"We are Sarah Sylvester and Richard Boughton, the UK importers for Jochum and Nesler, JN Kites. We sell and repair kitesurfing equipment in the UK, take part in competitions and travel the globe kitesurfing. Read all about our adventures here!"

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Morocco - Camel Toe Adventures

When one of your best friends calls you whilst on his honeymoon, telling you that the new wifey is getting extremely annoyed because of the 40 knot wind blasting her at the swimming pool, it's time to get the devil out of Devon and slap some Moroccan waves for a week or so. Our mission was to save his new marriage with cunning, girly chat and distraction techniques.

My oh my, it was rather windy though, Sarah and I were both using a 6m PD4, which rather annoyingly blew off down the beach and had a little coral incident mid-week.

In Essaouira bay, in front/downwind of the hotel, it was extremely gusty side-off with the wind coming over the Medina, which was pretty terrible car crash style riding frankly, so we hired a Dacia, which is similar to a mid 90's Fiat, but with none of the refinement, and a clutch and gearbox comprising of Edam. We trotted up and down the coast to a few spots.

20km north of Essaouira is Moulay, a fairly deserted little town full of windsurfers. This is quite a short launch with a kite but there is a nice point / reef break and a lot of wind. A top tip would be to head there early and get out on a 9m before the wind kicks in fully and the windsurfers head out, thus avoiding crowded waves. Saying that, even when it did get busy later in the day everyone was courteous. If you want some space you can hack upwind 200m in front of the cliffs and still get great waves with plenty of space.

Sidi Kaouki is about 20km south of Essaouira and is another windsurfers' spot of choice. This is more of a beach break, and there is a lot of space. Again we would kite here before it started nuking as it was slightly side-off and clean as a whistle. The sand bars let the waves peel gently downwind and it makes for rather delightful down-the-line riding. It can be a fairly steep little wave here that can give you a right old slap if you get it wrong. It was great fun strapless. We did a hilarious downwinder with camel support, but that's another story.

Sarah wrote a lovely article for Kitegirl magazine located here:

Kitegirl Morocco Article - A wave to Essaouira



Here's the Morocco slideshow: