SURF & YOGA IN MOROCCO

A week of Yoga and Surf in Tamraght.

Tajine, waves and the rooftop of your dreams.

Local Surf Maroc is a surf house in Tamraght.

Spending a full week at Local Surf Maroc is an incredible blast for anyone’s surfing skills, but also a deep dive into the Moroccan culture – especially their great food. 

All the credit for this experience goes to the brothers Rachid and Mohammed, born and raised in the Berber fishing village of Tamraght. With different personalities and skills, they have reached a great balance in managing their business: the surf school Local Surf Maroc. 

Rachid is the master of the waves, Mohammed is the master of the kitchen, and they both have the same caring attitude towards their customers that makes you feel at home from the moment you set foot in their house.

Surf the Kasbah!

THE VILLAGE

Tamraght is a small ocean village on the south-western coast of Morocco, one-hour drive from Agadir’s airport and 3-hour from the pretty town of Essaouira.

A beautiful mosque, white and red houses clinging on the hillside and a handful of colourful surf shops.

There are a few grocery stores (we found our favourite, you will find yours), there’s a pharmacy and a patisserie that we discovered on the very last day and couldn’t visit.

Everyone in Tamraght is chilled, you can sense you are miles away from the insisting “buy-my-stuff” souk mentality of Marrakech.

You basically feel like a local from the moment you set foot in the village.

Surf tourism in Morocco is on the rise and Tamraght, along with the neighbouring village of Taghazout, offers a variety of surf houses and classes to choose from.

THE HOUSE

We were based at Rachid’s place and we experienced first hand the Moroccan hospitality from the very first moment.

The large house has a ground floor with the kitchen, bedrooms and toilet, and a first floor with a super cool rooftop that we used at every moment of the day, from the morning yoga sessions to the food-feast at dinner time, and eventually at night for some romantic star-gazing.

The bathroom and the rooms are simple and clean, a surf house of good standards where you won’t miss much from home.

THE FOOD

When you think about it, it’s the other way around… as soon as you’re back home you’ll miss something from this place: Mohammed’s culinary art.

Everything we ate (or best: devoured) during that week was delicious. The presentation was impeccable, and the portions would have turned a nutritionist as pale as a ghost.

We started our Moroccan food experience with a chicken tajine that put the food quality-bar quite high.

We ended up appreciating all the rich flavours of the Moroccan cuisine: an incredible couscous with vegetables; a preserved lemon and olive sauces dressing a roasted chicken; an extremely tender lamb tajine; a fish tajine made with scrumptious sardine balls.

And finally, Moroccan pancakes for breakfast, called msmen. 

By the end of our stay we had spent so much time licking our fingers that we almost cancelled our fingerprints.

This is how good the food was!

Mohammed and Rachid also went through the couscous-making process, showing us how they make it from the first step, when they massage the couscous to break up clumps and separate grains, until the end when they add chickpeas and put a crown of boiled vegetables on it.

THE SURF

The surfing with Rachid is top level.

He will assess your level on day 1 and set your goal for the week, be it standing up on the board or turning left and right on the wave, and will work hard to help you reach it.

He is always in the water with his students and when a set of waves approaches, you can hear him shout “paddle harder, haaaarder, and up!”.

He probably shours it more than a hundred times a day.

We had a Go-Pro, and he was happy to take some pictures or videos of our efforts, valuable proofs to our friends back home that we were not just good at wipe-outs. 

And when he sees a nice wave coming and there are no pupuls around to help, there he sets himself in the right spot, a couple of paddles and he is up, riding the wave and doing all sorts of fancy things that we all love to watch.

Truly inspiring.

When it comes to choosing the right surf spot, Rachid is never wrong.

We know that conditions are always changing, and the best waves aren’t always in the same places each day.

Every morning he drives his group to the beach and assess the sea conditions. Everyone is encouraged to do so, as it is key to understand what the spot looks like before deciding to get into the water. 

We followed his routine every day, precise as a Swiss clock.

We parked the car, stretched our back and waited for one of his jokes (usually about sharks).

We stepped out his Dacia to observe the sea from the top of the beach, check the tide, wind direction and strength, and look for a not-so-crowded spot.

If the waves are too small, too big, there is too much wind or simply too many people on the line up, then we’d try a different spot.

