Billabong x Surfdome journey to the end of Africa
Thrusting boldly out into the Atlantic, Senegal’s Cap-Vert peninsula is the westernmost point of mainland Africa. Squint a little at a satellite image and you’ll find the peninsula is roughly the shape of a billy goat’s head: not just exposed to any passing swell but practically straining its neck to meet it.
Here, at the peninsula’s far end, is the Senegalese capital, Dakar, whose coastal suburbs are home to some of the continent’s funnest waves, and to a surfer called Cherif Fall.
A Billabong team rider and the Senegalese national champion, Cherif is a pillar of the local surf scene, which in one sense dates back to the ‘60s. Dakar was the first stop on the African leg of Bruce Brown’s The Endless Summer, which documented what were probably the first waves ever ridden in the country.
The water’s warm, there are lefts and rights in abundance, the surf’s eminently rippable, and nobody rips it harder than Cherif. He has a style all his own: wiry, spring-loaded, piston-legged, he races down the line at formidable speed and turning with industrial levels of torque.
In and out the water, he has what is known, in one of the three languages he’s fluent in, as a certain je ne sais quoi. He looks particularly fly dressed in the new Billabong x Wrangler collection and stood by his soft-top Citroen Dyane, a truly sensational car.
This episode of End of the Land is presented by Billabong and directed by Senyi B. It was edited by Makhfou, who was also in charge of photography, while tuneage was provided by Jaymdel. All photos were taken by Nicole Sweet.
Wanna know more? Cherif recently spoke to Jed Smith for an interview over on Stab. Give it a read.
