A-frame

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Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

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Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

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advertising and surfing

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aerial

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Aikau, Eddie

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Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

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Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

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Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

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Archbold, Matt

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Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Beschen, Shane

Relentlessly humid African country located about 400 miles north of the equator, in the south-facing Gulf of Guinea; Ivory Coast's 320-mile coastline is for the most part made up of palm-fringed lagoons and broad sandy beaches. 

Californian wave-hunters Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson explored Ivory Coast in 1973, but chose not to give locations to any of the breaks they discovered in their subsequent article for Surfer magazine. Today, Ivory Coast's most popular surfing area is located at the eastern village of Assinie, near the Ghanian border, where a French-run surf camp overlooks a few nicely shaped and easy-riding sandbar breaks, most of which begin to overload when the waves hit five feet. 

November to April is the best season for waves in Assinie. Bigger swells provide overhead waves in late spring and summer at a half-dozen reef- and point-breaks to the west, but none of them are first quality. The Ivory Coast water temperature remains near 80 degrees all year; in late spring and early summer the damp air often boils up to the high 90s; August, September, and January are the only months that provide relief from the heat. 

As of 2003, there were a pair of surf shops in the capital town of Abidjan, two hours west of Assinie. West Africans are generally nonswimmers, and just a handful of Ivory Coast natives have taken up surfing; most of the country's roughly 200 surfers are French, as Ivory Coast was a French colony from 1893 to 1960. 

Except for stingrays, which thrive in the sand-bottom shallows, and the roasting equatorial sun, there are few native surfing hazards. But malaria and yellow fever, along with a recent history of civil unrest and lack of prime breaks, contribute to Ivory Coast being a low-priority surfing destination.

Ivory Coast

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews