Peter: The autobiography of Peter Swen Jr.'s surf life

First name - Peter
Last name - Swen
Nick name - Pete

Date of birth
Day - friday
Week - last week
Month - November 30
Year - 1990

Located
ELWA compound. Monrovia, Liberia.
Email address - peterswen3@yahoo.com
Phone number - locally 06-212-706 or internationally +231-6212-706
Home number - locally 06-819-233 or internationally +231-6819-233

High School - last year of high school 2009-2010
School name - Bethesda Christian Mission School
Located at the Robertfield Highway, Liberia
First School - Carver Mission Academy

I attended the Carver Mission Academy for nine years and left for the Bethesda Christian Mission School.

I left the Carver Mission Academy because after my year of 9th grade I had no money for high school and started Bethesda Christian Mission School as a scholarship student by playing basketball for the school. The condition under which the school gave me the scholarship was for me to play basketball for half of my tuition and pay the amount of $150 USD, which is the balance.

In the year 2005, I saw a guy on the beach. He was doing something but he called in skim. He had a nice blue short board. It was very flat and thin. This guy was always seen on the beach waiting for the wave to break and he will throw the board after two seconds and jump on it very fast and ride it for 30 to 50 feet long. And for each time he doing this, I will always tell myself that I can do it.

After a few weeks later, I found a flat wood and try making it the same size and shape as his board. I ran down the beach and try it for the first time, and it worked. So everyday I will go on the beach and practice. I started getting good and good at riding it.

At that time, I was working for an English guy named Gareth Evans as a house caretaker. A few months later, I met a guy named Kelvin. He was working for EQUIP, a non-governmental organization, as an expatriate from Canada.

The first time he saw me practicing, he told me about surfing. He said that surfing will be a little easier for me to do, so he took me out to surf. He gave me a very long board. It was about nine feet long. I try standing on it for the very first time and it was fun. I told him I liked it, so I started going out with him every weekend to surf.

I like surfing best for sporting activities. It is what I do now. Everyday I go out with my friends. We surf and have fun together. I do believe with my four years of surf experience I can now serve as a surf instructor. So in 2008, I started giving a lesson to a girl named Taya Riane. She is a Canadian who works for Samaritan Purse, some non-governmental organization in Liberia and almost all of Africa. Every weekend we will go to surf and she is getting very good.

After a few months later, I met a guy by the name of Kim from Germany. He told me that he likes surfing and he needed someone to help him with some surf ideas. So I started helping him. Sometimes, afterwards, he will give me a call to go surf and now we are surfing most of the time.

I believe that Liberia is one of the African countries that has the best waves. I pray for more surfers to come to Liberia to try those waves and I believe they will like them. I pray for more support from friends in and out of Liberia.

I want to tell all of my friends, thanks for everything they've been doing for me in those past years and now, and thank God for His help and protection.

In the year 2006-07 I met a good friend of mine now by the name of Dr. Keith, a guy who worked for Mercy Ships as that time as a dentist. We surfed at Robertsport together for a few times. After a month later, he gave me a nice short board that he used to surf with. It was a nice board. I used to like it very much because it was the first board I ever owned. After few months of surfing, it started soaking water and I never had no repair equipment so it had to spoil because I never stopped surfing on it.

In 2007-2008, Kelvin came back to Liberia. He brought me a 6'2" short Spider board. I tell you, the first week I had my Spider, I surfed for like six hours every day. After a few months later, we went to Robertsport. That day was so nice and the wave was like nine to ten feet, but it was breaking very heavy, so I had little problem with my board after surfing. I repair it and started surfing it again until later Keith brought me a brand new board.

The board is like 6'2" NSP and has nice flotation, good shape, very strong and also easy to surf with. The first time I saw this board, I was so happy. It brought me joy and I thank God that he gave Keith the understanding and wisdom. So I surf with it every time I go out and I like it.

One of the best things is, we used to to Bible studies every Sunday night and now we're having church every Saturday at 6:00 pm at Keith's place.

It is like my last year of high school and I want to start saving money for college and to buy more boards, so I just started asking for the amount of $10.00 for a half-day and $20.00 for a day of surf lessons.

I pray that my student will be able to cooperate with me and I also tell them, thank you for the help.