However on the finish of the second civil warfare in 2003, as Liberia was on the cusp of democratically electing the continent’s first feminine head of state, a unique narrative was rising within the fishing village of Robertsport; one that may in the end change the tradition of this tiny seaside group on the border of Sierra Leone.
“After the warfare in 2003, some Individuals got here to Robertsport, the place they began browsing our waves,” remembers native surfer Philip Banini. “(They) got here throughout a Black man, Alfred Lomax, who was the primary Liberian surfer, they usually taught him the game. And that was how he too began sharing it with the locals round right here.”
Lomax, now the nation’s most acknowledged and embellished surfer, taught Banini, who in flip has taught numerous others, rising the group from one into many.
In the present day, inside Banini’s guesthouse hangs an indication that reads “When nothing goes proper, surf a left” — a reference to the left break for which Robertsport is known. The village is now one in every of Liberia’s three essential browsing locations, the others being the capital Monrovia and Harper on the border with Ivory Coast. Between the palm timber and lengthy stretches of sandy seaside which hug the Atlantic Ocean, each day the water is dotted with surfers.
To borrow a browsing expression, “the stoke is actual.”
A rising group
Surfers at sundown look out to sea from Robertsport’s seaside.
Jo Munnik for CNN
In the present day, Robertsport is a world aside from when Canadians Kent Bubbs and Landis Wyatt first set foot on its seaside. Since relocating to Liberia 15 years in the past, Bubbs has witnessed how the group of roughly 4,000 individuals has grown to incorporate over 60 native surfers. “There are an increasing number of surfers yearly,” Bubbs tells CNN. “The children who used to surf initially are actually having children, and people children are browsing — it’s turning into generational. We regularly see a number of members of the family out browsing collectively.”
Amongst them are the previous males’s nationwide surf champion Oscar Comney and his youthful brother, Massalley “Samon” Comney, whom Oscar taught the way to surf.
Via their NGO Common Outreach Basis, Bubbs and Wyatt have performed an lively function in serving to to develop the Liberian surf group by way of surf tourism initiatives. In addition they discover sponsors for the nation’s solely nationwide surf competitors, which they run in collaboration with Robertsport’s Surf Membership.
Massalley just lately gained the Robertsport beneath 18s competitors and plans to problem his brother for the grownup title sooner or later. One in all eight kids, the 17-year-old juggles working at Banini’s visitor home and promoting handmade bracelets to vacationers to assist his highschool tuition.
“I actually love browsing as a result of I really feel like I am one of the best man on planet Earth,” says the younger up-and-comer.
He is additionally not the one one making a splash; Irene George is the one native feminine surfer from Robertsport and present ladies’s competitors champion.
Her abilities have earned her the nickname “Butterfly,” as a result of she strikes by way of the waves like she is flying. After a break from browsing to pursue learning hospitality in Monrovia, she is now again within the water and wanting to show herself.
She hopes to encourage extra Liberian ladies to take up browsing however acknowledges there are some challenges. “When (I) go round saying, ‘I need to educate you the way to surf,’ they are saying, ‘I do not know the way to swim.’ As soon as you possibly can swim you possibly can surf, so we have to educate (individuals) the way to swim first,” she says. It is George’s plan to sometime open a swim and surf faculty of her personal known as Liberian Future Surf Faculty.
Irene George is the one feminine surfer in Robertsport and present ladies’s champion.
Jason Boswell for CNN
Surf tourism
Status and infrastructure might pave the way in which for Liberia to affix South Africa and Morocco as key African browsing locations.
Canadians Kent Bubbs (left) and Landis Wyatt (proper) relocated to Liberia 15 years in the past and have develop into integral to Robertsport’s surf group.
courtesy Landis Wyatt/Kent Bubbs
Bubbs remembers a time when the one customer lodging in Robertsport was tenting on the seaside, however that has modified as extra visitor homes have opened. Quickly the Robertsport Surf Membership could have its personal property, which might be used to run surf classes, fishing journeys and finally provide lodging too, diversifying alternatives in what remains to be a fishing-dependent native financial system.
In only a matter of years, browsing has develop into the center of this group. “It is about time that the nation sees the significance of specializing in the surfers in Robertsport,” says Banini. “I would like them to know that there is a sport known as browsing in Liberia, and there are a whole lot of Liberians concerned in it.”