Logan Nicol Reflects On His Moroccan Adventure

I have just got home from, surprisingly, one of the best trips I have had all year! Not only because of the wave quality the North African region of Morocco provided, but the beauty of the country, the warmth and welcoming nature of the local people and the unexpected connections we made with other surfers on the trip.

We were basing ourselves in the well-known region of Taghazout. Littered with perfect right hand point breaks and a variety of beaches, it's a surfer's heaven. However, with the promise of big, pristine surf arriving further north we decided to acquaint ourselves with the waves we had on our doorstep for the first day and then drive five hours north to a semi-secret spot that would be breaking the next day!

After the drive, we woke up on our second day to very crowded waves. It didn’t take long to see why; the waves were pumping! After having a morning surf session, it became apparent that getting lots of waves at the spot we had headed to would be difficult. The waves were big and perfect, however, slightly infrequent and with a solid local crowd consisting of bodyboarders and high-level surfers alike it wasn't quite the experience we were hoping for. We had an evening surf at the same spot with similar results and knew we had to explore a little bit on our own.

So, the next morning, we awoke early and began to drive south as we were going to head back down to Taghazout to enjoy the variety that coast had to offer. 10 minutes into our journey, we stopped at a petrol station that was situated right on the coastline and to our amazement, right out front of it was a totally empty, perfect right hander! We were sceptical at first, why was this break so quiet? Were there treacherous rocks? Were the waves bigger than they seemed? Urchins? Rip currents? Sharks? We asked ourselves these questions for about half an hour whilst we watched perfect wave after perfect wave roll into the bay with not a person in sight. It was then that our quietly spoken videographer Max piped up and said, "just get in there boys". So, we did!

Me and Mike suited up, made the short hobble over the sharp reef and paddled out. It was certainly bigger than we had first anticipated, with fish jumping out of the water and rocks sticking up all over the place! It was an intense experience but once we got into it, we enjoyed two hours of amazing waves, completely on our own! After the session we were full of adrenaline, we all high fived and pondered how that might end up being the session of our trip, and it had only happened because we pushed ourselves. To experience Morocco you have to adventure off the beaten track and put yourself out of your comfort zone.

We headed back down south that afternoon and showed a few locals the photos of where we had surfed, nobody could tell us what it was called, it felt like we had found our own personal surf spot! We enjoyed the rest of our week surfing famous spots like Anchor point, Anza beach and Boilers. Mike had to head home for work but myself and Max were having such a good time we decided to extend our trip for another 10 days as there was more swell coming.

I'm home now and the British weather means I'm already missing the Moroccan climate and waves! After my incredible experience, I'll be back very soon there's no doubt about it.