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Some things I’ve learnt about Morocco in the last day (what with me being a first timer and all).
It’s hot. But it’s a nice hot. Not too sweaty. But that’ll sun will fry a pasty Brit if given half a chance. The locals don’t feel the heat and rock jeans like it’s no biggy where I’m going with the shortest shorts I own for some welcome breeze.
It’s not as cheap as I’d assumed. Well. Casablanca where I am isn’t at least. A Bucks will set you back more than at home and a small beer from a hotel came in at £6. Ouchy. So I’m going with the local flow and going teetotal for the rest of the trip. Which is just as well …
As the food is incredible. The comp crew, WSL judges and muggins here are eating dinner in a restaurant next to the hotel (Le Lido, which also does a mean breakfast buffet, especially the pancake slash crumpet things served with a dollop of thick honey) and it’s a buffet to end all buffets.
Numerous tempting salad things but I skipped those and the soup to head straight into the meatballs, myriad veg, meats and various other damn tasty fare. The puds are also awesome. I’d hoped to come back from this trip a bit trim. That ain’t going to happen. No sir.
Comp wise the guys are up to Rd3 and the girls Rd2 featuring our Peony Knight and Lucy Campbell is on tomoz. The swell is a bit big for the beachy, making the paddle harsh, but there’s some beltable sections and if you get the right one it’ll be a long whackable wall. There’s a few highlights from today above. Only bugger is as it’s big it breaks a long way out. Which makes shooting a balls. The swell is slowly waning so might be a bit more better for stills tomoz. Anyhoose. I’m off to work on my foot tan.
Words and clip by Sharpy
Anfaplace Shopping Center, Casablanca – Morocco (Thursday, September 15, 2016) –The Quiksilver Pro Casablanca and Roxy Pro Casablanca resumed today in clean four-to-five foot surf at Anfaplace Shopping Center to whittle the fields down further and gear towards an action-packed weekend of high-performance surfing in Morocco.
The women’s field was dominated by recent winner of the Azores Airlines Pro pres. by Sumol, Justine Dupont (FRA), 25, who claimed a near-perfect 9.50 for a two-turn combination on a good left-hander. The French surfer kept the ball rolling and her motivation running high from the thrills of a second victory this season.
“I didn’t have priority for that wave and stayed a little bit on the inside, it just stood up perfectly for me and I managed to do two good turns; I love it when it gets a little steeper like that,” she reflected. “I’m simply having a lot of fun competing at the moment and it seems to be working well, I’m confident in my surfing and I learn a little bit from each heat. I’m in touch with my coach Christophe Mouginot all the time and he continues to help me with all the work we’ve done up until now. I also have my family, my boyfriend and everyone around me just supporting me which makes me very happy. Countless work hours with my physical and technical trainer Nicolas Fernandez and the brilliant boards Rob Vaughan shapes me help a lot too!”
In the men’s, Reunion Island’s Jorgann Couzinet (REU), 22, secured the day’s top performance to make his way into the event’s third round and continue his bid to become the newest European Champion. With the current regional Top2 surfers absent in Morocco, Couzinet will look to collect a strong finish for a chance to overtake Jonathan Gonzalez and Joan Duru.
“I hadn’t had a really good feeling in my free surfs before today, but thankfully I managed to turn this around and make a good first heat so I’m happy with this performance,” he said. “I want to solidify my rankings and hopefully enter the Hawaiian leg this winter so I’m focused on trying to get more points here. It’s only the first heat for me so I’m not getting too excited either but hopefully I can make a couple more heats.”
Current QS N°10 Bino Lopes (BRA), 28, was another strong competitor on this third day of competition as the Brazilian is looking to rebuild momentum towards the end of the Qualifying Series season.
“I’m pretty happy to be here for my first time in Morocco, I’m traveling with my family, my father, mother and sister have come to support me on this European leg and it’s a great vibe surrounding me,” he stated. “Conditions were really fun, we all got a lot of opportunities which was great so I’m stoked to get going and hope to make a few more heats like this one. The last three events haven’t been great for me but I know I’m solid in the rankings and my goal is to get a spot on the CT so this would be a good event to get motivated again before Cascais.”
Reigning European Junior Champion Nelson Cloarec (FRA), 20, dominated his Round Two bout as well and advanced alongside Uruguay’s Marco Giorgi, unfortunately eliminating older brother Tom Cloarec in the process.
“With that lighter wind and still a little bit of size I found the waves really good this morning, it was a difficult heat as Tom and I had two tough competitors to try and both make it through,” he said. “I was probably a bit luckier and got more waves, we were all sitting close by but it’s a matter of only a few meters to get in the right position so luck is definitely involved. When one of us is out we always support each other for the rest of the event, Tom is a great coach and I’m sure he’ll help a lot for my next heats.”
Other notable performances included South-African Matthew McGillivray’s solid 16.43 total for his ticket to Round Three.
Event officials have set the next call for 9:30AM Friday to potentially re-start both the men and women’s events depending on conditions.
