Bando alle ciance… finalmente si ricomincia a parlare di wave ad alto livello! Tra poco più di un mese, dal 10 al 20 maggio, andrà in onda la prima edizione del Wave Classic Marocco negli spot wave intorno a Essaouira e cioè Moulay Bouzerkhtoun, Cap Sim, Sidi Kaouki o Safi.  Tra i 15 big internazionali che si schiereranno alla gara, spicca a fianco dell’idolo locale, Boujmaa Guilloul e a nomi famosi come Thomasino Traversa, Kai Katchadorian… anche un nostro portabandiera: infatti dall’Italia… no, a dire il vero, dalle Hawaii… c’è anche il buon Francisco Porcella!

WHEN
Dates of the event are from Monday-10th to Thursday-20th of May.
Riders are expected on Sunday-9th in Essaouira.
WHERE
Morocco/Afrika ! Essaouira will be our base camp to sleep. Moulay Bouzerkhtoun, Cap Sim, Kaouki or Safi will be the playgrounds…
WHAT
This Invitational Wave Contest will gather 20 riders (including 5 locals). Aim is to show the best of extreme waveriding & push your limits ! The contest rules will be decided all together during the Opening Ceremony.

RIDERS
Here’s the last entry list :
15 internationals:
Boujmaa Guilloul (Morocco)
Zane Schweitzer (Hawaii)
Thomas Traversa (France)
Nick Warmuth (Hawaii)
Camille Juban (Guadeloupe)
Graham Ezzy (Hawaii)
Kai Katchadorian (Hawaii)
JB Caste (France)
Francisco Porcella (Hawaii)
Leo Ray (France)
Dario Ojeda (Gran Canaria)
Robin Goffinet (France)
Jamie Hancock (United Kingdom)
Yann Sorlut (France)
Last guest unknown…
5 Locals :
Fettah
Soufiane
Abdelouahed
Miloud
Faisal

PROGRAM - TBC
May 10th – 6pm : Opening Ceremony in Essaouira.
May 16th – 10am (if not windy/wavy): windsurfing/surfing initation for local kids, beach cleaning & Mechoui/BBQ on the beach at night at Ocean Vagabond, Essaouira’s bay.
May 20th – 5pm : Closing Ceremony in Essaouira.

MEDIAS
Photos : We will have 1 photographer working for us, Maxime Houyvet. His photos will then be available free of charge for the magazines right after the event. Some of them will be available on our website during the contest, but low def.
Video : We have dealed a partnership with umi. Brendan Pyatt will be our cameraman and Jamie Hancock will edit 2 to 3 shortclips during the event, available online via the event’s website. After the event, umi will also produce a final longer video that will be simultaneously launched online both on umi and Wave Classic’s websites 2 to 3 weeks after the end of the contest.
Websites : http://www.essaouirawaveclassic.com is a special website that has been created for this event. It is already online but still under construction. It will be officialy announced to the public around April 5th and will be regularly updated before & during the event with news, portraits, pics and stories online.
www.waveclassicinvitational.com is already available since January now. This is our official « Wave Classic » Platform, gathering all the infos, pics & videos since the first event in Fuerte in March 2009.

LOCAL INFOS - SPOTS TYPE
The local wavespot is named Moulay Bouzerkhtoune, 20 km upper North of Essaouira’s coastline. This is the spot where the « Trilogy » took place in 1996. Home spot of Boujmaa, the spot perfectly welcomes the Atlantic swell and thanks to a local reef, waves are breaking, offering some perfect aerial sections while the wind is more or less cross offshore, starboard tack.
Winter time (from October to March) is better for good swells but the wind is not constant, while Summertime (June to August) delivers strong Trade Winds but less waves. May & September are in between those two seasons…
There are also 3 other possible good spots around, according to Boujmaa :
- Essaouira’s outside (Safi). A spot that is located just upper the medina. Side on with good waves.
- Km 30. Another wavespot 30 km upper Moulay.
- Safi. Another beach named Safi located 1h30 driving up in the North of Essaouira.