Former Noosa restaurateur Brett Massoud fell in love with Madagascar the moment he set foot on the world’s fifth largest island back in 1987.
But with a lot on his plate locally – like lending his exuberant spirit front of house to Noosa’s coolest bars and restaurants before establishing the funky and never forgotten Bratpackers in Noosaville – it took him a long time to set himself up on the colourful and beautiful but poverty-stricken Indian Ocean island.
When he did, he chose isolated Fort Dauphin, from which base he has masterminded a string of ecotourism projects.
Madagascar has been kind to him, and for the past couple of decades Brett has been repaying the favour.
Despite being the vanilla capital of the world, the majority of people in Madagascar live in extreme poverty, 75 per cent of the population living on less than $1.90 a day.
This hits children the hardest, with more than 80 per cent of those under 18 living in what UNICEF describes as extreme poverty, with chronic malnutrition affecting almost half of children under five.
While building his tourism business, Brett has also focused on humanitarian endeavours, particularly related to children.
Around the turn of the century he noticed that the local kids around Fort Dauphin were getting pretty good at surfing, despite the fact that the only surfboards available to them were a few beaters left by travelling surfers.
Says Brett: “For those of us who live in places like Australia where surfing is a multi-billion-dollar industry, it is hard to imagine that here there are keen surfers, empty and perfectly-formed waves, but barely a surfboard in sight.
“Here in Fort Dauphin there is no surf shop, no boards or wax for sale, no ding repairers, and local kids start out surfing on fence planks, or occasional old boards left behind, which are shared around with the usual Malagasy generosity of spirit.”
Although not a surfer, 20 years ago Brett put together the first surfing competition in the region.
He recalls: “We ran the whole thing from my verandah, with a handful of foreign visitors helping us to judge, and a domestic flight ticket as first prize. Around 30 surfers shared just four boards over three days of competition, and it was awesome!”
From such humble beginnings, associations were founded and surfing has slowly won official sanction.
Says Brett: “Now we have a national federation and nationwide leagues competing annually. This year we are finally beginning to get the recognition deserved by the sport, and the minister of tourism has asked us to develop surfing as an international tourist attraction specific to our region.”
The potential in Fort Dauphin is for jobs for young people in surf shops, surfboard hire and surf lessons.
In 2021 Brett reached out to friends in Noosa and around the world to help send his young team to the national championships. Generous donations enabled 20 surfers to cross the country for the event and carry off the senior, junior and open trophies.
“They cleaned up,” says Brett, “and we can’t let the momentum die.”
Now, Fort Dauphin has been selected to host the surfing component of the 2023 Indian Ocean Island Games, and in preparation for this, the first of two events, a regional championships, will be held next weekend, with a major surfing festival, under the patronage of the minister for tourism, scheduled for September.
Surfing is on the rise in Madagascar but in Fort Dauphin it still has to pay its own way.
Fortunately, thanks to the generosity of Noosa World Surfing Reserve, Noosa Boardriders Club and individual local surfers, the $1500 required to run this month’s regionals has almost been raised, but this small surfing community on the poverty line needs ongoing help.
For more information, go to gofund.me/feae7b89
