4 Ways to Make the Most of Flat Waves in Taghazout Bay, Morocco

It’s hard to believe, but we’re in May of 2021. We’re in the FIFTH month of 2021, and summer is fast approaching. We can feel it in the air temperature, water temperature, and most noteably, in the waves as the winter storms have died and the swell has come and gone.

We even managed to catch the last of the winter swell at Anchor Point last weekend and it didn’t disappoint! 

As we look to the future and the upcoming surf forecasts, we’re not too sure if we’re happy. Weather forecasts tell us it will be warm and sunny while MagicSeaWeed shows waves like pancakes and a lot of wind. Certainly not favourable surfing conditions, and another clue that the winter surf season has more or less finished. 

We have even pulled out our shorty wetsuits out of storage, optimistic that perhaps we’ll be able to catch some fun waves on our Foamies. 

A few months ago, we put up a blog post about what you could do in Taghazout Bay when the waves are flat here in Morocco. While the activities are still relevant as summer will be in full swing soon, it doesn’t help you make the most out of the flat days. Let’s be honest, given the current global circumstance, you didn’t spend all this effort into getting to Morocco safely to surf to jump in the water and let the wind push you around.

If you’ve been following our InstaGram stories you’ll have noticed that we posted some ideas about what you can do to on flat days to make sure your surf game will still improve. From that we came up with a list of 4 ways to make the most of flat waves while you’re still in Taghazout Bay, Morocco.

1. Get Some Rest

By now, we all know the importance of a good night’s rest. Not only is it essential for our mental health and focus, but also for our physical health. Sleeping well helps maintain a healthy weight, healthy eating habits, increase our focus and productivity, and prevent chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and depression.

But how does sleep help you get the most out of your surfing? Surely, the more you surf the better you’ll get?

While that’s only one piece of the puzzle, we have to remember that surfing is actually really physically demanding. When you join us for a week of surfing, you’ll be spending a good couple of hours in the water everyday using various muscles repeatedly. 

You’re going to need a rest. 

When you sleep, several things happen in your body that will help you prepare for the next surf session, more so than throwing your tired body into the waves. Sleep helps improve your concentration and focus, so your ability to read waves and make decisions about timing and placement means you’ll get more out of your surf sessions. 

Sleep deprivation has been more widely studied in regards to athletic performance in comparison to adequate or prolonged sleep. But this at least gives us some clue as to how important sleep is. Some of the known negative effects of sleep deprivation can include changes in mood, slower muscle recovery, increased levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, decreased glycogen synthesis, and the perception of physical exertion as more difficult. This means that if you don’t get enough sleep, the next time you paddle out it will feel more like a chore than something fun and exhilarating.

And who wants to feel miserable on holiday?

Getting enough sleep allows your body to release growth hormone, which is responsible for repairing and building muscle. While we’re not elite athletes who sleep 10-12 hours a night (plus naps!) to maintain strength and endurance during training, when we do increase our physical activity and use muscles in a way that we haven’t in a while (or never!) we need to give ourselves a chance to recover. 

So there’s no need to be upset about a flat day, especially if you’ve already been surfing several days in a row. It’s useful to view days where you can’t surf as a chance to rest and recover: to allow your mind the opportunity to decrease in alertness and your body a chance to repair itself. Instead of viewing sleeping in or that afternoon siesta as you’re missing out, see it as essential preparation for your next surf session. 

2. Supplementary & complementary surf training. 

We’d like to reiterate that the Team behind Local Surf Maroc are not professional athletes. Nor are we aspiring to be. However, there is something of value to observe and emulate what professional surfers do to improve their surfing.

Lifting weights and cross training has several benefits directly related to surfing: stronger muscles for a stronger paddle; muscular power to nail that pop up especially on bigger days; muscular endurance to consistently execute paddles, pop ups, and maneuvers; increased conditioning to spend several hours surfing without becoming exhausted. The most important reason for surfers, regardless of their skill or ability to participate in extra training is for injury prevention: Strong muscles protect our bones and joints when we wipe out after a take off or get tossed through a washing machine, for example. 

The Local Surf Maroc team has been training regularly with local, certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Yousef from Yozi Fitness & Performance for over a month and have seen big improvements in water.

In 2015, Rachid suffered an ACL tear in his right knee. It took him out of surfing for nearly a year despite having some physiotherapy support. Returning to work in 2016 was precarious as being a surf coach is a physically demanding job and it was unclear if the knee would hold up. Over time, Rachid returned to surfing for leisure, but it was a slow return as his knee constantly ached and felt weak following surf sessions, even short ones. The ACL tear was always on his mind and prevented him from paddling out in big or difficult conditions and held him back from executing any maneuvers such as cut backs or aerials. 

If you’ve been following Local Surf Maroc on Instagram, you’ll have seen our Surf Guru Rachid back surfing Boilers and Anchor Point in big, hectic conditions. Between surfing regularly and doing surf specific training at Yozi Fitness & Performance, Rachid’s confidence and enjoyment on the waves has returned. Duck diving, paddling power and endurance, along with stability have also improved making his surfing look effortless by the end of the season. 

