Morocco is in full economic boom right now, especially real estate. It’s crazy how many Europeans are buying up homes here: entrepreneurs, holidaymakers and retirees. They’re all doing it for the same reason: for the good quality of life.

Compared to Europe, the cost of living is much lower, the climate and hospitality warmer, business opportunities greater and tax system more interesting. Known as “The doorway to Africa”, Morocco offers a short haul exotic escape where the slower pace of life, unique architecture, arts and crafts and local customs all appeal to visitors.

European surfers make up an important part of the new tourism the country is experiencing, especially in the south and more and more in central Morocco around Casablanca. Even in the north on the side of Tangiers there’s a growing population of surfers emerging from those denizens who work there and the Spanish that make daily trips there.

For those who experienced Anchor Point during its early years, Taghazout has undoubtedly lost some of its magic. Spots have become crowded and mainly frequented by beginner and intermediate surfers. You just have to look at the growth of foreign surf schools in the area. There must be no less than 50 surf schools all within a few kilometres, including German, Portuguese, British, Italian and French schools, some officially registered in Morocco others not. Meanwhile, there are only two local surf clubs that cater for the local young Moroccans’ coaching needs.

The new surf trip destination everyone’s talking about now is down south in the Saharan desert. Surfed since the 70’s by only the most adventurous travellers, the area is becoming increasingly popular including numerous surfers looking to set up surf camps down there. To this day, Morocco’s reputation as a surf destination has been based on the breaks around Taghazout and the world-class wave of Safi. Laurent Miramon’s surf schools also did a lot in establishing Morocco as a legitimate surf destination.

A reputation that is now being built on by a few Moroccan surfers who are beginning to make names for themselves on various contest tours, namely Abdel El Harim, Yacine Ramdani (who put in impressive performances on the Pro Junior and EPSA circuits last summer), and Ramzi Boukhiam who at 13 years old finished in the top 16 in the under-16 King Of The Groms event.

It’s still early days but these three rippers are a promising sign of things to come. The recent creation of a new surfing federation can only give Moroccan surfing more structure and direction. And with more and more surf schools, available surf equipment and surf contests, it’s just a matter of time before Moroccan surfers pose a genuine threat on the competition circuits. Despite Taghazout being the most popular surf spot in Morocco, Safi is the wave that has drawn the most famous pro surfers, staged the first pro contest in Morocco and promoted surfing’s cause among the general public and government.

Interview with Laurent Miramon

Who surfed Safi first?

A couple of Australian surfers back in the late 70s, friends of Bruce Valuzzi (of Surfer Mag). A small group of Moroccan surfers led by Luc Souttif, a French surfer temporarily living in Morocco later discovered the wave in the early 80s. But the first person to surf the wave insane was probably Gérard Dabbadie along with two or three friends in the mid-80s. They were there to shape a few surfboards for the locals. The first time I discovered the wave was in 1986 with 10 to 12-foot pumping surf. I just happened upon it while exploring the stunning 30km point it breaks off. The wave totally changed the way I viewed surfing. At the time, we had no real experience in tube riding; even the boards weren’t really designed for it. Safi was also the wave that made us take a real interest in forecasting waves.

Who were the first local surfers?

The first local surfer was Khalid Medraoui, who I met in 1988. He had started out in Agadir with his cousin. In 2000, he set up a local surf club and today oversees the club that has since fused with the local sailing club. In 1994, Ismaël El Boukkili and Nagib Ghazal started to bodyboard at Safi and soon turned to surfing. Others include Anas Belmaachi, Zouhair, and Nagib Samir’s brother. It was only after 1999 that surfing really caught on.

Tell us a bit about the wave.

