Day 166 - Our First Family Surf Lesson in Essaouira

We eased into day 166 here in Essaouira with a pretty standard slow morning, which has honestly been nice now that we’ve settled in a little. Since we finally stocked up on groceries, we could stay in and make our own breakfasts and coffees instead of heading straight out the door first thing.

Kia was up early getting herself ready for a kinesiology session with an old college friend back in Australia. The session kicked off around 8am and thankfully the Wi-Fi behaved itself, which was a relief considering how patchy internet can be over here at times. While she got organised, the kids and I kept ourselves busy. Maddie and Emmett had yoghurt and muesli while I cooked up some eggs and made more coffee.

As soon as Kia finished her session, it was straight into surf mode. We got changed into our togs, packed a bag and headed up the road to our surf lesson. The surf school was only about a 10 minute walk away and we arrived just before the 10:30 start time.

Once we got there, we met our instructor, Ayoub, who took us upstairs to get kitted out in wetsuits because the water here is still pretty cool. We also got coloured vests over the top so they could keep track of everyone in the water. Then it was back downstairs, grabbing surfboards and walking across the road to the beach.

Kia and I carried two of the boards while Ayoub carried the other two and Emmett proudly carried the leg ropes. Once we got down onto the sand, we laid the boards out and sat down while Ayoub took us through the basics.

The boards were huge, wide and super floaty, which made things a lot easier. There was no need for a super fast pop up or anything like that. It was more of a slow, controlled process of bringing your knees forward, stepping your front foot through between your hands and then standing up.

Kia and I have both surfed before, but it was a very long time ago for both of us, so pretty much everything we once knew had disappeared. It was nice starting again on beginner boards with tiny waves.

The surf itself was really small, probably only one to two foot max, but perfect for learning. Ayoub was fantastic with the kids, helping them line up for waves, pushing them into smaller ones and constantly encouraging them.

Kia and I started off just catching little waves close to shore to get our confidence back before gradually moving further out through the session to catch waves a little earlier. The sets weren’t very consistent. Sometimes a couple of good waves would roll through back to back and then there’d be nothing for a while, but it didn’t really matter. We were all having a great time.

By the end of the two hour lesson, all four of us were standing up and riding waves. The kids were even paddling for their own waves and doing a really good job. There was a lot of laughing, plenty of wipeouts and heaps of fun.

Once the session finished, we carried the boards back up, peeled ourselves out of wetsuits, had quick showers and immediately booked another lesson for tomorrow.

By then we were starving.

We stopped at a little restaurant near home and tried ordering four tagines, but the waiter kept saying “two”. We thought he’d misunderstood us until we eventually realised they only had two tagines left for the entire restaurant. We decided that probably wasn’t going to feed the four of us, so we headed elsewhere instead.

The kids and I ended up getting pizzas while Kia ordered a burrito taco style wrap thing. Everything was delicious and we absolutely demolished it. I ate an entire pizza because I was so hungry after surfing, while the kids and Kia only managed about half of theirs, which actually worked out perfectly for leftovers later.

Back at the apartment, Kia had a lay down while the kids chilled out and I got stuck into some website work. I’d been trying to get the homepage of Running Wild Together looking exactly how I wanted it and by late afternoon I finally got it mostly there. There’s still another page to build and some linking to finish off, but it’s finally starting to feel like the vision I had in my head.

Kia and the kids spent the afternoon doing some schoolwork while I kept tinkering away on the site.

Dinner was easy thanks to all the leftover pizza and wraps from lunch, which honestly felt like a win. No cooking and no dishes.

We got the kids into bed nice and early because another surf lesson is on the cards tomorrow and they were absolutely wrecked after today.

Day 166 ended up being one of those simple but really fun family days. Our first proper surf lesson together, lots of laughs, heaps of salty water and a whole lot of fun. Hopefully tomorrow brings slightly bigger waves.