Salam Gaye is one of those guys who’s going to make it big.

To be fair, he already is big.

The man has a personal roladex of 3000 contacts (and a mailing list of 20 000 names “just in case he needs them”). He lives with his wonderfully hospitable family in a beautiful house in Dakar. They own six factories scattered around Senegal making mattresses and PVC piping.

And he stands a head taller than 6’2” Tim. We’re pretty sure this makes him the undisputed “tallest surfer in Africa|”.

Salam’s factory tour. The man is crouching in this shot. He must be.

We met him through Freddie Roux in Cote d’Ivoire (who we met through Pierre Nicoud in Cameroon – who we met through Phillipe Anslert in Congo – who we met while we were surfing at La Pyramide. West Africa is one big surfing social network!).

Salam invited us to his Tabasci banquet with his family and friends, and was a constant source of entertainment and advice while we were in Dakar.

Tim & Stone: dramatically underdressed at Salam’s Tabasci dinner

On our way out of town last week we toured one of his factories and, while we were there, Salam offered us the keys to his family mansion smack bang in the middle of St Louis.

Lurks plays car guard outside the coolest house in St Louis

We’ve spent an amazing week here. Sitting on the balcony with a glass of Pastis watching the world stroll by on the street outside, listening to the band serenade the diners in the courtyard of La Signare (reputed to be one of the best restuarants in Senegal – but slightly out of our price range!) opposite us and hijacking the open wifi from the roof (thank you to the owner of the “BLPL” router!).

It’s been quite a week.

Thanks so much to Salam and the Gaye Family. We hope we can return the favour sometime in South Africa!

Tim – Africa’s Second Tallest Surfer (!?!) – trimming hard, somewhere in Senegal…