Cote d’Ivoire’s biggest name in reggae, Alpha Blondy, sings: “Assinie Mafia… ee-ya, ee-ya, eeyayeeyayeeyaaa”. And first thing every Saturday morning, much of Abidjans’ surfing community is singing much the same song. Assinie is an area about an hour east of Abidjan by car over a maze of waterways, a few hills and a couple of villages, where weekend after weekend stressed-out city workers go for therapy in the peeling waves at various sandbanks along the 40km stretch of beachbreak. Heck, we get stressed-out just trying to DRIVE in Abidjan!

Walid gets Assinie-therapy after a week of work…

…Tim gets Assinie-therapy after a week of surfing, sleeping and travelling!

A little-known fact is that it was actually in Assinie that the famous ‘Les Bronzes’ was filmed, a French 70′s classic revolving around a Club Med vacation. An almost-as-little-known fact is that Assinie is also possibly one of West Africa’s most consistent surfspots. Many things are variable and volatile in this country – whether or not there will be swell at Assinie is not one of them… there are ALWAYS waves at this place!

Mohammed is lucky enough to live in Assinie. Tim hoots him into a peak…

Alphonse, Diko and Jean where some of the stars of a feature on Assinie in the June ’07 issue of French mag ‘Surf Session’ (photo courtesy Freddy Roux)

What many surfers might find bizarre is that despite the 40km’s of beachbreak, generally all the surfers will still congregate at one spot, in front of Mr Elson’s ‘Jardin de Eden’ restaurant. This probably has more to do with the fact that Eden makes excellent food, as opposed to the sandbanks being any better in this particular place than anywhere else on the beach. In reality the banks are surfable along most of the length of the 40km’s, but in a country where the total surfing population can’t exceed much more than 50 guys – sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of company. The lineup is abuzz with chatter of the past weeks activities, interrupted occasionally by a euphoric hoot as another lefthand peak spins through the crew. Everyone knows everyone, and the vibe is good.

Lurks & Nico tuck into Moussa’s famous ‘Spaghetti Crevette’ (shrimp spaghetti) at Eden

Combine all of the above factors and you probably get the reason why we chose to spend a disproportionate amount of our time in Cote d’Ivoire on the palm-fringed beaches of Assinie… and also why this country is just another one on the trip where we are going to have to race to get out before our 30-day visa expires…!

Spot the cruiser… our digs in Assinie!