Review: Surf Trip 2014

It’s only been three weeks since we returned from the surf trip to Morocco, yet it feels like months. I went to the social on Wednesday and had the surreal experience of seeing the people I had met in the context of sun, sea and sand in the harsh reality that is Scotland; nothing like minus degrees and rain to shake you back into the present. The reason why it feels like it was so long ago is that it was such a great week, and seems so far away from staring at a screen in the library. A heady mix of learning how to surf, alcohol, sun, Ali Baba trousers and the smell of sewage (this seemed to be confined to our room only but it really contributed) made for a trip that was undoubtedly worth the money.

I’m probably the last person you would expect to go on a surfing trip, in fact when I mentioned it to various family members over Christmas they all stared at me in disbelief for a while and then simply asked me “Why?”.  “THE SUN” was my main answer, but eventually I began telling stories of how I’d become a pro surfer at St Andrews and really needed to find my ‘vibe’ by going to Morocco and catching some gnarly waves.

In actual fact I ended up really getting into surfing, and the whole atmosphere of the trip was so chilled that it didn’t matter if you surfed or not; tanning was always an option. We couldn’t surf on a couple of days because of the wind or a rain storm, which washed everything into the sea, turning it from clear to brown (no one wanted to contemplate swallowing some of that water). Instead we went to the souks in Agadir where everyone went mad buying hippy jackets and trousers. Another day we went to Paradise Valley, which was filled with pools of water that you could jump into from death-defying heights, and of course everyone kept trying to out-do each other.

I have to say the only downside of the trip was the fact that quite a few people got pretty sick (one friend was out for 48 hours); no one was sure what exactly it was which made it all the more frustrating. Aside from sickness and the regular updates of who’d gone down with it, the nights on the terrace of the hostel were a major highlight of the week, which consisted sitting in a dimly lit Moroccan tent playing various drinking games; surfing the following morning turned out to be a fantastic hangover cure.

In all I would say kudos to the Surf Club Committee, who managed to pull off a cracking University trip whilst managing to party hardest out of everyone, I genuinely don’t know how they did it. The only regret I have is that I didn’t stay for two weeks; next time surf trip, next time.

Watch out for the Surf Club on Wednesday 19th February, when they are hosting an event to raise money for the Wave Project at the VIC from 10pm onwards. £2 entry

Photos courtesy of Derek Wang