We only used to surf one section. But in 1988 during a session there with Gérard Bensoussan and Randolph Benzaquen, I finally worked out how to get in the barrel – a pretty essential skill if you’re going to surf Safi. There was a solid 8 foot and big tides. The conditions were insane. I must have paddled into a good 30 waves. More confident, I’d take off deeper and deeper but then there was that gnarly first section. In 1991, I met Eric Chauché. He came back in 1994 with Ross Clark Jones, Cyril Robert and Jean-Marc Vidal. Our goal was to take on the first section that breaks right in front of the rocks. Ross was the first to pull it off, he opened the door and then we all followed close behind. There have been other surfers that have ripped the spot in their own unique way but the line has always remained the same. There’s only one trajectory to take. Ross and Gary are the guys I’ve seen make the longest barrels there. They know how to stay deep in the pit, stall, move up the wave’s face, pump for speed in the critical sections, scoring up to 20-second tubes. Others that have ripped the wave include the Lion (Thierry Domenech), Tom Carroll, Gabe Davis, Will Lewis and Spencer Hargraves. Not forgetting Miki Dora. At 63, he surfed the wave pretty good!

What has the wave brought to Safi?

The wave has allowed young local surfers to get their tube riding down in no time. It’s a really intense, powerful wave that’s super fast. There aren’t many young Moroccan or even European surfers that get the opportunity to surf a wave like that from a young age. From an economic point of view, the wave has injected new life into Safi, which lost a lot of the charm it had in the 60’s as a result of local industry.

The young now have a good reason to stay in the area, especially now that new universities have been built nearby and it’s a great place to make new friends from all over. The young surfers are starting to make things happen. Nagib Ghazal’s brother, Samir recently set up the first surf shop in town.

They’ve secured a great location right by the beach that has been completely redone to blend in with the backdrop. The access road to the spot has been resurfaced with street lightning and a bigger parking lot. Things didn’t come easily though. A few people had to invest a lot of time and hard work to make things happen. It all started with a project to extend the port that was going to put the wave in danger. We wrote a letter to the ex-mayor describing the natural beauty of the wave and explaining its importance to the local community. The mayor of Safi put in place a great redevelopment programme. The town’s been transformed. They’ve managed to preserve the coastline and boost local economic activity. It’s all part of a programme that the Ministry of Tourism has been investing in since 2004. The spot was inaugurated by the Ministry of Tourism and a pro surfing delegation in 2005, officially classifying the site as a ‘Surf Park’.

Tell us about this swell in January 2007...

It was epic, all time. We hadn’t had it so good in years - since 2001, if I’m not mistaken. It’s a shame that there weren’t big tides, and the first day the swell was a bit bumpy from the wind in the night. There were a total of 14 broken boards that day and some pretty insane wipeouts. If I had to rate it out of 10, I’d give the first day 7/10. And 8/10 for the second day, even if the swell had dropped a little it was super clean. For it to have been really perfect, you’d want the size from the first day and the clean conditions of day two. The European guys really scored, they caught all the bombs and longest barrels. Sancho must have pulled into some easy 14-second tubes. It was his third time there and he knows what line to take. His surfing reminds me a lot of Cyril Robert.

Didier was the best backside surfer there that day. He pulled into some barrels that were as long as Sancho’s, rail grabbing the hollowest sections with real style. Everyone was blown away. Fredo was also charging. It was the second time him and Didier got to surf the wave. And that’s what made the difference between them and the American surfers. They knew where to sit in the line-up and picked off the best waves. On the first day, few people actually made their waves. People were making the mistake of going too low in the critical sections of the wave. The Moroccan contingent included local riders Samir, the Sahyouns brothers, Adil El Harrif. They caught some good ones too. Mainly Sebastien. But then it was pretty crowded. I counted 38 people in the line-up! And there were a few people missing, namely Abdel El Harim. I was pretty upset about not being able to surf due to an injured knee, like Abdel. I happened to be in town as I had a few friends visiting, Peyo Lizarazu, Max Larretche, and ex-professional French tennis player Guy Forget, a long-time friend of Eric Chauché. But it was interesting to watch it all go down from afar. I launched a jetski for Eric to shoot off the back and got an amazing view of every wave during those two days. The whole scene was something I’d been waiting to happen for a few years: 8 photographers, 2 TV channels and a bunch of surf crews. Interviews were going down all over town.

