Morocco

The first recorded surfers in Morocco were US military personnel, stationed near Mehdiya and may have hit the waves as early as the ‘50s. In 1964, Claude Bernard imported the first civilian board and started surfing with Pierre Chalaud, Henri Laggio and pioneering local, Mamoune. From this northern outpost, equipment slowly spread to Bouznika, Mohammedia and Casablanca. Meanwhile, way down the coast, travelling Aussies had found and ridden Anchor Point, as the hippy movement embraced coastal towns like Essaouira and Taghazout from the late ‘60s - ‘70s. The next two decades were prime travelling time as long winter van trips were the norm, very few locals surfed, especially down south and there were no surf camps or charter flights. Today Recent years has seen an explosion in popularity, with Morrocans taking to the water as equipment becomes more widespread and affordable, especially bodyboards. King Mohamed VI has been a driving force behind the spectacularly large Oudayas Surf Club, situated near the kasbah in Rabat. His passion for surfing has helped fund the 400msq club that employs 20 people and provides free equipment to a whole cross-section of society that would otherwise never get the opportunity to try surfing. As President of the club since 1999, he has helped legitimise surfing and strengthen the national competitive circuit. Federation Royale Marocaine de Surf run national contests and Morocco fields an amateur team at international events. Expats play a part in the scene, like three-time French title winner and European runner-up, Yann Martin, who started surfing at age 10 in Sablettes. This beach has produced countless hot surfers and Miky Picon surfed his first contest there in 1988. Yann now runs the Marhaba surf school and helps foster a new generation of Morrocan surfers like Abdel El Harim who has beaten some top pro surfers including Shane Dorian at Pipeline. That said, most of the countries best competitive surfers live in France. Recent developments at Safi’s awesome Garden righthander has seen it change from a semi-secret, highly localised break into the new Surf Park Sidi Bouzide. Opened by the Minister for Tourism, it has already been the site of a major contest. Surf shops have sprung up in most surf towns now with limited new equipment and plenty of second-hand stuff that gets snapped up by the locals. Localism seems to be on the increase in Morocco as far more locals take to the water and surf tourist numbers increase, especially around Taghazout. Anchor Point used to be anarchy with various travellers behaving selfishly until the recent pecking order was established among the town’s riders and those from nearby Agadir. Indiscriminate verbal attacks and violence are rare and the locals are generally friendly and never stop people from entering the water. A similar scenario exists at the other drawcard waves of Safi and Dar Bouazza, while hitting some of the lesser-known points in a crowd can get the locals upset. This tolerance works on the assumption that visiting surfers show more respect than greed and are willing to share the stoke around. With the advent of more surf camps, exploration and the willingness to ride less perfect but empty line-ups is a growing trend and with so much coastline, there are many more waves to be found between the spots shown.