“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.
![Sophie-Hellyer-3-624x416](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sophie-Hellyer-3-624x416.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
“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.
![Sophie-Hellyer-2-624x416](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sophie-Hellyer-2-624x416.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
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.
![Sophie-Hellyer-4-624x416](https://images.huckmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sophie-Hellyer-4-624x416.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
“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
![Autism cannot be cured — stop trying](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/shutterstock_2322534063.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Autism cannot be cured — stop trying
A questionable study into the ‘reversal’ of autism does nothing but reinforce damaging stereotypes and harm, argues autistic author Jodie Hare.
Written by: Jodie Hare
![Bristol Photo Festival returns for second edition](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/Hashem-Shakeri-from-the-series-_Staring-into-the-Abyss_.-%C2%A9-Hashem-Shakeri.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Bristol Photo Festival returns for second edition
After the success of it’s inaugural run, the festival returns this autumn with exhibitions, education and community programmes exploring a world in constant motion through still image.
Written by: Ben Smoke
![Documenting the life of a New York gang leader paralysed by gun violence](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/web-Eyanna-has-always-been-Maliks-primary-caregiver.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Documenting the life of a New York gang leader paralysed by gun violence
New photobook ‘Say Less’ is a complex yet humanising look into a life wrecked by gun violence and organised crime.
Written by: Isaac Muk
![The woman who defined 80s Hip Hop photography](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/7_ULTRAMAGNETIC-MCS_NYC-1990.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
The woman who defined 80s Hip Hop photography
A new exhibition brings together Janette Beckman’s visionary and boundary pushing images of an era of cultural change and moral panic.
Written by: Miss Rosen
![In photos: the dogs of Dogtown](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/saguy_dogtown_02_RGB.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
In photos: the dogs of Dogtown
A new photobook documents Venice Beach’s four legged friends and their colourful cast of owners.
Written by: Isaac Muk
![Inside the battle to stop coal](https://images.huckmag.com/tco/images/Huck/DSC00173.jpg?w=1920&q=75&auto=compress&format=jpg)
Inside the battle to stop coal
As the legal challenge against Britain’s first deep coal mine in 30 years reaches the High court, we talk to activists at the centre of the fight to stop it.
Written by: Ben Smoke