Interview by Dorin Bambus
Ben and Laura are surfers with a penchant for exotic locales. Their taste for adventure takes them off the beaten path and for several years they’ve combined their love of adventure, surfing and film making to create incredible documentaries of their travels. While undertaking to pedal from France to Senegal, with boards in tow, they made an amazing film called Niokobokk. It was during this trip they were exposed to the hardship and destruction caused by Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the area.
Galvanising by what they saw first hand, they’re making a second film, completing the journey from where they left off to raise awareness of the issue and funds for the Environmental Justice Foundation, an organisation devoted to undoing the damage.
Where are you right now?
After a magic run of waves in Ghana, we have reached Lome, the capital of Togo. Our plan is to sort out a few visas and then head towards the Benin border where there might be a nice right hander and some cheap accomodation! Always a bonus when trying to avoid sleeping in a tent in this hot, humid climate.
What’s your best argument in support of travel by bicycle?
We probably have 50 reasons why one should, from logistical benefits to cost savings, but the main ones are around the human connections and the spirit of adventure.
What we personally love, is the guaranteed feeling that you are in the thick of a memorable mission! We sometimes scream at the top of our lungs, as we ride through an epic sand storm, or reach a ridiculously picturesque stretch of coast, from sheer astonishment. The mission has so many layers which makes every day entertaining and interesting:
You rock up to a line-up where the locals couldn’t be happier to welcome two foreigners – something we rarely experience on other continents.
If the surf is crap, it isn’t a huge deal as you’ve already had your dose of endorphin and dopamine making the journey.
Your fuel is your food. You don’t need to buy petrol or bus tickets, plus how good is it to eat a hard-earned meal!?
On bicycles, you get thumbs-up, chats and smiles non-stop, you notice everything, you have time to think…
To be fair, there are a bunch of not-so-fun sides. Packing wet wetsuits after a bad surf and riding 50kms into a head wind to find food and water makes you question a few things!
Where’s the most remote spot you have surfed?
In the Sahara. Some spots are better known than others on that 1000km stretch, but overall it is empty, ultra scenic and wave-rich. A few hundred kilometres before reaching Mauritania, a Corsican surfer shared the coordinates of a lesser known spot. His attitude was great: “I don’t care about all this secrecy stuff, the swell is hitting tomorrow and you guys deserve it!”. It was only a few hundred meters from the road, at the bottom of crumbling cliffs, with a big right-hander peeling for 150 or 200m. There was a lot of water moving and the paddle out was physical. It was clean as a whistle though!
Which spot disappointed, and which surprised to the upside?
We departed from the Alps in mid-August thinking we would reach the south west of France, Spain and Portugal as the autumn swells were showing up and everyone was getting back to work after summer holidays. We were wrong. We got to Les Landes in France as six-weeks of rain and on-shore wind-chop started! Our utopian dream of camping at the front of waves all by ourselves didn’t quite unfold: every kilometer seemed fenced in or packed with vans! The first campground we went to in Biscarosse had 4,500 campers! We didn’t get many magic, solo sessions until we reached the south of Portugal.
Morocco was kinder to us, but it felt like the whole of Europe was there so we headed into the Riff and Atlas mountains for a bit of a change. We returned to the coast after a few hundred kilometres, rode past a few million surfers in Taghazout and Imsouane before we slowed down. At times we wouldn’t move for one week, sometimes two, and just surf.
After a memorable time in the Sahara we reached Mauritania. It is hard to describe how harsh it is there but somehow we loved it. The north-east wind was way too strong to ride straight south along the coast towards Senegal. The cross wind would push Ben and the trailer off the road. After an unsuccessful and complicated attempt to surf a dramatic right point break, we changed plans and jumped in an iron-ore train that goes 400km inland, east into the desert.
After a 12h night ride we reached a village and turned our bikes south-west for a 500km ride with a 60km/h tail wind, down to the capital Nouakchott.
Archie, one of just six surfers in the country, welcomed us and treated us like royalty. He told us “we have three waves for an 800km coastline, and each are as fickle as they come, in rather ugly settings”. But we enjoyed it. There is something special about surfing in an unlikely place.
