Provocative title, eh? Maybe not so much – surfing is a pretty popular sport here in Morocco, with surf clubs here in Rabat and all along the cost. Essaouira may have the largest surf scene, though there is a dedicated surf scene up north as well. Bouznika is only half of an hour away from Rabat on the autoroute, so quick trips are totally reasonable.
We recently made the short trip to Bouznika and met Bob and Bruno at the Blue Surf School. I speak almost no French. Bob speaks enough English to get by with us westerners. Our common point of interest and universal communication? Music. Bob loves Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix (who spent some time here in Morocco, though wrote the above mentioned song a few years before he made it here and started a book’s worth of folklore regarding his travels), Deep Purple, Led Zep and Pink Floyd. Awesome. Both of the guys were really nice and we look forward to returning soon.
A surf club without surf is just a club, right? On to the waves! To our untrained eyes, the surf looked great and there were a few surfers out in the water catching waves. It’s hard for me to compare it to other locations, though I can safely say that this is the real deal – no two footers here. We ventured out on a weekday, so we can’t speculate as to how busy the water gets over the weekend.
Also, there is a very cool beach restaurant called the Eden Wed right next to the surf club. If I was twelve years old then I would have my birthday there. Scratch that – I still want to have my birthday there. It is about twenty feet from the sand and overlooks the surf. It felt pretty familiar, just like all of the other little restaurant / lounges that pop up near great surf spots.
We’ll keep you posted on how the surf lessons go. Wish us luck!
ps – sorry for the Facebook links. Neither the surf club nor the restaurant has a proper site.
pps – If you didn’t get the reference in the title, you need to listen to more Jimi.
