An eye opening experience

Day by day new things are being learnt, customs, words, names and stories all shared by people who I met on the streets of small villages here or travellers who stay at the hostel, The stories and characters create motivation, inspiration, guidance and knowledge which all contributes to the journey of life.

Lunch today was again shared with the Moroccan family who live in the small village a stones throw from the ocean, the father spends his summers and part of the winter living off the ocean catching fish, cooking Tagine with his wife and daughter who come to visit him during the day who also join him for a pot of mint tea. He speaks not a word of English but brings me a mint tea after each surf session which unfortunately can’t be too good on the old teeth but sheesha it tastes good. No forks needed like in the western world, it’s all hands so we chowed down on the succulent fish and between our conversation of a little Arabic, French, English and my animated hand gestures – a little like charades – the fishermans daughter demonstrated to me how to cleanly bone a fish and dodge the sharp bones which would have ended our conversation and my time in Morocco had she let me carry on the way I was going.

The fisherman’s daughter had her 18th birthday two days ago, she is learning English so I bought her a translation book from Arabic to English. She would learn words in between her time in the water, she borrows one of our soft boards and gets out there and surfs. It must feel rather liberating being a muslim girl taking part in such a sport, she has been surfing for a week and already showing such natural poise and strength riding the waves all the way to the sand. It is very inspiring, one is given an opportunity and chooses to make the very most of it.

Another Roxy week has come to an end, after a week full of coaching 15 ladies the beauty of surfing my body needs to rest, we surfed ourselves silly, danced to berber music (the local stuff) among other funny times.

There is still not much surf around but again the longboard pulls through.

No pics sorry, computer says no

Hey there, As I write I drift back to the moment inspiration overcame me, to travel to the African country Morocco. After seeing Morocco’s culture and beauty in a film a few years back now I had decided then and there I wanted to visit this place now the dream lives, 6 months of soaking in the culture and experiencing what the rugged coastline has on offer. Being the summer months here in Morocco the surf is not at it’s peak, never the less the longboard has been getting a great run and the beauty of the sunset sessions have made up for any lack of swell.

I am living in a tiny fishing village which is frequented by herds of goats who occasionally greet me as I step outside the front door along with the local characters which villages and towns would not be the same without. There is not a lot of development here; raw drain runoff still runs casually onto the streets, rubbish covers the dry hill faces and the shores of the Atlantic coastline which is heartbreaking. Unfortunately a lot of the rubbish comes from out to sea but also their rubbish collecting system does not help their situation.

The people here are wonderful; day by day faces become familiar and most of them are very welcoming and genuine. It’s amazing how much you can communicate with people even if you can not speak each others language everybody knows a smile and it makes for an interesting game of charades. My Arabic is coming along but still only familiar with a few phrases and the French, which is one of the main languages over here will be on my list to conquer.

Today was rather eventful, after taking 15 girls last week for the ROXY Girls Surf and Yoga Week I had two days off and it was timed perfectly with the International Whaling Commission meeting which is taking place as we speak in Agadir (20mins drive from my village) so I popped down there to show some support for the crew protesting against the proposal of lifting the Anti whaling ban which basically means a free for all out in the oceans letting fishermen slaughter and wipe out the little whales we have left. It was a super peaceful protest and the good news had arrived just before we joined that the ban will not be lifted which is huge! There is still two more days to go so fingers crossed the decision stays that way. Tomorrow there will be more Kiwi support ☺

I hope the winter season is going off and you are getting into the snow or enjoying super clean crisp surf sessions.

En Chala

Daisy

Salam Alykum! Life in Morocco, it’s been pretty much bang on one month since setting foot on African soil, life is a little more settled now and my surroundings are much more familiar. I still keep a modest dress as any flesh shown as a woman is seen to be provocative I guess, the women here are muslim and dress from head to toe in traditional cloth although Tagahzout is more relaxed being abit of a beach/surf town it is much better fitting in rather than sticking out like a sore thumb.

Moroccan home from the Air

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Hey People, Hope the season at home is going off! I have been holding off writing a blog as I have not yet uploaded any photos and as you can imagine Morocco does not have the fastest Internet time but I will give you a wee update now.

So I have started work with two weeks of Roxy Surf Weeks which has been crazy but really enjoyable, I am currently sitting very relaxed after a traditional Hammam and massage which consists of wearing paper underwear, getting scrubbed from head to toe and bathed. It is an incredible feeling and your skin comes out feeling the softest it has been since you were a wee tot. After two weeks of solid days in the sun, sand and ocean it was high time for a good relaxation.

It is interesting being a western woman in a Muslim country, at first I felt very vulnerable and out of my depth but as the days go by my surroundings are more familiar. There are not many women you see around the streets and when they are out and about they are covered from head to toe in their traditional jalabas and as you can imagine a western woman sticks out like a sore thumb but it has been nice covering up trying to fit into the culture.

