At the beginning of February 2026 we finally made it back to Senegal, where we delivered an adaptive surf camp for some of our beneficiaries. It was a real pleasure to return, this time without a vehicle and in the dry season - a markedly different experience from our wheelchair delivery during Summer 2025.

We flew into Gambia before heading down to Cap Skirring, the most southerly point in Senegal. Along the way we collected some of our local team and past recipients and over the next three days we worked in partnership with the local surf school ‘Cap Surf’ to get our participants in the waves!

I think the idea of hosting an adaptive surfing camp may, understandably, seem strange for many people when there are so many urgent issues that need to be addressed in West Africa. Why is this something that we choose to focus on?

At Diam Rek, we firmly believe that providing adaptive sport opportunities, particularly challenging sport such as surfing, is vital in achieving our goal of removing barriers to social inclusion. Whilst the first step to this is undoubtedly provision of an appropriate mobility device, taking part in an activity that is extremely outside of a disabled person’s comfort zone and every day life gives them the opportunity to challenge their boundaries, overcome their fears and build their confidence in a really meaningful way. The independence and resilience of this experience helps to foster powerful change by enabling wheelchair users to become more active within their communities.

Across the three days our participants, none of whom had ever visited the beach or swum in the sea before, were guided through our sessions by dedicated coaches. For some, this meant catching prone waves with the help of a spotter behind them and catchers waiting on the shore. For others, it meant progressing from a complete fear of even getting wet to sitting in deeper water and playing among the waves. This change in comfort, from a very understandable hesitancy towards even entering the water on the first day, to asking for ‘one more’ wave again and again at the end of the final session really reinforced the growth that took place over the camp, one which we hope is transferable to other areas in the participants lives.

Another particular success was the collaboration with ‘Cap Surf’, whose values and excitement about bringing adaptive surfing to Senegal for the first time match our own. Their enthusiasm in facilitating the project and the willingness of their coaches in learning how to run adaptive surf sessions is particularly hopeful for the future and fits with our underlying focus on sustainability and longevity.

Our team came away from this trip with a few takeaways, at the forefront of which is that there is a great potential to run the camp on a much larger scale, with a particular focus on inclusion of women and members of the local disability community. Enabling Yunus and Ibrahim who live locally to enjoy the beach, which is only 500 metres from the town centre where they spend a lot of their time, was particularly special.

Please see our gallery for photos and check Instagram for videos of the camp!