When is Development a Bad Thing ? When You’re a Surfer and You’ve Found The Perfect Wave.

So it goes without saying that we are all supporters of African development in whatever shape or form that may take…education, training, jobs, infrastructure, health care.

But there is one area where surfers by and large face a dilemma when it comes to development. New surf spots !

Surfers by nature are a very selfish  tribe seeking perfect empty waves all to themselves. So when a new wave is discovered there comes with it the burden of whether to tell people about it (commonly called ‘bragging’ or ‘boasting’!) or keep it to yourselves. To be fair this isnt a common occurence in this day and age as most populated areas have been well explored and waves well documented. And most have a crew of locals that have long since taken ownership of the spots.

But Africa is the last frontier for surf discoveries and as expected our friends at www.africansurfer.com were faced with this very dilemma on returning from their trip. They found an epic wave in Gabon but decided to keep quiet about it so that maybe they could return one day to find it the way they had left it.

But that was wishful thinking… www.Surfline.com have just made the spot globally famous and from here on in change is inevitable. Its great for the locals as with more surfers so comes more tourist dollars and the development that is so beneficial, but at what cost.

If any of you have ever been to Bali you can clearly see the curse that perfect surf has had on the once peaceful island.

Moral of the story: If you find a perfect surf spot, strike a deal with the local landowners/authorities and control the development. If you’re surfer and selfish of course !