My oh my, it was rather windy though, Sarah and I were both using a 6m PD4, which rather annoyingly blew off down the beach and had a little coral incident mid-week.
In Essaouira bay, in front/downwind of the hotel, it was extremely gusty side-off with the wind coming over the Medina, which was pretty terrible car crash style riding frankly, so we hired a Dacia, which is similar to a mid 90's Fiat, but with none of the refinement, and a clutch and gearbox comprising of Edam. We trotted up and down the coast to a few spots.
20km north of Essaouira is Moulay, a fairly deserted little town full of windsurfers. This is quite a short launch with a kite but there is a nice point / reef break and a lot of wind. A top tip would be to head there early and get out on a 9m before the wind kicks in fully and the windsurfers head out, thus avoiding crowded waves. Saying that, even when it did get busy later in the day everyone was courteous. If you want some space you can hack upwind 200m in front of the cliffs and still get great waves with plenty of space.
Sidi Kaouki is about 20km south of Essaouira and is another windsurfers' spot of choice. This is more of a beach break, and there is a lot of space. Again we would kite here before it started nuking as it was slightly side-off and clean as a whistle. The sand bars let the waves peel gently downwind and it makes for rather delightful down-the-line riding. It can be a fairly steep little wave here that can give you a right old slap if you get it wrong. It was great fun strapless. We did a hilarious downwinder with camel support, but that's another story.
Sarah wrote a lovely article for Kitegirl magazine located here:
Kitegirl Morocco Article - A wave to Essaouira
Here's the Morocco slideshow:
