Toiscór Introduction Blog

Hiya, my name is Adam and I’m a co-founder here at Toiscór . We’re a team of four students at UCC driven by a shared love for surfing and a desire to support the thriving surf culture in Senegal.

In Ireland, it’s all too common to find a surfboard, or three, locked away in the back of a shed, destined never to touch the water again. Our aim is to work alongside our partners at Anda Surf Club in Senegal to ship a container of surf equipment, which will directly contribute to the incredible initiatives already transforming their community.

By providing these resources, we are supporting programs like Surfkids Shredding Senegal , Black Girls Surf , and Take Off Ngor . These groups do amazing work: sponsoring education for local children, promoting the talents of young surfers, providing employment, and inspiring more women and girls to get in the water.

We use the money collected through online donations and events to fund the shipping of our donation, with any leftover cash going toward marine conservation. It’s about ensuring that the boards currently sitting in Irish sheds can find a second life in the hands of surfers who are already pushing the sport to new heights.

This journey primarily began when we watched the documentary “We the Surfers,

” directed by Arthur Bourbon. Through that documentary, we discovered the incredible work of the Robertsport Surf Club . Their model was a massive inspiration for us: they provide access to equipment, manage donations from the Swiss NGO Provide The Slide , run Surf Therapy programs, and use surf tourism to create jobs and school scholarships for local youth. Seeing the tangible social and economic impact,

from fostering education to inspiring young women to get in the water, we felt compelled to follow in their footsteps.

As self-proclaimed surf nerds who try to stay clued into the culture, we were already huge fans of Ibra Samb and Cherif Fall . We’d watched Cherif put Senegal on the map, competing at the ISA games against the world’s best, and we were constantly in awe of their talent.

Beyond the screen, the growing presence of Senegalese surf content on Instagram was a huge attention grab for us. Seeing the energy of the local scene and the sheer skill on display in our daily feeds made the talent there impossible to ignore.

Following the documentary, we dove into some deeper research and found a 2021 article in Wasted Talent magazine featuring a partnership with Billabong. This led us to discover a separate, more recent initiative, also called “Surfboards for Senegal”, out of Western Australia, where they successfully shipped a container of over 250 boards.

We wanted to do our part in assisting the development of West African talent by providing the necessary resources. When we learned that the Western Australia group sent their boards to the Anda Surf Club (founded by Cherif, Ibra, and Nicole Sweet ), we reached out to initiate a relationship. Between their invaluable advice and the support from the Irish Embassy in Senegal , we are more motivated than ever to get the Irish surf community behind us and spread the love of the sport!

Now, introducing the team! We, Toiscór, are a team of 4 students in their third year of college at UCC. The team consists of Rory Brennan, Luk Vaillo, Aaron Motherway and me (Adam Wrona).

Rory is the driving force who willed this project into existence. He studies commerce and will be starting his placement soon at AIB. He’s been one of my best friends since childhood and we started our surf journey together in our teens. Rory is 100% the bossy one of the group (every project needs one, unfortunately). He’s the one that keeps this whole thing on track (even if you want to murder him from time to time).

Luk studies Neuroscience and became a great friend throughout college. We bonded heavily over surfing and our love for the outdoors. Luk is the creative spirit of the group (which he might get from his artist mother). He’s helped come up with the designs for our logo and has been great with producing ideas for events. He is definitely a calming, easy going presence in the group which balances us all out whenever things start getting stressful. Luk also works at Holland & Barrett so if you ever need health supplements, he’s your guy.

Aaron studies commerce alongside Rory. He hails from Innishannon and works at Wildflour bakery (highly recommended). He is the tech/business guru in this operation, getting our project up and running as a legal entity, and creating our website (both things that I could never do in a million years). If things are going smoothly, it is more than likely the work of Aaron.

Lastly, I’m Adam. I study neuroscience with Luk and am lucky enough to be a part of this project. Outside of college I love to spend my time outdoors surfing, hiking and running, and I’ve recently picked up climbing. I’m pretty horrible with all things computers so I’d like to think I bring some good ideas to this group if nothing more!

We’re currently in the process of getting this whole thing up and running, and we’ve got some exciting events planned, starting off with a pub quiz at the end of the month! Stay tuned and follow our Instagram to keep up to date with events and our progress! All support is greatly appreciated.

Toiscór.