About Us

This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surf School Lenda.

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20 years ago, in 2005, Ravelomanantsoa Marcel, one of the first Malagasy surfers, started the first surf school in Fort Dauphin for local kids to learn for free and to clean up our local beach. Since then, together with his son and first student Joe Kennedy, (now the first ever pro surfer from Madagascar who has competed in the World Surf League in Asia, Africa, and America - ranked 19th in Africa for 2024), the school has become a safe place for a community of young kids who surf every day for free.

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In 2022, we built our physical school directly on Ampotatra Beach and in 2023, started the first ever girls’ surf team (ages 6-17), providing free lessons, support, and equal prize money in competitions to these talented female athletes. Our club has grown to almost 50 kids and has become a true team and family, supporting each other, often eating together, and has even received invitations to compete internationally. In 2024, we held the first annual Junior Surf Camp Intensive to teach competitive skills (with prize money) and the whole neighborhood turned out to support their kids. We started free ocean lifesaving trainings for the kids taught by Joe Kennedy, who received his lifeguard certification from Lifesaving South Africa. We also partnered with Provide the Slide, an international NGO, who have donated 60 surfboards from Europe to our kids (currently on a ship heading towards Madagascar).

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We are so grateful to our team and everyone who has helped this school grow into something special over the last 20 years and we are excited to see what we can accomplish together in the next 20 years. Our hope is that in 2045, we will have a strong Malagasy team of seniors and juniors, boy and girls, representing Madagascar to the world in the ISA World Surfing Games.