There are plenty of good beaches around Tamraght, so finding the right spot to show off our talent for the day (ah!) wasn’t a problem. Here are the ones we tried:

• Imourane Beach | A long stretch of sand that seems to attract many surf schools, this is the closest beach to Tamraght. Perfect for beginners, it’s probably the best place in the area to learn surfing from scratch. The beach is delimited on the left by a crocodile-shaped rock; hence the name of the spot “Crocodile” and it stretches north until Tagazhout. 

• Banana Beach | A small beach tucked between the river Tamrhakht (usually dry) and a cape offering some wind protection. It suits both beginners and improver surfers who want to practice their right turns.

• K17 | Nice isolated beach located, as the name suggests, 17km north of Agadir. Sandy bottom, not too crowded, good for beginners. 

After a couple of hours of surfing the hunger kicked in, and it was time to chill on the beach and eat the delicious sandwiches that Mohammed made for us.

We also surfed a couple of hours almost every afternoon, but it was really up to us to get back on the waves, or just relax at the beach under the strong Moroccan sun.

And sometimes while we napped Rachid sneaked out the sun umbrella and went play frisbee with some of his friends, because he is not just good at surfing…

THE YOGA

The Surf & Yoga package gave us the option to do the yoga classes either in the morning before breakfast or in the afternoon after the surf.

We opted for the morning session, and that was the best choice ever.

We would wake up at 8 am, put some comfortable and warm clothes on and meet our yoga teacher on the rooftop at 8.30 am. November in Morocco is still decently warm but early mornings might be chilly, so if you come you better pack a pair of leggings and a sweater to do yoga on the rooftop.

The level of the class is tailored to the level of the students; the yoga teacher takes a few minutes to assess how flexible, balanced and experienced you are.

We approached the yoga classes with curiosity.

Fab was a total beginner, while I had some experience with the basic movements. Christine, our Canadian yoga teacher, went for relaxed and easy Vinyasa classes, perfect to wake up and stretch our muscles before surfing.

Towards the end of the hour the sun was already up and warm, the hunger kicked in, and it was a real pleasure to delve into our well-deserved breakfast, served on the same rooftop of course.

We liked our morning yoga stretch so much that we added it to our daily routine, following the instructions of a yoga app (Deliciously Ella).

THE SOUK

On Wednesday afternoon, after our usual dose of waves in the morning, we drove with the brothers to the nearby village of Aourir, also known as Banana Village because of the locally-sourced bananas sold on the countless stalls on the road.

Our destination was the local souk.

And our mission was pretty simple: buy all the food souvenirs we could possibly fit into our empty suitcases.

And haggle.

We gave our best but failed pretty quickly at the second intent...

The souk is held only on Wednesdays, from dawn till dusk.

The market is vibrant and colourful, not strictly designed for tourists and we rejoiced at the idea of being one of the probably thirty foreigners in the entire area.

Our eyes were scanning the stalls full of curiously shaped vegetables, piles of brilliantly-coloured spices, local textiles, meat, fruits, jars of olives and jewellery.

Apart from dates and figs, the scene was dominated by the ubiquitous pomegranates: this fruit gets a lot of love around here as it's mentioned in the Kuran as being one of the fruits of paradise.

Some vegetables were beautifully oversized, especially in comparison to the scraggy ones we buy in our supermarkets, but this is probably how vegetables should look like outside the rigid supply chain they are forced to go through elsewhere.

Mohammed and Rachid buy here all the products they cook at home, stocking-up their larder and fridge for the week.

We couldn't resist and bought a couscous as soft as a snow-flake, olives and all the spices for Caro's shakshuka: cumin seeds, dried coriander and paprika.

THE ROAD TRIP TO IMSOUANE

Around the end of our stay, we wanted to take a day off from surfing.

We heard good things about Essaouira, 160 km north of Tamraght, and decided to spend one night there.

Rachid offered to drive us up to Imsouane, a charming fishermen’s village and surfing spot almost half-way from Essaouira.

And like nothing... we hit the road. Rolling north along the N1 route with Rachid and his other brother, Karim.

It took almost two hours to drive to Imsouane from Tamraght.

The panorama, initially dotted with argan trees, became dryer as we moved north. We were happily trapped between yellow dusty hills on our right and the emerald sea on the left, with our boards packed on top of the car.

The nose of the Dacia Logan pointed up to the sky as we climbed the hills near Imsouane.

The sequence of hairpin turns put Rachid’s driving skills to the test, but he passed the exam with top marks without even firing a shot.

We stopped a few times to appreciate the panorama and some bigger surfing spots.

