Page 158 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL FALL 2020 South Africa

In the early 1970s, I made it to Morocco for the good beach breaks and some left-handers. At some
first time to visit my older brother, who was teach- places such as Anchor Point north of Tamraght,
ing English back then as part of a Peace Corps stint waves break for so long surfers can ride for nearly
in a village called Touanate in the Atlas Mountains half a mile.
about 55 miles north of Fes. In the past 20 years or so, surfing has caught on
I returned again about 15 years later in the win- also with Moroccan youth, and this has produced
ter with photographer Mark Lorenzen to climb a some top professional riders. Along with them,
nearly 14,000-foot peak called Toubkal roughly 70 thousands of others have embraced the sport and
miles southeast of Marakesh - and then ski down it. the surf culture that often goes with it, dreadlocks,
But the country’s siren call keeps luring me back bleached blonde hair and all.
for yet more adventure. The most recent trip was Mohammed Kadmiri, president of the Royal Mo-
to surf off Morocco’s Atlantic Coast. After four roccan Surfing Federation, said the sport has grown
years of working as a staff writer at The San Diego exponentiallyover the past decade. The country
Union Tribune and hanging out on the city’s many now has more than 245 surf instructors and nu-
beaches, I’d developed a middling ability to ride a merous contests are held annually.
longboard on easy waves at La Jolla Shores and the It is also home to more than 50 surfing schools
Tourmaline Surfing Park. run by Moroccans and an equal number of surf
And I’d long been a fan of Bruce Brown’s iconic camps headed by foreigners—mostly Europeans—
surfing movie, “Endless Summer,” which he filmed who often use local instructors.
in 1963 after hopping around the globe. He never The long and often rugged coast, he added,
made it to Morocco on the northwest corner of makes it "a quintessential destination for surfing
Africa, though he did get to Senegal, Nigeria and thanks to warm winter temperatures, large waves
South Africa. and a generous geography with at least 95 named
Brown skipped Morocco a second time when he breaks.”
made “The Endless Summer II,” released in 1994. Kadmiri said he believes the first surfers on this
His loss. coast were Americans stationed at what was then a
What Brown missed was a 1,000-mile coastline U.S. military base at Kenitra in northern Morocco in
that hugs the Moroccan desert, with waves that the early 1960s. They rode waves at nearby Mehdia
form beside rocky points or off beaches, offering beach, and from there, word of Morocco’s breaks
breaks for all levels of surfers - including top pros. began to spread around the globe.
Ocean swells have been rolling in off the Atlantic Kadmiri himself learned to surf in 1984 at Oued
to collapse on Morocco’s strands for eons. Fisher- Echarat north of Casablanca, and since then he has
men have caught sardines, mackerel, anchovies, oc- ridden waves around the world. In recent years, he
topus and squid for centuries, usually from small, said, the government has promoted surfing as
colorful wooden boats. recreation for young Moroccans and helped estab-
Their offspring have been going to sea with their lish clubs along the coast.
elders for countless generations, frolicking in the According to the World Tourism Organization,
ocean when they had the chance. But it was only in Morocco attracts 10 million tourists annually, the
the last 50 years that surfers discovered that these greatest number for any African country, and Kad-
waves were ideal for their own modern mix of work miri estimated that as much as 10 percent—nearly
and play. 1 million of those visitors—surf.
At first, locals say, it was mostly Europeans and GrindTV, an online adventure sports video chan-
Australians, along with the odd American or two, nel, ranks Morocco among the top three places in
who discovered that from October into March, the the world for riding waves and learning the sport,
Moroccan coast became a paradise of “big rollers” he noted.
that produced excellent right-handers, or waves Though I’d been to the the country twice, my fo-
that break off points like Devil’s Rock, as well as cus on those trips had been its cities, cultural sites

158 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2020