It was just a matter of time before the scene exploded, and something I’ve contributed to a fair bit and will continue to do, in the hope that we can develop the spot and preserve surfing’s core values at the same time. Due to the wave’s power and shape, exposing the full potential of this spot will be something left to the pros. Unfortunately, it seems like we’ve had fewer and fewer big swells in the last years, with it pumping maybe only 10 times a year. All the same, it’s worked in small conditions and Safi is bound to push Moroccan surfing to new heights.

The Northern Gate - a photog’s perspective.

with Eric Chauche

I first shot the wave in 1992, the first time with pros was ’94. I’d met Laurent a few years before and he showed me some pictures of him, he asked me to bring ‘a master’ to take the take off spot deep and open up the wave. I had Curren lined up to come but he was learning to play guitar with the guy from Talking Heads in New York, but the first Quik Cup was on and RCJ was there and was like ‘let’s go.’ Cyril Robert from Guethary came too and Jean-Marc Vidal. Ross really opened up the possibilities, taking off deep by the rock. I’ve been going back up to four times a year, every year since then.

Safi’s not a tourist place, it’s a real city with a long, proud maritime history. Safi is really famous for its ceramics, particularly the blue colouration. The people there have had an ocean swimming race forcenturies, they are a waterman culture. It was the first sardine boat harbour in the whole of Africa. The first ever transatlantic crossing in a papyrus canoe, centuries before Columbus, actually left from Safi, to Barbados. The thing I like about Safi, you can go in the city in the medina, and you live like the Moroccans, you are not in Marrakesh or Agadir, in the souk, getting hassled, constantly sold stuff. You live more quietly, how the people live. Nature around that region is incredible too around the cape, the fish, the birds, lagoon, you see whales there, the sardine run, the swells. And of course, world-class waves. For me, having what surfers call a world-class wave isn’t merely a result of an accident of geography. The waves, the ocean, nature, everything comes together and the place has powerful connections. I think you’ll see that in many places around the world, these spots have an energy that runs a bit deeper than appears at a first glance.

For me Morocco is the beginning of the real world. We live in 20%, and the remaining 80% I call it ‘the real one’ because they live with more solidarity, more sharing, the spirit more in tune with real things in life. Sharing with people, with nature, the resources around you. In Morocco the food, the fruit, everything is juicy, has more energy, more life in it. The music too, there’s a music festival in Essaouira, Hendrix came here in ’69 to try to pick up this trancey sound. I find everything recharging, energising. In Africa, JBay is the southern gate, and Safi is the northern one. Morocco has incredible potential all along the coast. There aren’t roads everywhere and there are so many possibilities. During ten or twelve years in surf magazines I just put ‘West Africa’ on my slides, I didn’t want to create an influx.

I tell people don’t be afraid to visit Morocco. A lot of people could be scared of travelling to a Muslim country in our current political climate of fear, but the people there are noble, of very high character. It’s interesting to share and exchange, to meet people, not to be afraid of them, don’t be afraid of the meat hanging up in the shops… people there like to talk, to touch you when they talk. Tourism inevitably develops where people come to consume, but I think the best is to exchange. Travelling isn’t about taking something, it’s to exchange and open yourself up, so that when you come back, you’re full of energy.

A Little History

Originally known as Asfi, Safi has been an important fishing port since Phoenician and Roman times. Its people were among the first Moroccans to embrace Islam. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the leading political Muslim Berber movement, known as the Almohads, fortified the city with ramparts and turned the city into a religious and cultural centre.

Between 1508 and 1541, the Portuguese briefly held the city, before withdrawing to the Saadian dynasty that developed trading and built the city’s Grand Mosque. The city finally fell under the control of the French in 1912 before the country gained independence in 1956.

Today, Safi remains a centre for the fishing industry of Morocco and one of the world’s largest exporters of phosphates due to the rich mineral deposits in the area. It’s also known to be the centre of Morocco’s rich and ancient ceramics tradition, standing out for its distinctive greenishblue overglaze named “turquoise” by the French. The whole of the Atlantic coastal region is known as Al Jorfal Asfar or “The Yellow Coast”, because of the yellowish clay found there.