About an hour and a half north of Taghazout (or equidistant from Essaouira, a major touristic coastal city to the north) you will find the most quaint and special corner of the world where I imagine some of the best undiscovered long boarders of the world hail from. Imsouane Bay is a longboard wave that made me fall in love with surfing all over again. I got my first taste of Imsouane when I tripped up the coast for a day trip with a Taghazout hostel. In the morning, at high tide, we all surfed Cathedral Bay, which makes up half the town of Imsouane between a beach break, left reef break, and a right point break. This place basically always get swell even when it’s flat down south, and even caught some total bombs out here!
After kicking back and passing the time for lunch, we found ourselves at the PLACE to be during low tide— Imsouane Bay. The Bay is so special— they say longest wave in Africa, which for me also happened to be the longest wave of my life. I reluctantly swapped the shortboard for a 9 foot foamie and that was one of my best quiver calls ever.
After riding a beautiful, 4 foot glassy wave for what felt like a minute, I could not stop laughing and smiling. Surfing is pure joy! The wave peeled so far right (and I rode it for so long), that I proceeded to follow the masses and walk out of the water back up to the peak. Still baffled at the length of my previous ride, I decided to count how long I rode my next ride to see if it really did reach 60 seconds— ladies and gentleman, you may not believe me but I counted SEVENTY FIVE (75) seconds on this next wave. Just absolute bliss. I have no more words to describe this but I feel like I relived it just writing about it right now. So needless to say, with rides like this it can be crowded, but then again the waves are so long and have so many peaks and room for all in my opinion. Every wave is a party wave!
After experiencing the rush of finding a new gorgeous wave and having some sweet long boarding, it was hard to entertain myself back in Taghazout, where the swell is typically 1-2 feet smaller. Naturally, I decided to book a week at Imsouane Surf House to become a proper long boarder and surf all day. Between high and low tide and the Bay and Cathedral’s you can really surf all day here! And the best part? There’s not much else to do in Imsouane, so it is truly a surfer paradise. Wake up, surf, eat, vibe and skate and play music, sleep, surf repeat, repeat, repeat. The town is so tiny that you’re gonna be choosing between 5 places every night for dinner, but you’ll also get to know the locals by the first day!
Unlike Taghazout, there are properly paved roads, and hilly ones, that are just perfect for skating so hopefully you can bring along a board or make a friend with one here! Although the town is tiny and you will certainly stop by every shop at least once, you will definitely want to eat or cowork at Anzar— they have my favorite veggie food in town, a falafel sandwich, and the owner is always jamming on his guitar! If you’re renting a surfboard, expect to pay about 80 dirhams a day for a hardtop, and make sure you switch from short to long board when you go between Cathedral and Imsouane Bay. Last but not last, pull out more cash than you think you need! The nearest ATM is a 45 minute drive away at Tamri, and basically all of us didn’t bring enough… you have been warned!
Imsouane was everything I was looking for when I was starting to feel some longing for home or familiar faces, I just met some really chilled genuine souls. We had some super special moments when the power would go out and you would just sit around in the candlelight or go up to the roof and let the stars take your breath away.... I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with the hostel (despite being only two Americans) and we all cooked together and just reminded me that you gotta love the ones you're with!
I would’ve definitely gotten "stuck" in Imsouane for several weeks— as many people do— but this Omicron thing booted me out! For some reason, the first thing suspended was flights from Morocco to France, which was my original layover to fly home… needless to say my time in Morocco ended a little more abruptly than I originally expected and I ended up spending about a week in Sevilla Spain thanks to a cheap Ryanair that let me flee the country….
Update a few weeks later-- said *two week travel ban* was extended for two months through Jan 31. Needless to say, I am glad I got out when I did. But Morocco I miss you so much! Be back soon <3
