DIY LOCKDOWN IN MOROCCO

Robin Bourhis (@wethepeoplebmx / @eclatbmxbrand) and Clement Carpentier (@kinkbmx / @etniesbmx / @diy_brand) just got back from a trip to Agadir, Morocco right before the Coronavirus Pandemic ramped up to a whole different level worldwide.

Here's what Robin had to say about what went down...

"In the first place, we were meant to be going to Tenerife with a solid crew from Sheffield but fares started to get very pricey as we were trying to plan everything out. So we decided to split the group and change the destination to make the trip feasible money-wise. I knew Clement was pretty easy going in term of destination, plus we both wanted to travel somewhere we hadn’t been to.

Fortunately, Marwan Ayari and Antoine Sabourin gave us a couple of contacts from Agadir, Morocco. The city looked rife with spots, culture and good people so we booked the tickets right away.

We flew out to Morocco as the Coronavirus was slowly settling in Europe but it wasn’t yet a thing.

The trip didn’t start off too well, our Airbnb got cancelled a few hours before taking off so we had to find another one while waiting at the airport. What a good start haha.

But the first day made it up for it. As soon as we got out of the apartment, the excitement to discover a new culture and meet new people was growing as we were riding down to the skatepark to meet up with the locals. It was a whole new environment, exactly what we were seeking.

We were warmly welcomed by the local riders and they were keen to show us what Agadir had to offer.

Unfortunately, Clement hurt his knee on the first day so we took it easy for the next couple of days.

We used this time to discover new things from the country aside from riding.

One of the locals, Toto took us surfing. It was the first time for both Clement and I. We weren’t excellent but we managed to stand up on the board after a couple tries. Definitely a sport I wanna do more of in the future, it feels good not to be falling on the concrete for once haha.

We also went to that famous DIY spot in Taghazout, the skatepark is up in the mountains, facing the sea (huge shout out to the locals for building it by the way!). We stayed the whole afternoon and watched the sunset with beers and a perfect group of people. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden such a scenic spot in my whole life, it just makes you wanna come live here.

We still managed to stack a few clips in between surfing and enjoying the local life.

Speaking of which, another good thing about Morocco is the food. Luckily for us, we had our chef Jamal Zooga who shared with us his extraordinary culinary skills and made us enjoy the country even more. Jamal is not only an excellent cook, he’s also such an amazing bike rider and blew our mind the whole trip through despite having a broken thumb!

Clement and I had been wanting to try sandboarding in the dune for a while and once again, our good tour guide Toto sorted it all out for us. Despite all the energy we put in, it didn’t work out the way we’d pictured it haha. Nevermind it was an “A” for effort at least and we had a really good time trying to figure out how to sandboard with a skate deck and a surfboard.

Since we didn’t have internet during the day and barely at night, we were totally disconnected from the covid-19 situation. We really became aware of it when we headed back to the airport in Agadir. It was fucking chaos, people were fighting over tickets and stuff.

Moroccan authorities closed their borders with European countries the day we were meant to be returning. The idea of getting stranded started to pop in our head. Luckily, the french government made an agreement with Morocco to allow french citizens to get back home.

Clement and I would like to thank every and each of you for taking very good care of us, spending time with us and showing us the most valuable places in your city. It means a lot!"

(Chokran khouyas : Zooga, Mohssine, Toto, Oussama, Khalid, Hamid, Gtan)

- Robin Bourhis