Maroc
Morrocco - land of the cacti and jiliba, cloudless skies and spectacular sunsets, where welshmen walk free and the camels run scared!The land of righthanders...or so we were lead to believe.
Like every surfer, we were on a search for good waves, warm water and no crowds and with only 10 days available, a short haul flight was always going to be preferable.
Although we get great waves in Europe all the way through the winter, the thought of ditching the steamer and getting some sun is always going to get some attention.
This means travelling south of Portugal...the obvious choice then being the Canaries but having been there several times we fancied something different.
This threw up the option of going to Morrocco, where several people we know had been and come back with rave reviews...plus there was the prospect of getting all our xmas presents in a souk for under a tenner.
So we decided to see what all the fuss was about and booked ourselves a flight from London to Agadir.
Evil, Proco, Dockers, the Cannon and I had arranged to stay at the Surf Maroc surf camp in 'Taghazout', which is a little village about half an hour north of Agadir.
Strolling out of customs we were greeted by our hosts and loaded into a minibus for our short trip to the camp.
We arrived late, so after a few 'Special Flags' (local beer) we hit the hay, excited to find out what we would awake to the next morning. The setup was unreal - 'Hash Point' was right out in front of the camp, which was a few metres from the sea at high tide and the infamous 'Anchor Point' was clearly visible just up the coast (approx a mile away).
Apart from the gustes and our hosts Ben and Ollie, the camp also housed a French chef, an ozzy surf instructor and a masseuse.
To our horror we awoke to a grey day with fairly keen southerly winds (onshore!), which the boys assured us that was a extremely unusual event - bloody great!
Even so Procco and the Cannon, were determined to get some waves and managed to get out at 'Anchor Point' for a few.
Later that day the wind dropped a little and we surfed a nice little left hand reef called 'Onze' - Apparently the only left on the coast! 1-0 to the goofy footers!
It was the first time that I'd stayed in a hostel (had to be careful of the spelling there!) environment since I got back from NZ a few years ago, and it was fantastic. Heaps of interesting people, a friendly atmosphere and everyone there with the same passion - surfing.
For the next couple of days the wind remained in a predominantly southerly direction.
With a bit of searching we found double overhead perfection in a break called 'Tamari', which being on the north coast was offshore!
Unexpectedly it was all lefts and nobody else out! 2 - 0 to the goofy footers! Moral in the regular footed contingent (Evil and Proco) was running low, until we scored 'Devil's Point' a few days into our trip (we should have known that Evil would feel at home here!)
Double-overhead and offshore, with the highlight of the session being Proco's standup barrel. The rest of the trip went the way of the regular footers as the wind swung NE and the rights began firing again.
We got surfs in at 'Boilers', 'Fossils', 'Killers', more at 'Tamari' and even a couple out in the beachie front of the surf camp at Taghazout.
The only time that we experienced crowds was when the swell had dropped off and it was only 'Tamari' and 'Boilers' working and the beach break at 'Tamari' was never a problem as it was miles long with peaks everywhere.
We weren't lucky enough to get 'Anchor' or 'Hash Point' working, nor did we manage to get all our xmas presents for under a tenner but we did have some great waves and above all an amazing time.
Thanks again to our hosts with the most: Ben and Ollie @ www.surfmaroc.co.uk
This is a trip I can recommend to anybody, no matter what their ability - there's waves to suit all. We'll certainly be going back next winter...
Check out the slideshow for more pics