The surf has not been amazing but its warm and I have been meeting some unreal people. Stay tuned for pics and more updates. Chur

Heya, It seems like a long time ago now because so much has gone on but yes we made it safe and sound to London, managing to dodge the Volcanic Ash that shut down the whole of Europe!

3 surfboards, 2 boardbags, 5 bags, 4 people and a Ukulele..tight!

On arrival we were greeted by mum and dad who were over seeing my gramps whose 90th birthday was celebrated along with my twin cuzzies 21st and Uncles birthday all on the same day, epic.

Its amazing travelling as far as we do from NZ and getting to our destination to know somebody, anywho we set off to Wales ahh the homeland. My Father grew up in Wales hence the family history and strong connection to the place. Wales is a wonderful place with lush green acres and tiny little country roads which wind through the coastline into the counrty side. I saw alot of family history which was interesting.

Epic wee bar with live music, my cousins friend was singing this night (Jessica Cornish, you should check her out her voice is amazing) this is the bar that Dizzie Rascal was discovered. Radical

Over the summer I stayed with some wonderful people in Gisborne who really reminded me how important knowing your Whakapapa is, it was such perfect timing because I was to be setting off to the land where my fathers side of the family made their mark, it gave me extra amp to really find out from my grandfather what went on in those days and he gave some darn inspiring stories on people, war and family. The stuff I don’t think you really appreciate until you get a little older.

After a good week checking out the history in the welsh folk museum, catching up with friends and enjoying family time we set off to the big smoke, London.

Huge buildings dwarfed us at Canary Wharfe, where all the financial stockmarket stuff goes down

London was great fun, not having to be anywhere at a certain time, being able to purely walk and not fall into the rat race of the London streets was fantastic. Tom and I set off on a mission to find an art shop, which we did and along the way we saw buskers, ate blueberries by the punnet and ate pizza.
So much went on in the last few days if I write it all down you’ll fall asleep so how about I just leave you with these photos.

p.s we surfed a wonderful place called Llangennith in Wales but I got no pics because it was so foggy we couldn’t even see the waters edge!

Ocean in Wales but blocked off by any type of swell

Flat ocean, this place does get waves though.

Hey Guys, The season has come to an end and after dropping back my Spaceship to the Spaceships campervan hire nz I headed back down south to prepare for the next big adventure.

Living out of a bag can have it’s moments and my thoughts go out to the people who are currently stuck in airports all over Europe and who cannot return home to loved ones etc.

We are scheduled to fly out tomorrow afternoon but by the looks of things it is not looking likely so we are going to have to do a complete reshuffle. From Dubai we may have to do an overland mission to London…so definitely preparing for that!

You will be seeing some fantastic images over the next few months so stay tuned!

Thank you again to all the supporters over the summer seasons and I hope you all have an awesome winter, wherever your missions take you!

Enjoy

My gooodness what a weekend! I left Christchurch after some much needed awesome family time on Thursday afternoon arriving into Auckland, caught a bus to Spaceships campervan hire NZ and picked up my Spaceship, got lost (as per usual) on my way out to Port Waikato and finally ended up at the final destination.

Us ladies about to head out for our semi final, picture by Dave?

Morning came and it was a struggle to get out of my cosy bed and brave the howling onshore wind and mellow rain drops outside, but I did and it was straight down to the contest site where solid wild west coast waves were rolling through. Port Waikato was the final destination for the Pro Longboard Tour so there was a fantastic turn out from southerners to Australians. The chica dees all charged when it came down to the finals and the boys were shredding the big west coast walls. Next stop Gisborne for the National Shortboard Championships!

I will leave you with these pics to illustrate the weekend. Yee ow

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Hey Crew, a nice revamp and relax back in the lovely South has got me amping for the next adventure! Three more contests to hit and then it is off to Morocco for a six month stint. These next few weeks are going to be an intense build up to the Womens Champs which is offering a wild card entry into the very first WCT event to hit the shores of Aotearoa! So one lucky lady winner will be battling it out with the top female World Championship Tour Surfers from all over the world, exciting stuff I say.

The final event of the Longboard Pro Tour will be up and running next weekend and with double prize money and Circuit champion trophies up for grabs the competition is going to be firing! After that it will be the mission down to Gissie for the National Shortboard Champs and last but certainly not least, Taranaki!!! That’s the competitive down low for ya. On the weekend of the Womens Champs my Gramps is turning the massive 9 0! So I am heading over to Wales for some family time, an opportunity then arose from there and I will be heading over to Morocco to work for 6 months. I’m really looking forward to emersing myself into the culture there, meeting a whole new bunch of people and surfing endless right hand point breaks.

I’ll keep you posted with pics and stories,

Daisy

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