No, No, No – You See This Is A Surfboard Not A Boat

In partnership with Billabong.

“I’ll tell you right now, Africa is the last frontier of undiscovered, world-class waves,” said the J man in How Surfers Get Paid S2E01. “Part of that is we only have 10-15 thousand surfers in the country, and we’ve got non-stop swell, so there’s no reason to go outside of the continent when on a pumping day at J Bay you’ve got 20 people on the peak, max.”

Here Laura Enever gives a bit of context to the grassroots surf culture in the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe – an island nation located in the Gulf of Guinea off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa comprising two main islands, São Tomé and Príncipe, along with several smaller islets. 

When surfboards first came to the island – they were so foreign the local authorities reportedly tried to register them as boats. The bulk of surfers currently ride boards carved from wood. 

Ergo, BYO Sharpeyes. 

Loz does an excellent job of giving the resource-rich colonial nation color – and how the grassroots surf scene intersects with local culture.