From then on, we got more consistent surf: the south of Senegal gave us our first taste of warm water and long sessions with super talented locals! Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast were as we hoped: jungle, welcoming fishing communities and when the swell came, the quality of the waves was impressive. The cycling was tough though!
Where was the last spot you surfed?
We had stopped in a town for Laura to recover from a bout of Malaria. We knew of a potential wave further south but when the owner of our guesthouse mentioned the names of some seriously well-known surfers who had stayed with him, and surfed a wave at the end of the road, we became curious.
The wave came to life on a medium-sized swell: fast, hollow, rather sectiony, shallow and very long. The whole area is subject to serious erosion and rapid sand movement. The other wave located further south was working beautifully though: a classic right point with a barrel section, and a racy wall leading you down the beach, from where you walk back to the point with a big smile on your face.
This must be one of the longest surf trips by bicycle ever documented.
We have met locals who had seen an Argentinian couple towing their boards all the way down to Cape Town a few years back. Another French surfer, Leandre, did the journey too. He rode his home-made bamboo bike with a board strapped to it! Our ride, if all goes well, should be around 15,000km by the time we reach South Africa.
Which locations are you most looking forward to surfing?
Angola is a place we are both very excited to experience: the waves from Cabo Ledo onward, seem well suited to both of us. We also know very little about the country, so not knowing what to expect adds to the fun!
Ben had surfed the Sahara before and always loved barren landscapes, hot or cold! Cycling and camping along that stretch was a major highlight, so we hope to experience a version of this in southern Angola and Namibia!
The first time we spoke, a lesson from your time on the road was “always paddle out”.
We feel strongly about that one. The quality of the waves don’t dictate how good a memory the session will be for us. One good turn, one good laugh, one curious aquatic creature…can be enough!
How many spots will you have surfed by the end?
We might have to flick through a few hundred pages of journal entries to give an accurate answer, but the number won’t be astronomical. 45 would sound pretty great!
Hypothetical: I give you the funds to set up a surf camp for travellers. Where are we going?
The west coast of Ivory Coast has a good variety of waves within a small perimeter, some seriously talented locals and a backdrop of thriving fishing villages and beautiful jungle. We could totally see ourselves immersing in that world and welcoming like-minded surfers.
And for the keen who don’t want to lay in a hammock when things get boring, you are only an 8-day bicycle ride through a thick jungle to reach the magic lefts of Robertsport in Liberia!
Were there spots you might have been the first to surf?
Almost! We were a few days late! We visited a friend, a retired Argentinian big-wave surfer setting up surf therapy projects for village kids on the gold coast of Ghana. An inspiring character who spent his life searching for waves in Antarctica, Patagonia and other raw places.
He’d been excitedly messaging us about a wave he had just found. A reef 500m out at sea, in full view of a fishing village and one of the old forts of the region. The wave is long, a right that can hold some serious swell.
Where does this trip end?
Experiencing the Transkei region is high on our list. A few friends have sold us the Mozambique dream, and a detour via Africa’s highest pub in Lesotho could be fun too! So we will see how our legs, shoulders and wallet are feeling by the time we reach Cape Town. We would certainly love to reach Jeffrey’s Bay, it’s one of Ben’s bucket list waves!
Where are the burgeoning hot spots for a surf scene?
Easy answer: Liberia, Ghana and Ivory Coast. Surfers from 8 to 35 years old have springs in their legs, read the ocean like old sea dogs, and welcome any foreigner like a long forgotten buddy!
On a trip where every gram counts and space is critical, how do you make sure you have the boards you need and nothing more?
We are carrying only two thrusters (6’0 and 6’3) due to weight restrictions! The Verdure construction out of New Zealand (which you may have heard of thanks to the likes of Tom Curren, Torren Martyn and Steph Gilmore) allow us to stay ding-free, light, and less harmful to our planet! They are made of cork on the deck (so no need for wax), eco resin and hemp to wrap the eps core, 3mm paulownia wood coated with natural hard wax on the bottom, and bendy ply rails. Fins are FCS/Patagonia made from recycled fishing nets. The shapes are from Sergio Gomez, based in Torquay. These boards have been with us from the start of our 3-year journey: Antarctica, Falkland islands, Chile, Peru, a detour through Alaska and on the back of a trailer from France to Togo (so far)! A classic board construction would have struggled a bit.