In Morocco, surfing is introducing a new generation of Arab youth to an alternative vision of Western culture, one based on a love of the ocean and the many joys it can provide.
Arab Spring Meets Endless Summer
David Morris reports on the growing popularity of surfing and its unique culture among youth in Sidi Ifni, Morocco.
Surfing and Islam. Could there be a more incongruous pairing of cultural sensibilities?
In their dusty Renault, blasting a Sublime song, Los Ifninos—surfers of Sidi Ifni—demonstrate their embrace of transculturation between Western and traditional Moroccan elements.
Leaping into cold water, surfers experience the perfect life—"nobody talks about terrorism, economics, or politics." Surfing is to some Moroccans what soccer is to much of the rest of the world.
Grantee
David J. Morris, a former US Marine, has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for Salon and the Virginia Quarterly Review since 2003. His work has appeared The Surfer's Journal,...