeva’s five pieces that remind her of home
From Sayan to Savoie — In an ever more digital, online world, we ask our favourite artists about their most cherished pieces of physical culture. First up, the Siberian-born, Paris-based composer and synthesist.
Written by: Maria Teriaeva
Petition to save the Prince Charles Cinema signed by over 100,000 people in a day
PCC forever — The Soho institution has claimed its landlord, Zedwell LSQ Ltd, is demanding the insertion of a break clause that would leave it “under permanent threat of closure”.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Remembering Taboo, the party that reshaped ’80s London nightlife
Glitter on the floor — Curators Martin Green and NJ Stevenson revisit Leigh Bowery’s legendary night, a space for wild expression that reimagined partying and fashion.
Written by: Cyna Mirzai
A timeless, dynamic view of the Highland Games
Long Walk Home — Robbie Lawrence travelled to the historic sporting events across Scotland and the USA, hoping to learn about cultural nationalism. He ended up capturing a wholesome, analogue experience rarely found in the modern age.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The rave salvaging toilets for London’s queers
Happy Endings — Public bathrooms have long been contested spaces for LGBTQ+ communities, and rising transphobia is seeing them come under scrutiny. With the infamous rave-in-a-bog at an east London institution, its party-goers are claiming them for their own.
Written by: Ben Smoke