Summer in Europe can be one of the funnest and most rippable places to be. That is unless it’s flat of course, as it has been for like 3 weeks now.

Unfortunately for us, escaping to more swell-gifted regions of the planet at this time of year isn’t as straight forward as on other continents. If you lived in the States, you’d just go right ahead and book yourself a ticket to somewhere down the coast of Mexico or Central America and tap into plentiful southern hemisphere juice.

In Europe, it’s not so straight forward. Head south and you come to Africa. Somehow not quite as enticing, unless you’re going all the way down to South Africa in which case many would argue why not just head to Indo.

But if you’re at all familiar with long time surf photographer and adventurer JS Callahan’s work then you’ll know that isn’t what he’s about, this year choosing to travel to the little known Turtle islands off the coast of West Africa as part of his latest surf club development project in the formerly war-torn country of Sierra Leone.

And while the SurfExplore crew didn’t score anything world class this time round, they’re convinced countries such as Liberia, Ghana and Sierra Leone are all likely to attract increasing numbers of surf travellers over the coming years and for anyone who’s seen some of the Dark Continent gems Kepa Acero came back with from his recent adventures, you’d be a fool to bet against that idea.