The last week before Christmas I decided to take a break of training and everything in Europe and packed my stuff to have 10 days in the sun, at the beach and to learn to surf…I got invited and so I couldn’t say no…all for free.. I jumped on the next plane to Agadir in Marocco and it turned to a crazy week. I can’t go to much in the detail but what i can say is that I learned a lot about me and about the culture there. Everybody is very friendly and so it was hard for me to believe that the local people really are like that and don’t wanna rob you. Normally i am not that skapitcal to other people but the camp crue told me at the begining to be careful. But I think it’s always about the way you behave to your vis à vis and you will get it back how you deserve. This worked for me since I have been travelling around the world and up to now I have never had any problems with it. Anyway I met a lot interesting characters and I got a feeling for the living, behaving and working situation in this country. The people don’t have much money at all but even if they have nothing they would share with your their last meal. And one thing I realized most was that the europeans or the austrians have a watch but the moroccan have the time. I don’t know why but they were sitting all day long at the beach or next to the road, in their cafés and they seem to do nothing. just nothing. Absolutly nothing I couldn’t live there or maybe better to say I would need a lot of time to adapt myself to that life spirit. Maybe that’s why the Surf culture is fitting so perfect there. Because the people at the camp i don’t wanna say all of them but most of them just played playstation and smoked the whole day and where waiting until the best surf time. For a change I didn’t take my surfing that serious because I wanted to take a break of focusing on something and working for this 10 days. I still enjoyed it a lot and learned to stand up and surf a little bit in the blue waves. I got a feeling for it how difficult it is and how easy it can look. Sometimes I went with the boys to the big spots and stayed outside and filmed them with their video camera as best as i could. I was very impressed by the power of the waves and also impressed by the beach boys’ skills. They dropped in and surfed the wave with such a gracile charm…
I wasn’t missing my bike at all because I experienced everyday new things and i need varinty in my mtb life. One the day I went to Agadir to a big market called “Suc” where if you really looked close or looked behind the scene you got the chance to enter in the fabulous world of new aromas, new tastes and of the maroccan people. I went there with the cook of the camp, Ralf and he introduced me to some of his friends.
I bought some things and at the end the salesman gave me presents which had a higher value than the products I have bought before. It was crazy - moroccans are just so friendly.
The other day I was riding on a chamel which wasn’t that comfortable than I thought but still good fun. I stayed in a very small village called Tharazout about 20 km from Agadir city in a big house with other young people, who were all surfers. With some of the people i got really good friends and I will sure see them someday somewhere again.
The village was very small and the tourism was focused on the european surfers. Everywhere surfers, surf shops and so this people was the main target group there. I was really shocked about how dirty the place was. Everywhere it was so dirty. Full with rubbish and nobody seemed to care about the nature or the sea. That made me very sad….
The first days I couldn’t really cope with the situation about “doing nothing” the whole day. So I run (jopgged), I run everyday no stop on the beach listen to my ipod. So I was jogging also on my last day along the beach for a about 2 hours to the next village, took a rest on a big rock and watched surf beginners. Just before I wanted to run back I met a surf teacher. Ahmed was his name and we talked for a while it was funny because he couldn’t speak very well english and me not very good french. But we managed to communicate well. funny folk.
on the 23rd I flew back to Austria and my father picked me up. The christmas evening was very nice and my family and friends liked all my presents which i bought on the SUC. Now I am back in cold Austria and I have to find my training rhythm and have to stop eating too much X mas cookies hmmmmmmmmmmm which is honest the hardest part….. they are so good.
XXXLENE
