Wave du jour
After our initiation at Caves we decided to go and find Antje a suitable learner wave. After a quick puncture change she, ended up surfing a long, sweeping beach near a closed looking resort with a few fishing boats pulled up onto the beach.
The sun was out as she enjoyed mellow two footers. The good thing about Morocco is that unlike spots like the Canaries, it caters for all standards of surfing with plenty of reef and beaches mixed into the pot.
It was mid afternoon and Boilers was a fair size with overhead sets pushing through.
The afternoon sun backlit beautiful, green barrels, which fired along the reef and it wasn't long before Dave and I decided to give it a go.
Getting in was easy, getting out wasn't.
An American guy nervously joined us on the rocks and asked about the wave. It didn't take him long to get into though and the guy absolutely ripped, taking off deep and getting some nice backhand barrels for his troubles. We think he was from Hawaii so it was probably nothing for him.
The sets began to get bigger and the exit trickier. I managed to pick off a few nice long rides. The rights either held up or not but you never really knew until you took off, so you had to be quick kicking out, to avoid being mangled on the shallow reef below.
You could tell when someone caught a good one, due to the long paddle back and grin from ear to ear. Dave managed to pull into two barrels on the same wave (rumour has it there were three).
Whatever stage of the tide, Boilers was gnarly and you were never more than 20ft away from the shoreline.
The nice thing about this spot is that you can park right up over looking the break so it's perfect for photographers.
The following day Boilers was out of control. We could spot walls of water from miles away, sweeping in and around the point. Upon arrival we were greeted with enormous waves, pushing in at around 10ft+ and barrelling. The exit rock at Boilers was submerged and no-one was mad enough to surf it in those conditions.
All the reefs and point breaks were firing as a hefty swell pushed in. Just down from Boilers was a spot called Dracula's Reef and one Frenchman was out there surfing it alone. Sitting way out, he was picking off the larger, wider sets and getting nice long rides.
Another middle-aged French surfer spotted me watching and came over for a chat. He told me the guy out there had already caught a few that were double overhead.
As we headed off in search of something more manageable, we discovered a nice little set up nearby. Turning off the main road, we followed a dirt track to the edge of a cliff.
There below us was a perfect right hand point break reeling off down the line.
A few surfers were surfing further down the coast but no-one was catching any waves
As we suited up and climbed down the cliff the line up cleared and we had it to ourselves until sunset.
Fun sized 4-5ft walls arrived every 10 minutes or so with 3 waves per set. We made the most of it and it was nice to surf somewhere different.
A local family up on the cliff lit a fire to cook their dinner on which made the location feel even more exotic and we vowed to surf this spot again.
Friday - Antje and I had a fun day on the bus with an 8hr trip to visit Marrakesh. Despite missing a good days surf it was definitely worth seeing and the Atlas Mountains that surround the city we covered in snow. Ceri and Dave enjoyed a calmer but more crowded session at Boilers but not many waves were being ridden.
On our last we got up early. It was clear from the view from the apartment that the swell had dropped.
High pressure loomed but I felt confident we'd get something.
Driving near Banana beach we spotted a fun looking beach break - around 2-3ft and fairly glassy.
It was nothing special but was a nice way to end the holiday and cleared our heads from the previous night's over indulgence.
The highlight of the day was watching some local ladies bathing each other not far from where we'd surfed and also using the sea as their toilet.
That was it the end of a great trip. We'd had a lot of laughs along the way, witnessed some amazing magic tricks from Dave in the local restaurants and scored plenty of great waves.
Morocco isn't the cleanest of places, the drivers are all crazy, you get hassled a lot to buy gifts but the waves more than make up for it.
Escape the crowds, explore in a car (preferably with other people driving you) and you'll find plenty of perfection.
Despite our landing at Gatwick being one of the most hair raising any of us had ever encountered (wing tips almost touching the runway) we'd all go back and do it again.
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