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Surf Travel
Surfing in Robertsport, Liberia – the best unknown West African surf spot (in season)
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 23 January, 2010 : – - Robertsport, 50 km north of Liberia’s capital Monrovia, has rolling green hills, plantation style houses reminiscent of the American south, and stretches of empty beaches with world class waves. It is accesible from Monrovia by what one local accurately describes as “the best dirt road in the country,” and is considered West Africa’s best surf spot (in season).
Robertsport sits on the Atlantic, and Liberia’s Lake Piso, where mostly fishermen and farmers live. Surfers enjoying swells generally work in development to help rebuild the country and are foreigners who have heard about the unknown West African surf spot and a hand-full of local self taught surf boys.
 Robertsport’s waves could transform Liberia itself from poster child for West Africa’s wretched civil wars, to travel posters for West Africa’s best surfing. Swells from the South wrap around the the angle of the coastline making waves up to 20 feet high. The result: long, gorgeous waves peeling off and providing rides of 200 yards or more. ‘West Africa’s best surfing’
The Robertsport coast has five points, including three main points: Fisherman’s Point, closest to town; Cotton Trees; and Cassava Point. Liberia’s most experienced surfer, Alfred Lomax: “‘This here,’ he says pointing out to the waves surging down the beach, ‘we call this Camp Point. Then, up the beach, is Cutting Point – that’s where they break both ways. The next point is Loco and the one after that is Shipwreck.’ ….. ‘The waves here get fine. When they are high, March to October, they can be 20ft and you get good barrels. You can ride one wave for a long, long time.’
You’ll find foreign white surfers at Robertsport, and now Liberian locals are also taking up the sport.
 Traditionally Liberians simply just did not go into the ocean much. Beaches were left to tourists. Locals ventured into the many lagoons near the beaches, but rarely did they brave the Atlantic, with its waves and undertow, not to mention the underwater neegees - or spirits – waiting to take you off to be eaten by sharks.
‘Underwater neegees waiting’
Now there is a growing - but still small – number of Liberian surfers, and a much-faster-growing number of world-class surfers always on the lookout for the next best wave, slowly carving out Liberia’s embryonic surfing scene. Right now, that scene is strictly Robinson Crusoe: surfers camp in tents underneath an enormous cottonwood tree and cook meals over open fire, or stay in raised wood-floored structures at Nana’s Lodge.
One of the lodge’s owners, Joseph Richards, a South African mining executive, also conducts charter fishing trips in search of barracuda, mackerel and marlin (to eat) and humpback whales (to watch). Always, there are the waves to ride. It’s the tropical, laid-back scene, with a tinge of magic and the occult provided by Grand Cape Mount that leaves many Western surfers who to there looking for property to rent.
‘Always, there are the waves to ride’
“The Robertsport experience is like living inside a classic book about an African adventure,” says Shayne McIntyre, who spent 17 days taping an “On Surfari” episode for National Geographic television, and never had a flat-wave day. “We were staying on the water in wood-decked safari tents, watching fishermen dodge absolutely perfect waves while pulling in their catch from hand-carved dugout canoes. while ladies with their children wrapped to their backs in beautiful print clothes crossed the sand. And behind us an immensely thick, impenetrable jungle rich with the sounds of singing birds and dew dripping on the leaves.” Nana’s Lodge organizes hikes into the rain forest, with Liberian guides escorting.
There are plenty of waves at the beaches just outside Monrovia, but the best surfing is in Robertsport. It’s a three-hour drive, and getting there means hiring a car and driver. (You can rent a car without the driver, but the price is about the same.) Hotels in Monrovia can arrange car rentals for around $100 a day, but if you ask around, you can find much cheaper rates from budding entrepreneurs.
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