SLAB SESSION
The wave Boujmaa had earmarked is a slab that breaks off the harbour wall in Essaouira. It needs a monster swell and is pretty hard-core when it works! The only problem logistically for shooting there is that you have to pass through a police blockade at the entrance to the port area and the guards have been known to confiscate cameras, meaning we would have to go in low key without my tripod and big lens. Leaving Boujmaa and Kauli to rig outside the windsurf centres in Essaouira, I managed to sneak my gear past the guards and make my way to the end of the harbour wall right in front of the break. The swell was well over mast high on the outside, groomed by cross-offshore wind and hitting this ugly section on the inside, which I assumed was the bit Boujmaa had been talking about. For the next hour and a half, Boujmaa and Kauli diced with this evil slab, sometimes having to just straighten out as the water drained off the bottom creating all sorts of steps and contortions in the face of the wave. Occasionally the really big sets would suck the water out completely, with the break folding into a huge cavernous barrel that must have looked awesome from the side in the channel. If you’ve ever seen shots of Shipsterns in Tasmania, this wave kind of breaks in the same insane, ugly but challenging way! Despite the perils, both Kauli and Boujmaa were testing their limits, dropping in deeper and deeper and busting out moves in dangerously critical situations. This was certainly no place for the feint hearted and, when the last glow of the sun finally set in the distance, I was surprised that both sailors still had their gear intact.