Black Star Blog

Good news on the community development front in Busua! About 6 months ago, and with the help of interns Tim Lucas and Riley Bartlett,  the Black Star Surf Shop initiated the Busua Community Tourist Center (CTC) Project. The black star development team (Tim, Riley, and Pete) have helped the community, represented by the Town Tourist Committee and the Ahanta Environmental Club, to get this project off the ground. It is all of our belief that having a community-run tourist center will benefit the local community in many ways and see to it that they get a tangible benefit from the growing tourism in and around Busua.

To date, we have secured a piece of land for the CTC site from the Ahanta Chief in Busua (thanks Chief!), surveyed the land,  and took a group of Busua representatives to see existing successful CTC’s that are operating in the Volta Region of Ghana. This trip was highly successful as it was an opportunity to both see success in action and to ask questions on how the communities were running their CTC’s and how they were benefiting.

Busua reps visit the Volta

We are now in the process of writing a constitution to spell out exactly how the CTC will function and who will be involved. We are working with three NGO’s- RC, SNV and GREET- to ensure that there is a good chance the capacity building training will lead to a sustainable project. We also recently received a private donation that will help us continue to build on our successes as a community and to achieve, with the help of the above NGO’s, full funding for this project.  We are also currently involved in other community projects, like introducing solar oven and some microfinancing for local tourist businesses, but more on that later…..

You have to do something when the waves are small !!!!!!

Local shredder Clement (not even going to try to type his last name) and resident volunteer Tim Lucas hard at play.

The Ahanta Environmental Club (AEC), based in Busua Beach, works for the benefit of the community and with sister clubs all over Ghana. For the past several years, the AEC has collected garbage washed ashore such as toothbrushes, plastic buckets, and bottles to name a few. Kobina Nyarko, an artist and the secretary of AEC, came up with the idea of making art pieces using these wasted materials with the participation of school kids. This idea was realized as Creative Perspectives, which this year was hosted by the Black Star Surf Shop in Busua Beach on Saturday, September 12th. The goal was to bring art to the community and involve them in the creative process of art using discarded materials.

The event featured thirteen artists from Accra and seven artists from Takoradi. Activities started early in the morning with a beach cleanup to gather garbage for the art works. The FCA and AEC provided a total of seven large canvases. The artists worked together with the community to create some unique pieces united by the theme of a cleaner environment. A beach exhibition of all the finished pieces along with other artwork is being planned. The finished works will then remain in the community with the proceeds of any sales going to the AEC.

The project was funded by the European Union Cultural Initiative Support Programme. Additional support was provided by the Foundation for Contemporary Art (FCA), a coalition of artists who have a shared interest in bringing art to the general public so they can see not only the finished art but also the artistic process. Media coverage was provided by Skyy Power FM, SkyyTV, Goodnews FM and Help FM. Additional local support was provided by the African Rainbow Hotel and the Busua Inn. Drinks were donated by Aboyi Olokpo of Schlumberger based in Accra. Brushes were provided by Nick Shardlow of the U.K.

Photos: Nick Pink

On a surprisingly chilly Monday, Black Star surfers Charles and Nick along with a handful of others sampled the liquid gold of Black Mamba point.  Surf was slightly overhead in the morning and had increased a few more feet for the evening session.  Nick danced around on the beach, his face contorted into a impish grin, and ranted for hours about never leaving Busua, all symptoms of a pitiful condition commonly referred to as Stoke.  Doctors speculate that he will recover after a good night’s sleep … unless of course it is still firing in the morning.

Images courtesy Mona Niemeyer

They were six guys that day in April out there in the waves, surfing Balck Mamba Surf Spot.  It was exciting because the waves were getting higher and higher and some of them surfed this spot for the first time ever.

While taking the first wave Frankie couldn’t stop jubilating.

We were sitting on the rocks of Black Mamba and could hear him cheering

Also Charles surfed at Black Mamba the first time and handled the situation very well, this time not standing on his head

Hans from Germany had great fun in the waves too.

He could surf for hours, even when lunch was getting cold

Everybody had so much fun and it went on the rest of the day.

In the evening we had great dinner in the Okorye Tree Restaurant. Busua Beach is just an amazing place to be, even when you are not surfing…

Hello everyone!

We haven’t gotten too many shots of Black Mamba, but here is one of me on a mid-June day 2009, just before I moved back to the states (there’s more on Black Star’s Facebook page and I think they will also be on the Black Star web page soon too!)

Here is an old e-mail I just dug up that I wrote to a friend last August, not long after I moved to Busua, about the surf scene in front of the shop:

The island tames the incomming surf, and the sandy-bottom beach is ideal
for smaller waves.  Actually, the waves remind me very much of
San Diego beaches.  Around the corner to the west, outside of the
little bay, is a wave called Black Mamba.  It does not have the buffer
of the island, and it breaks on rocky bottom instead of sand.
It’s a point break that breaks from the west to the east and has a
greater distance that you can cover on the wave.  Anyways, my point is
that there is a handfull of people that have ever surfed this wave,
and I surfed it for the first time yesterday, and again this morning.
The wave is phenominal.  But it is wearing.  The adrenaline rush has
pretty much exhausted me after just a few waves.  I’ll spare you the
details of genuine fear.

A bit dramatic?  Perhaps.  But as July & August are here, and the swells in Ghana are pumping, I am sure that there is some Ghana newbie that is feeling that same way all alone on the coast of Western Ghana.  Surfing in Ghana is a rush!

matt