#khadjou sambe

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Khadjou Sambe on Becoming Senegal's First Professional Female Surfer | Condé Nast Traveler

Khadjou Sambe on Becoming Senegal's First Professional Female Surfer

Sambe is training to compete in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

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Khadjou Sambe on Becoming Senegal's First Professional Female Surfer

By the age of 13, Khadjou Sambe had fallen in love with surfing. But surfing is a male-dominated sport in her home country of Senegal, and it’s rare to find women riding the waves. It’s even rarer to see women of color, especially Black women, surfing—something Sambe quickly became aware of as she began progressing in the sport. Despite the odds, she kept going, fueled by a growing love of being in the water.

Fast forward 11 years later and Sambe, now 24, has her sights set on competing in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, under the guidance of her coach, Rhonda Harper. After Harper recruited Sambe to compete in a surf competition in Sierra Leone in 2014, she invited her to California to train, and from there, the organization Black Girls Surf was born, helmed by Harper with the support of Sambe.[x]

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"I would always see people surfing and I'd say to myself: 'But where are the girls who surf? Why don't I go surfing, represent my country, represent Africa, represent Senegal, as a black girl?'"

"I always think to myself, when I wake up in the morning: 'Khadjou, you've got something to do, you represent something everywhere in the world, you must go straight to the point, don't give up. Whatever people say, don't listen, go forward - so that everybody can get up and believe they can surf.’"

"When I am in the water, I feel something extraordinary, something special in my heart."

-- Khadjou Sambe, Senegal's first woman professional surfer