A Surfer’s Guide To Morocco

Travel outwits our impulse to stay in the same place, and by desire or necessity, moves us. After the recent swells from Morocco, it’s apparent, if you’re going to travel smart during the months of February and March, and have a penchant for hollow righthand points it’s a trek worth taking. Before the recent bacon-sizzling clips of the right that never ended, we caught up with Luke Davis and lensman Quinn Mathews about their recent strike to the North African locale. Luke filled us in on the mostly do’s for the visiting surfer. 

Morocco is generally coined as a regular foot’s dream, but any screw foot knows, if the waves are good there are no qualms in going backside.

Stab: Where’d you stay?
Luke: Stay at the Amouage. It’s this new hotel that opened up four months ago or so at the bottom of Anchor Point. It’s right on the water with an infinity pool that spills out into the ocean. Everything’s brand new, the food’s good, really everything about it was mental. It costs about $100 USD to stay, which isn’t bad for how nice it is. 

Best spots to surf? 
Anchor Point is the main wave and is also right where the hotel we were staying at was. Then there’s this wave Dracula’s gets good, but there has to be a lot of swell. Those are the main waves you surf, but there are so many mysto little points everywhere. There’s also fun beach break in town, it’s not amazing but it’s still fun, mostly a right that has a little left every once in a while. 

After the recent clips of Alex Gray navigating a rather heavy, rather critical right-hand cylinder, the average travelling surfer is looking for something more along the lines of this calibre.

How to get there? 
Flying in from Europe is minor. I ended up extending my trip in France to go over there. Flying in from LAX is a proper mission. But in Europe it’s cool, everything is so close and almost everywhere you want to go is about a four-hour flight away. Once you’re over there you have so many options. And the hotel is a 30-minute ride from the airport. You want to fly into Agadir.

How do you get around? 
We set up a driver through the hotel. One of our friends works there, so we had him guiding us around and showing us all the waves. The best call is to get a guide that can show you all the waves you wouldn’t know about. The whole coast that you’re surfing is off a two-lane highway. Any car would work just fine, there are little dirt roads you have to go down, but you don’t necessarily need a 4×4. A truck is probably preferred, though.  

Four-legged transportation.

Crowds? 
Anchor Point is the most crowded spot and it’s the easiest to get to. But you can go off the beaten path, find waves and surf alone too. There’s just about everything.

How are the locals?  
There are a lot of tourist and travelling surfers there. I didn’t experience any hectic localism at all. Like anywhere there are the guys that you let catch most the waves, but everyone’s pretty cool as long you’re not being a dick.

Sharks?
I think it’s pretty mellow. It doesn’t seem sharky at least and no one said anything about them. 

Here Luke shoots the stars of a North African destination.

What do the waves remind you most of? 
The points have a bit of a Santa Barbara or Santa Cruz feel. They’re rippable and for the most part user-friendly. 

Boards to pack? 
You want you basic shortboard for the point breaks. I brought some smaller boards, Mayhem’s Quiver Killers, which are good for all types of waves, like barreling waves, or whatever really. Then you’ll want a good step up. On a couple of the big days, I wished I had one. I know there’s some outer reefs that you need bigger boards for but they’re pretty rare to get. 

Anyone else sick of paying the metre at the car park and a short walk to a crowded beach break?

Anywhere to go out and party? 
There’s a little party scene in the city, but every time I’ve been there the waves have been so good that we just stayed at the hotel and surf-dogged. 

What’s the food like? 
We ate mostly at the hotel, they have all the standard breakfast stuff in the morning. Then we’d make a sandwich and bring it with us for lunch. Then every night they’d have a communal big dinner. It’s all local food, but a normal variety of stuff, chicken, rice, beef, veggies kind of thing. 

Have speed – will travel.

Anywhere to avoid? 
It’s pretty touristy, for the most part it seemed safe. It wasn’t something I was worried about while I was there. I’m pretty amped on Morocco; the place is pretty sick. It’s a rad trip to go on, especially if you stay where we did. It’s right on the beach and everything is streamlined and easy.