Discover Yoga in Morocco with Corinne
Letters from the staff: My
second Home at Zen Surf Morocco
Today, meet our lovely Corinne, Zen Surf Morocco's yoga instructor. Corinne is a special person for us, we met her first as a guest when she booked a surf and yoga holiday at our place five years ago and became at the same time our first ever guest! Since then, she returned many times to finally settle down as our resident yoga teacher. Today she shares her experience and explains us why she kept coming back.
A defining Surf and Yoga holiday
Around five years ago, I worked for a large NGO in international development in London. I was craving some holiday to relax off the crowd and a place where I can improve my surfing skills. Even though there were less surf camps than today, I came across many pages and finally stumbled on Zen Surf Morocco’s website. The camp was quite new and didn’t have any Trip Advisor recommendations yet (unlike now with their 330+ excellent reviews and still counting 😉 They wrote me back honestly that I’d be their first client. When my friends heard that, they recommended me to choose an established surf camp. I cannot remember what it was, but I followed my instinct and booked the holiday with Zen Surf. I transferred the deposit payment and hoped it’ll be somewhat what they advertised. It was way more than that. Maybe one of my best holidays ever!
Nico and Tamara who started Zen Surf Morocco took care of me from start to end. I had one-on-one surf sessions with him and yoga classes with her. They took me to the market in Agadir and to other nice places in the area. I stayed in a beautifully decorated room with an amazing view on the ocean that is right in front of the house. Well, in brief, it was just perfect and confirmed me in thinking that sometimes it’s worth it to take a risk. To do something others wouldn’t do.
Beyond the usual holiday
I came back a few times after that first experience. Last time when I lived in Burkina Faso just on the other side of the desert. It was a total different experience: while clients from Europe were glad for the warm temperature, I was happy for the moderate ones. While they were surprised by some rural areas’ poverty, I was thankful for the development in the country. Once again Zen Surf Morocco became a place of refuge where yoga, surfing and good company helped me recharge my batteries.
A few months later I moved back to Switzerland and quickly realised that I was struggling with the huge cultural differences between Africa and Europe: I was suffering from reverse culture shock. That’s when Nico and Tamara kindly offered me to work as a host at the surf camp for a month. It gave me the opportunity to experience the place from a different perspective again. It was also when the idea to become a yoga teacher myself started growing inside of me. And that became my main focus on the following years as I knew either you do the yoga teacher training and create a new lifestyle, or you keep going to yoga and surf holidays to unwind and reload batteries. I chose the first option, completed a few yoga teacher trainings and then decided to come to Morocco to teach Yoga.
Part of the Zen Surf Morocco family
I hadn’t surfed for three years so you can imagine how impatient I was to start again when I came back to Morocco. I began my new journey at another guesthouse to start with. And yet, I ended up again at Zen surf Morocco. I committed initially for two months as a yoga instructor and then decided to extend my stay for a simple reason: it feels good to be home, and Zen Surf really feels like a second home away from home. Here, I can do what I love most. Teach yoga, freelance for yoga studios in Switzerland from a warm place, surf, and spend time with like-minded people. People who are not out for just another surf and yoga holiday, but are ready to live a different experience.
Nico and Tamara, of course, who followed their heart and created that Zen place. Then the staff of the surf house, “my Moroccan family” managing the place, cooking delicious meals in the kitchen or ensuring safe surfing sessions, and my international colleagues enhancing my creative skills.
But it’s also the clients who instantly become part of the Zen Surf Morocco family: a beautiful mixture of nationalities, ages, families/couples and single travellers, beginners as well as advanced surfers, yoga teachers and some who experience yoga for the first time, all coming from different countries and with different backgrounds – having all one in common: deep appreciation for the magic of this place.
Zen Surf Morocco is uniquely located right on the beach by the ocean and a few steps away from some of the best surf spots. It hosts the most beautiful yoga studio I have ever taught yoga in, a rooftop terrace with ocean view from where you can hear the sound of the waves that is a must during the last pose of the day: the meditating Savasana. The same terrace where, after a dinner that was prepared with much love, you can enjoy inspirational chats often accompanied by someone playing the guitar and sometimes with a bonfire.
Join our surf and yoga family
Since my first visit more than 5 years ago, the surf camp has improved a lot with new rooms, many renovations (made with great taste), a lot of beautiful wall paintings everywhere, and a new (and very varied) food menu with vegetarian/vegan/gluten free options. All this while keeping that intimate friendly vibe that makes it so unique. Zen Surf became (unsurprisingly) very popular and is now pretty much always full, because when a hidden gem appears at everyone’s sight, it does not stay hidden for long 😉
Although I write as a freelancer daily, I still struggle to accurately re-transcribe the magic of this place. Instead, I can only invite you to come over and experience it for yourself. Enrich us with your unique presence – and I bet a million dirhams you leave much richer, if you ever want to leave again…that’s the only risk 😉 And make sure to book in advance, because as a popular family-run surf and yoga camp it gets booked out quite fast!
More about Corinne: www.growthforpeace.com