The Lineup Starts on Land

Babacar Thiaw is changing how Senegal meets the sea

Photos by Nicole Sweet

Babacar Thiaw grew up surfing the reefs of Dakar before he could afford a board. Today he runs Copacabana Surf Village, founded Surfrider Foundation Senegal, and has helped transform over 60 restaurants across the country into zero-waste establishments. For Babs, surf and stewardship have never been separate — the ocean gave him everything, and he's spent his life making sure it's still there for the next generation. The Flow Trip crew was fortunate enough to paddle out with him to talk about how what started with pulling plastic out of the lineup has grown into a movement that's changed how an entire country thinks about its coastline.

The Flow Trip: How did you find surfing? What were your first experiences like in the water?

Babacar Thiaw: My dad was a scuba diver. One day he went to the beach and took me with him, and I saw people surfing and I went crazy. He is one of the first modern generation of surfers in Senegal.

My first experience with water I remembered so well, because I was with my older brother — he passed away, peace on him. I was playing in the ocean and didn’t know how to swim and he threw me away and stared at me struggling to come back and figure it out. One thing about me: I am part of a fisherman tribe who live along the coast; the ocean is our sanctuary. 

FT: What is it like being a Senegalese surfer? What are the joys and challenges?

BT: Being a Senegalese surfer is a rooted honor and privilege to preserve our ancestors’ legacy, and for me preserving the ocean is to honor them.

The joys are tremendous because we are in a very precarious environment where things don't work mostly in our way economically, so surfing heals us, but right now we have more and more constructions along the coast side and everyone dumping their trash and sewage in the ocean. 

FT: When did you discover the need/idea to help clean up the beaches and lineup?

BT: The time that I was surfing with a bunch of strangers and I was the only local and we were surrounded by trash. That time was my calling, as I started asking myself if I am condemned to live like this for the rest of my life or have to do something? I don’t want to surf into plastics that make me sad, and I refuse to be sad.

FT: What have you seen from your work educating others and building community?

BT: Since I have been advocating for the environment, I realize many places and people adopted new lifestyles into their houses and restaurants. They told me I’m doing amazing and they are proud of me. 

I started in 2019, established the first zero-waste restaurant in Senegal, and now we have around 70 eco-friendly restaurants thanks to that initiative. My goal is to send a wake-up call to people that the job has to be done by us, not for us — not waiting for government or any state initiative. We live in this, we have to figure out ways to keep up.

FT: How have your actions helped bring the surfing community together?

BT: One of our projects at Surfrider Senegal is a water monitoring project led by the community — meaning surfers, scuba divers, and fishermen. They took samples every day for two and a half years. We have tremendous data to show people and the government this is happening, and we are causing all the damages.

FT: How do you see your actions and contributions to the community helping the youth and next generation of surfers?

BT: The youth are curious and so energized, they are all so involved in beach cleaning and gathering around ocean conservation. Whenever we have an event it’s a rendezvous for them. I see their excitement, but it’s not enough because there are a lot of kids. We need to help them and prepare them for the future. That's the only way they can make it.

FT: What have some of the most valuable lessons been that you've learned along the way?

BT: Humility. I end up realizing we are nothing compared to this vast blue ocean, and that helps me to stay grounded and humble towards people and things in life.

FT: What are the greatest challenges you face in your work?

BT: One of my greatest challenges is a lack of institutional and financial support. We need our leaders to produce policies and politics that harmonize with the environment. I am not the law and I can’t be proposing ways to behave and solutions about ocean preservation, but we are not heard and given importance.

FT: What do you think you and your community do that others can learn from?

BT: We chop life no matter if it’s with the bare minimum. We don’t wait, we make things work in our way. That may not be the best way, but we do it with love. And for me that’s the key.

FT: Do you have any call to action or a message for people reading this or surfers around the world?

BT: I love this quote from Howard Thurman: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people to come alive.”

For me, we all have a responsibility and a call that we need to find and fulfill. I am here all the way in Africa on the furthest western point, thinking how to protect the ocean. And you, what’s up? 

Learn more about Babacar Thiaw’s mission by watching his short film, The Human Side of Plastic