While competitive surfing may be relatively new for much of coastal Africa, the existence of wave-riding has always been embedded within the rich diversity of African cultures. The recently released book Afrosurf, explores the renaissance of African surf culture, and the communities that have cultivated it.

The origins of surfing are commonly associated with Polynesian and Hawaiian culture, but historians, like University of California history professor, Kevin Dawson, have collated documented evidence of the independent history of African wave-riding from as early as the 1640s.

Yet, the development of professional surfing has created a surfing culture that has been predominantly framed from a Western perspective.