Aquaholics Surfing Blog

New Year's Eve Taghazoute

Posted on 01/31/2009 at 07:09 pm by Nanci Boutet Viewed 2,092 times | 0 comments

December 31, We went on surf safari at Tamri in the morning. It looked a little bumpy from shore, but turned out to be very fun. I caught some great, steep lefts here. Tamri has so many sandbars that you have to duck dive about 30 times to get to the outside (kind of like Malpais, Costa Rica). The wind picked up and blew it out shortly after we paddled out.

Tamri Beach

One guy, Chris, is here from London but he’s originally from South Africa (Jeffreys Bay). He's a very experienced surfer and decided to go back to boilers. Boilers is a firing wave that breaks along near an old shipwrecked ships boiler out in the break.
Boilers is pretty sketchy getting in and out, the rocks are very sharp and there is no beach. You're supposed to time it so you paddle out between sets, but that's a little hard since you cant see the incoming sets when you get in position between the large rock outcroppings, but it’s not as bad as Draculas, sharp AND pointy, like teeth. I think surf camps are strongly discouraged from dropping off a half dozen at a time anyway.

Boilers
Boilers (Named for the Ships' Boiler Beached here)
This guy was going in the WRONG place and got creamed. You have to get out here, you kind of get to the shelf, get thrown ashore, grab your board with one arm and the rock ledge with the other and drag yourself up before the next set comes.

NOT the place to get in

Boilers, NOT the Place To Get In

Later we went to Banana Point again. Way better than the first time. I grabbed Marc’s longboard and went out with Mohammed. He always rides a big blue foam board. We goofed around for a while but my arms were dead. Most of these breaks are spots that if you stay close to the rocks getting out, you can punch through after three or four duck dives… If you time it right.

New Years Eve, we had a Tajine dinner. I had asked for a cooking lesson, and Yousef, our chef agreed to show me how it was done.

yousef

Yousef
When I arrived, he gave me a knife and started me peeling veggies. I had to remind him I was here to learn the ingredients, not peel carrots and potatoes, but he got the message and I got the recipe. A Tajine is a glazed ceramic cooking "pot" with a round, low base and a tall conical top. It is designed to return all the moisture to the bottom of the pot. The ideal Tajine cooks so that some of the meat or veggies at the bottom get crispy and the veggies and fruit above are tender. Our 4 Tajines were 2 fish, including Calamari and 2 beef. they had olive oil, spices, garlic, carrots, onions, peppers, lemons (so delicious cooked) raisins. Yummy and exotic.

Tagines

Tajines
Not to be outdone on this holiday meal, Chrystal, Pete's girlfriend and assistant (who was trained in a French Restaurant) decided to make a Pavlova with all the fixin's. Passionfruit custard, fruit and Whipped cream. Can you say OVEREAT? The meal was an enormous success.

Chrystal Rose Thomas, dessert chef working on the Pavlova

We had a rooftop New Years Party, and there were lots of guests as well as locals. Standing room only. Everybody had fun and some drank way too much. Some locals lit flares on the beach and had a few sparklers.