MagicSeaWeed, official forecaster for the WSL Europe Qualifying Series events, calls for “Swell continues to fade but a more local wind swell could fill in on top. This’ll maintain that head high or perhaps larger range but with a lot less structure. Local winds continue to look predominantly onshore.” for Friday.
The Quiksilver & Roxy Pro Casablanca are scheduled from September 13-18, 2016 at ANFAPLACE Shopping Center, Casablanca – Morocco. For all results, photos, video highlights and press releases, log on to worldsurfleague.com.
The Quiksilver & Roxy Pro Casablanca are supported by Anfaplace Shopping Center, Quiksilver and Roxy, the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Surf, the Office National Marocain du Tourisme, the Marocaine des Jeux et des Sports, Red Bull and MagicSeaweed among others.
UPCOMING QUIKSILVER PRO CASABLANCA ROUND 3 MATCHUPS:
Heat 1: Ian Gouveia (BRA), Caetano Vargas (BRA), Victor Bernardo (BRA), Lucca Mesinas (PER)
Heat 2: Imanol Yeregi (EUK), Samuel Igo De Souza (BRA), Keoni Yan (PYF), Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR)
Heat 3: Thiago Guimaraes (BRA), Lucas Silveira (BRA), Lliam Mortensen (AUS), Frederico Magalhaes (PRT)
Heat 4: Miguel Blanco (PRT), Jackson Baker (AUS), Rafael Teixeira (BRA), Deivid Silva (BRA)
Heat 5: Bino Lopes (BRA), Jorgann Couzinet (REU), Pedro Henrique (PRT), Marco Giorgi (URY)
Heat 6: Ian Costa (BRA), Raphael Seixas (BRA), Vehiatua Prunier (PYF), Nelson Cloarec (FRA)
Heat 7: Matthew McGillivray (ZAF), Halley Batista (BRA), Flavio Nakagima (BRA), Julen Egiguren (EUK)
Heat 8: Jackson Giles (AUS), Dylan Lightfoot (ZAF), Miguel Tudela (PER), Jesse Mendes (BRA)
UPCOMING ROXY PRO CASABLANCA ROUND 2 MATCHUPS:
Heat 1: Pauline Ado (FRA), Garazi Sanchez-Ortun (EUK), Bailey Nagy (HAW), Ella Williams (NZL)
Heat 2: Lucy Campbell (GBR), Peony Knight (GBR), Freya Prumm (AUS), Lucia Martiño (ESP)
Heat 3: Justine Dupont (FRA), Ashlee Spence (AUS), Melanie Giunta (PER), Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 4: Carol Henrique (PRT), Ainara Aymat (EUK), Tessa Thyssen (BLM), Camilla Kemp (PRT)
REMAINING QUIKSILVER PRO CASABLANCA ROUND 2 RESULTS:
Heat 9: Bino Lopes (BRA) 14.20, Ian Costa (BRA) 11.34, Charly Quivront (FRA) 11.23, Abdel El Harim (MAR) 10.30
Heat 10: Jorgann Couzinet (REU) 16.67, Raphael Seixas (BRA) 11.16, Yago Dora (BRA) 8.60, Chadi Lahrioui (MAR) 6.74
Heat 11: Vehiatua Prunier (PYF) 12.67, Pedro Henrique (PRT) 12.24, Paul Cesar Distinguin (FRA) 10.40, Bruno De Andrade Maia (BRA) 5.70
Heat 12: Nelson Cloarec (FRA) 14.40, Marco Giorgi (URY) 13.83, Tom Cloarec (FRA) 8.40, Nicolas Vargas (CHL) 8.16
Heat 13: Matthew McGillivray (ZAF) 16.43, Jackson Giles (AUS) 14.77, Manuel Selman (CHL) 9.27, Tommy Boucaut (FRA) 8.24
Heat 14: Halley Batista (BRA) 10.23, Dylan Lightfoot (ZAF) 10.07, Yuri Goncalves (BRA) 9.84, Adil El Harrif (MAR) 6.90
Heat 15: Miguel Tudela (PER) 12.74, Flavio Nakagima (BRA) 11.93, Oney Anwar (IDN) 5.50, Jao Errera (FRA) 4.46
Heat 16: Jesse Mendes (BRA) 11.60, Julen Egiguren (EUK) 9.76, Gabriel Farias (BRA) 9.33 Shane Sykes (ZAF) 8.53
REMAINING ROXY PRO CASABLANCA ROUND 1 RESULTS:
Heat 5: Justine Dupont (FRA) 16.67, Ainara Aymat (EUK) 8.10, Lorena Fica (CHL) 7.27
Heat 6: Melanie Giunta (PER) 9.97, Camilla Kemp (PRT) 9.67, Mariana Assis (PRT) 9.03, Lee Ann Curren (FRA) 7.96
Heat 7: Carol Henrique (PRT) 12.27, Ashlee Spence (AUS) 10.07, Denver Young (AUS) 4.83, Ninon Mattei (FRA) 2.57
Heat 8: Tessa Thyssen (BLM) 15.50, Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 13.00, Emma Smith (ZAF) 5.70
