Ouakam is the other half of the Dakar year. A choice of left and right reefs below the Mosquée de la Divinité on the peninsula's south shore, taking south-west swell with a north-easterly offshore, which is the opposite of everything at Ngor.
That opposition is the point. From May to September the North Atlantic has nothing for the north shore and the southern hemisphere is sending swell up here instead. Fifteen minutes of driving changes which ocean you are surfing.
Be clear about the odds. It is filed inconsistent, with no particular seasonal pattern, and its best month, May, is clean five days out of thirty. This is a spot to check, not to plan a week around.
Rocks are the named hazard, and the setting is the other reason people come: a reef breaking under a mosque built out over the water.
Spot sheet
- Level
- Intermediate, Advanced
- Wave
- Left and right
- Bottom
- Reef
- Water
- 19 – 29 °C
- Wetsuit
- 3/2 mm → Shorty
- Swell window
- SSW – WSW
- Ideal wind
- NE
- How often it works
- Inconsistent
- Crowd
- ●●●●○
- Danger
- ●●●○○
A month in figures
In May, the month the forecast guides single out for this coast:
Shares of the month, from the published forecast statistics. The model reads a grid, so neighbouring breaks share a figure: this describes a stretch of coast, not this wave on its own. The other eleven months are not published.
What to watch for
- Rocks
Technical figures read off published surf guides. Where two disagree, the sheet says so.