Equally, you don’t have to be an experienced surfer to benefit from general strength and conditioning or Surf Specific training. Christiana, injured her ankle in October 2020 while dismounting from her surfboard in Croyde, England in small wave conditions. The pain and swelling lasted for months and her range of motion and strength in her ankle were severely limited. In January she could only walk short distances and didn’t even consider paddling out. The few times she tried surfing in February were somewhat disastrous. Only once she started working with Yozi, slowing building up strength and mobility, that she was able to start paddling out with more confidence.  

The additional benefit of working with Yozi was that the whole training session wasn’t strictly dedicated to her ankle, but surf fitness as well. By the time Christiana felt confident enough to start surfing, her arm strength didn’t have to be built up from zero and her balance and stability were on point. This made her first few surf sessions really enjoyable, even if her ankle mobility is still a little limited and hinders some potential progression.

But wait, what about the rest we just spoke of? Isn’t strength and conditioning counter-intuitive?

Every person coming to our Surf Coaching, Mentoring, and Guiding experiences are at a different level of fitness. For those who are regularly active, squeezing in a training session that includes weights or conditioning isn’t detrimental to surf performance. But therein lies the difference between standard weight training and specific surf training: one is beneficial for overall health and fitness while the latter can correct weaknesses and imbalances through muscle activation, for example, which doesn’t require heavy weights or numerous repetitions to be effective. 

For those joining us on our Intermediate Surf Mentoring Experience, we include the option for Surf Specific Training with Yozi if you stay for 7 nights.

If you’re looking for a more intensive week, check out our Surf Fitness Retreat.

3. Active Recovery

If sleeping is considered passive recovery, then low impact and low intensity movement would be considered active recovery. A vareity of people book onto our Surf Coaching, Surf Mentoring, and Surf Guiding experiences, and with them come a variety of fitness levels, but pursuing some leisure activity while not surfing is more likely to be beneficial for recovery and surfing progress.

In fact, recent research has shown active recovery to be more beneficial than complete rest because it keeps your blood circulating, preventing or decreasing lactic acid build up which is known to contribute to muscle soreness. The increased blood flow also helps to bring essential nutrients to your joints and worked out muscles, speeding up the repair process to help prepare your body for the next round of intense activity. 

For this reason, Surf and Yoga experiences are a perfect pairing when it comes to intense activity followed by something a little more gentle. Of course there are more dynamic and intense forms of yoga practice, with very strong and powerful poses. But that’s not the pairing we have curated and organized as part of our Yoga and Surf holidays. Restorative flows at sunset are quickly becoming our favourite ways to move our body, stretch our muscles, and quiet our minds after surf.

We save the more energetic flows for when we haven’t done any surfing.

Of course, we understand if you can’t stay away from the water. You waited through the entire COVID-19 pandemic to make it to Morocco’s coast after all. The benefits of being by or near the ocean are well documented in the book “By the Sea”, but it’s better to experience the water than to read about it. From a very practical standpoint, being submerged in cool water helps with joint and muscle pain, reducing inflammation and soreness. It also helps you to feel extremely refreshed after only a few minutes!

While active recovery has many benefits, it’s important to listen to your body. If you are mentally and physically tired, or you’re experiencing pain, it is definitely important to REST completely. 

4. Online Surf Theory & Video Analysis

Flat days and rest days are the perfect opportunity to catch up on surf theory. Surf skills and surf fitness are only two pieces of a puzzle, or two pieces of a complex machine with many moving parts. 

Understanding currents and riptides will help you stay safe in the water, whether you’re surfing with us in a group or going for a solo session. Knowing why and how winds form and move across the water will help you read surf reports and understand which times of the day are better to paddle out instead of fighting with Mother Nature and wearing yourself out. Learning the mechanics of wave creation and breakage will help you to position yourself in the water better, which will help you catch more waves. 

The more you know about how the water moves on and under the surface, the more strategic you can be with your surfing and make the most out of your time with us. 

Surf theory of course includes video analysis as well! 

It’s one thing for our surf instructors to point out technical errors as you’re learning to surf or improving your surf skills, but it’s completely different to see yourself making the mistakes. Surfing can be a very frustrating sport and activity to learn, and motivation or enthusiasm can quickly wane after a disappointing paddle out. So like before and after fitness journey pictures, having photos and videos of your surfing journey taken throughout the week will help you to see your own progress. 

The connection your body and mind make once you’ve watched yourself surf becomes quite useful as you learn to correct yourself for the next surf session. At Local Surf Maroc we make this possible by having a photographer at every lesson to record you and your progress, and we guarantee that after a week with us, your Day 7 will look very different to your Day 1.

Of course we include daily surf theory in person during our Surf Coaching and Surf Mentoring Experiences, and photo or video analysis on alternate evenings.