What Am I Up To In Morocco?

I touched briefly on what my travels to Morocco entail for the next couple of month before I arrived here in December, but I though I’d give you a bit more of an in depth update as it’s where I shall be based until mid March now.

Basically after a few months bouncing around the place I decided I needed to sit tight for a while, scrape together some more funds and give myself some time to plan my next set of adventures.

But not wanting to return to the UK or go back into a “proper job” I managed to land myself another stint surf coaching – so my office is now a sunny beach in northern Africa – in the Moroccan surf town of Taghazout.

 

3 Months of Sun, Sea and Surf

This time around though I’m not just teaching the basics of surfing week in week out, I’ve been put in charge of the Surf Berbere 12 Week Instructor Course, the bottom line of which is taking people with little or no surf experience right through to qualified instructors!

Sounds a of a challenge, but with the amount of time they will spend in the surf over the next 3 months is plenty enough to get to an intermediate level and master the skills needed to teach a beginner lesson.

My aim from a surf coaching point of view is to get everyone up to speed as soon as I can – out back, catching green waves. This basically means I get to spend more time in the lineup with everyone surfing! I’m already 2 weeks into the course and stoked to say everyone is doing heaps good and most of them are now in the lineup out back, happy days!

 

Getting Involved In Local Life

It’s not just surf lesson that I’m getting my students stuck into, the course is also aimed to get them involved in the local community and give them a better understanding of responsible travel and the tourist industry.

One of the main parts of this is the English lessons they’re giving at the town commune and local school, covering all ages and abilities from primary school students through to older member of the community who want to brush up on their skills or get a basic grasp of the language.

Getting involved in these lessons has been a great eye opener for me, and is something I’m going to write about later this month.

It’s a voluntary lesson that the locals are attending so everyone is heaps enthusiastic to learn!

Throughout the course they’re also working with the local council to organise things like beach clean ups, surf competitions and also take the local school kids on some excursions around the country – a good bit of karma all round!

I’ve also organised French lessons for the duration of the course too – I’ve learnt from my travels that a bit of local language always goes down well and can make life alot easier too, as well as stealing some techniques to use in their own lessons.

Personally though I’m sitting out of the French lessons – I’m struggling enough with learning German so I don’t want to confuse myself even further!

 

March and Onwards

So that’s the plan for the next few months, get 12 guys and girls from around the globe up and riding, get them involved in the awesome Moroccan culture they’re surrounded by, teach them to be responsible travellers and set them up for a life living the dream and earning their dollar with sunny days on the beach!

I’m pretty stoked to be passing on all the knowledge and skills I’ve learnt on my own travels face to face and combining that with surf is my perfect job all round!

In the meantime I’ve got some of my buddies and my little bro from home heading out to join me for some waves which I’m super excited about having not seen them for nearly a year.

After I’m finished up here at the end of March I’m bouncing back to Switzerland for a few days of snowboarding (hopefully) before heading out on my next adventure and first new country of 2013…New Zealand! Stoked as.

But before that I shall be topping up my tan and catching as many waves as I can – it’s so good to be back in the ocean riding waves!

 

If spending 12 weeks in the Moroccan sunshine catching waves and becoming a surf instructor sounds like the ideal start to a gap year or career change to you hit up Surf Berbere for more details on the next 12 week course – [email protected]