SURF AFRICA
It’s been called the last frontier of the global surfing scene. Now its board warriors are celebrated in a new book, writes Andrea Nagel
In August this year, surf brand Mami Wata announced the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to fund the first book that comprehensively documents and celebrates surfing and related street culture in Africa, AFROSURF — The Book. It contains a number of personal stories by well-known African surfers who share their experiences on the waves and their impressions of the culture that surrounds the surfing scene.
Mami Wata’s limited edition “mind bomb”, created with Selema Masekela, his partner Nick Dutton and some of Africa’s finest photographers and writers, explores original African surf culture from Morocco to Somalia, Senegal, Mozambique, SA and beyond.
“This is a book that I believe will redefine and expand how the world looks at surf culture,” says Masekela.
“Africa has a unique history of wave riding, its own diverse and original expressions of indigenous surf culture. The Motherland is also the final frontier of global surf exploration. Surfing, and protecting these natural, economic, and social resources (waves) will play an important role in the development of the continent.”
Dutton agrees that Africa has a big role to play in the global surf scene. He says the scene in Senegal is big and has grown around the Ngor Peninsula in Dakar. “The West Factory in Côte d’Ivoire are changing the game, the crew around Mr Brights Surf Shop in Kokrobite, Ghana, and the Tarkwa Bay legends in Lagos, Nigeria, are all sitting on bustling, original and innovative surf scenes,” Dutton told Monster Children magazine.
Joseph Diatta from Casamance, Senegal, is on the cover of the book, which also features Joshe Faulkner from Pellsrus outside Jeffreys Bay, and the more famous Mikey Feb, Jordy and Twiggy, plus Waves for Change surf coach Chemica Blouw and big wave surfer Cass Collier.
Alfonzo Pieters from Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, tells his story: “I was born in Mitchells
Plain and then my dad passed away and that forced us to move to Manenberg because he was the one bringing in the bacon, sorting out the house. So we moved to Manenberg, and that’s where all the mischief happened. I’m obviously from a broken home, and with my dad passing away my mom became an alcoholic and that’s how I grew up,” Pieters writes. “I must have seen guys surfing at a glance but I never understood what they were doing out there in the sea. When I was on the streets, I’d been given a million chances to change my life around. Ryan Dalton, he found me on the streets at a very early age, like 10 years old, and saw that I had some potential to turn my life around.
Pieters moved in with Dalton who put him into school: “They were offering free surf lessons through school, and at the time I wasn’t interested, I was more keen on playing soccer. At the last minute I realised that I lived in Muizenberg and that’s where the surf lessons were going to happen and what’s the worst that could happen? So I put my name down for the lessons. On my very first wave I stood up! Everyone says this but I promise you, that first wave I got up I was like: ‘What the hell is this?! This feels so amazing!’ That first wave got me hooked, and then from there I started surfing a lot.”
Pieters became a surfing coach and an ambassador for Waves for Change: “My biggest goal yet is to start my own surf school. I love teaching and it’s something I know really well. I’ve seen what it’s done for me, so imagine what it could do for the next person. Especially someone who’s come from a similar history to mine.”
All sales of AFROSURF will raise money for African Surf Therapy projects, Waves for Change and Surfers Not Street Children.
● Read Alfonzo Pieters’ full story on Sunday Times Daily timeslive.co.za.
● See mamiwatasurf.com for more info.