bugsonmyboard

Some of the most stoked surfers I’ve ever met are here at Bureh beach at the south end of Sierra Leone’s Freetown peninsula. They have the bare minimum needed to surf, yet their enthusiasm for sliding on waves is undaunted and they are in the water anytime a ridable wave presents itself.  They share waves, rip turns, switch stance, fall off, and shout for each other.  Being in the water with these guys reminds me of learning to surf with my friends when I was 13 years old. There is no fighting for waves and no egos on display, only the stoke of learning something new every time they get in the ocean.

Sierra Leone was ripped apart during bloody civil war that lasted from 1991 to 2002 well known for atrocities committed by rebel armies with large contingents of child soldiers and funded by the country’s productive diamond mines.  For many in the developed world, the war in Sierra Leone entered into popular consciousness as the backdrop to the 2006 film ‘Blood Diamond’. The reality of war left a third of the population displaced, 50,000 dead, many more seriously injured or maimed.  Operation ‘No Living Thing’ laid waste to Freetown. Doesn’t exactly sound like a place that you’d want to visit, right?  However, this bloody episode in recent history stands in sharp contrast to what you find as a visitor to Sierra Leone.  While the people and places still bear the scars of the conflict, I couldn’t imagine a friendlier, more welcoming place.  Sierra Leone is now peaceful, and the economy is on the rise as people begin to discover what a great place it is to invest and to visit.

An Irish surfer named Shane O’Connor living in Freetown recently helped the local surfers start the Bureh Beach Surf Club.  With his help, they are promoting surfing in Sierra Leone, training new surfers, and run a restaurant and some bungalows on the beach.  As a non-profit, community-based organization, a cornerstone of the club’s business model is to use their natural resources in a sustainable way to the betterment of the entire Bureh community.

Bureh beach itself is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, with a turquoise meandering river emptying to the ocean near a rocky headland that tiny Bureh village sits upon, flanked by steep jungle covered hills.  The river bar creates a pretty consistent left-hand wave and some rights that pop up here and there. The water is the absolute perfect temperature – cool enough to be refreshing, but you never get cold even after hours out in your boardshorts.

The guys here live like some romantic vision of the surfer lifestyle in California in the 1950’s. They sleep on the beach and cook communal meals together. For two weeks, I’ve made my home on their beach and shared meals with the Bureh beach surfers. They are the most welcoming surfers I’ve ever met.  What little they have, they share with me and I feel honored to be their guest. The spirit of surfing is alive and well in this remote corner of West Africa and it humbles me to find it here.

Money earned by the club goes to purchase communal surfing equipment, upgrade the facilities, provides meals for the surfers working there, and into Bureh Village.  They make most of what they need with simple hand tools.

Part of what they earn goes to supporting the 30 or so orphan kids in the village, many of whom lost their parents during the civil war.  Seven thousand Leones (about $1.60) for each of them provides transport to and from the closest school and lunch 5 days a week. On Wednesdays and Fridays all the kids from the village come down to play and have some surf training.  The beach is filled with little ones running about, dancing, singing and surfing.  The energy on the beach on these days is truly joyful.

Grommets in flight:

Meet KK, the first female surfer in Sierra Leone:

This simple, slow living comes with some real hardship. The club has no electricity and there is one well with a hand pump for water.  Meals are basic, consisting of mostly rice with a sauce of casaba leaf and minced fish.  The cooks bring out a massive plate of the dish du jour and a pile of hungry surfers dig in.

There is nowhere to buy surfboards, leashes, or even wax in Sierra Leone and most of their equipment is delivered personally by traveling surfers from the UK and Europe. When everyone wants to surf, they take turns trading off boards. When their boards are damaged, they have no way to repair them. I spent an afternoon in Freetown looking anywhere and everywhere for some fiberglass cloth and polyester resin to no avail.  Most people had no idea what I was talking about as all of the small boats here are made from wood rather than fiberglass.  I added my board to the communal stock during my stay.

Shortly before I arrived, they made a trip to a left-hand pointbreak.  It was the first time any of them had surfed anywhere besides their home beach, which is to say that it was the first time anyone in Sierra Leone had surfed anywhere besides Bureh beach, since they are the only surfers here.  Welcome to the surfing frontier of West Africa.

Check out the Bureh Beach Surf Club on their facebook site. Donations to the club go directly to supporting a surfing community with very little means. If you happen to be traveling to Sierra Leone, bring a surfboard or a leash, or even just some surf wax!