Our jaws dropped when we saw the evolution of a handful of brave surfers at Tamri, a rocky spot not far from Tamraght where waves reached three metres, that for us amateurs is quite something. 

We reached Imsouane by noon, right when the food stalls in the tiny harbour start to release that comfortable, delicious smell of frying fish… 

That day the tide was still pretty high, and the waves were breaking small and closer to the shore.

We decided to get in anyways and practice some pop-ups and right turns on smaller waves, waiting for the tide to get lower and waves to get bigger.

With the right conditions, Imsouane Beach offers the longest right wave in the WHOLE of Africa, that takes you from one end of the bay to the other.

Waiting on the line-up for the right wave, the vibe in the bay was nearly magical. It felt like time had stopped.

Around us the little harbour on one side, all dotted by blue and white fishermen’s boats, mountains on the other side, the beach in front of us.

The only noises in the air were the surfers’ excited squeals for the approaching set of waves and the squeaking white seagulls flying in circles.

After the fun at Imsouane, Rachid helped us getting in a Moroccan taxi on the main road.

If you don’t know what’s a Moroccan taxi, it’s just waiting on the side of the road for an unofficial taxi guy who fills his car with whoever goes in his same direction.

For 10€ a local driver opened the doors of his old Mercedes-Benz and drove us to Essaouira. 

It was definitely a ride to remember!

The car was packed to its limits, as we were six in this old five-seater and we could hear an ominous hissing noise from the brake pedal at almost every turn…

But somehow, we made it to the windy Essaouira in three hours, right before sunset and in glorious Moroccan style!

We spent literally 20 hours in Essaouira, a magical experience – you can read about it in our article A day in Essaouira.

The beautifully preserved city-walls, the lively fish market and chilled vibe make Essaouira a really nice destination for a weekend out of the ordinary routine.

THE GOODBYE

Our last day at Local Surf Maroc went very fast: breakfast with our beloved pancakes msmen (yes, Mohammed knew by then how much we love them), the last surfing session, shower, lunch, last cigarette on the rooftop and then away we go Rachid to reach Agadir’s airport to catch our late afternoon flight back to London. 

We boarded our Ryanair flight with great memories and two good friends, but also a stronger passion for surf & yoga, pleased tastebuds and a relaxed inner self.

THE PRACTICAL BITS

We stayed a full week at Local Surf Maroc, flying from London to Agadir on Saturday evening and departing the following Saturday afternoon. 

We booked the Yoga & Surf package with one yoga class a day.

A full week is the right amount of time to enjoy the full experience: get some confidence on the surfboard if you are a beginner, feel the benefits of yoga, appreciate the local food and unplug from the everyday busy routine.

From our personal experience, your body will need a rest day from surfing midway through week, and that’s why the package includes a group excursion, either to the Paradise Valley or the Agadir Souk: you can express your preference to Rachid when booking your slot.

Rachid is pretty flexible. You can stay more or less than one week, add an extra yoga class in the evening or take a day off to explore the nearby towns, like we did. There are different options available, you can check them in their Yoga & Surf packages page.

The Yoga & Surf package also includes: airport transfer (from/to Agadir airport, with a minimum 7-night stay), transport for all surf spots, surfboard and wet-suit.

And of course the fabulous food: breakfast, lunch and dinner.

SOME USEFUL TIPS

You can get cash (local MAD) either at the airport or in Tamraght, there are a few ATMs on the main road. 

As of November 2019, there's no electronic ticket reader at the airport, so print your tickets! You can ask Rachid to take you to the local Internet point where you can print your tickets before heading to the airport. The price for printing two tickets is around 10 MAD (around 1€).
Ryanair passengers need a stamp on the ticket from the check-in desk before going through security. 

Don’t forget to pack your sunscreen, even in wintertime. The sun in Morocco is strong, even on what you might think are cloudy days, and even more so when you spend a couple of hours in the water. 

The summer months are pretty hot, both day and night. During the winter months, the temperature is still mild and pleasant, averaging from 20°C during the day to 8°C at night. Make sure to pack a couple of sweaters and long trousers as well as T-shirts, shorts, and the usual swimwear. Essaouira is particularly windy and it can get chilled even during the day, be ready for that!

Last but not least, an insurance is NOT included in the packages at Local Surf Maroc. We suggest purchasing a travel insurance (we used Columbus), especially if you surf and might get some (minor) injuries, or in general in case you need to see a doctor during your stay.