Ibrahim Samb

NAME: IBRAHIM SAMB
AGE: 23
FROM: NGOR VILLAGE, DAKAR

What is your name?

Ibra Samb

 

Where do you live?

Ngor Village

 

How long have you been living there?

Actually, I’ve lived there since I was born, yeah I learned to surf there next to Ngor beach

 

How did you learn?

Because I live right in front of the water so before, because we were small we were a group of boys with my friends all that, and we went to koranic school together. We saw tourists coming on trips with their surfboards and at the same time after we finished koranic school, they gave us their boards so we could try in the water and we were on the beach with my friends all together, it was really fun so that's how I learned to surf

 

Describe the emotions you feel when you are surfing? 

Yeah here when I go look [for the waves] I’m really, I’m really happy, you see I'm excited, excited to be able to go look especially when I first see the waves

 

Describe your favorite surfing souvenir?

Yeah I remember when I made the world champion at Isa and I discovered new surfers who were very talented and I learned, I learned a lot

 

Do you think there is a surf scene at the moment in Dakar?

At the moment, here, because there are a lot of international people coming which is very good for our scene here

In fact, here, surfing before, well many of our families didn't want us to go out you see in one way, they said that it was not made for us you see, so here at the moment we started to surf due to those who came out thanks to the surfing. And now families start to encourage their families 100%, they start to encourage the little ones to surf. Now I would say we continue you see, we continue to improve more because we are the ones who must lead the little ones down the right path which right now is very good. I think what we're doing is very good

 

What message do you want to relay to the youth who wants to surf?

We must improve even more and especially young people must continue to study you see? me, I didn’t have the chances…and a few I didn't take and regret that now. So I'll advise the little ones to continue, to continue to judge because the regret that I have at the moment, I don’t want them to live the same thing

That's why, it's thanks to people like us and also thanks to surfers like Chérif, like Pake… all that, Babou — so now it's starting to improve because families always preferred that their sons went into fishing or taking care of the house and all that, you see, so right now it's good

 

If you had to describe the surf scene in Dakar, compared to other surf scenes in Europe and America, how would you describe it?

 

Here we call Senegal the country of Teranga so even in the water, even in the train stations, it exists because we spend time with tourists, with the people who come here, although in other countries it’s the war on the waves whereas here there are not many people in the water when you surf. You see, in the other countries it’s different because in the morning there are lots of surfers and you have to go into battle just to find a wave. And here it's different because we love… we love Senegal, because it's not complicated to surf or to learn. People are cool we share the waves, we even share the food. So I think we are different, that’s the difference for other continents

So that's why there are a lot of girls who don't know here, and especially people who don't necessarily go into the fishing business, you see with… Now, now, it has changed you see because they thought that surfing is a sport for grown-ups, you see? They thought that you don’t have… if you don't have enough money you can't do it so that has changed you see. We don't have… we don't have much less… we have no money but actually we are being seen, so it's good, it's good anyway.