Moroccan Surf Champion Opens Groundbreaking Women’s Surf School in Taghazout

Maryam El Gardoum is very well known on the beach of Taghazout, a coastal town located a few kilometers from Agadir, where she practices her sport. After an injury that forced her to rest, the surfer created Dihya Surf School at the end of 2022, a surf school, becoming the only woman to run a training center dedicated to this water sport.

The five-time champion first stepped on a board at the age of 11. "The day I caught the first wave, my life changed," she confides to El País. At the time, there were no surf schools on the Taghazout coast, let alone in Tamghart, where Maryam is from. The first surf schools that appeared in 2003 belonged to foreigners, especially the British and South Africans, she specifies. But quickly, surfing became a business, an opportunity for the inhabitants of this city whose main activities were fishing and argan oil.

"Before, it was a hobby for me, today, as a professional, it is my main source of income," says the woman who has been five-time Moroccan surfing champion. Despite her successes, the surfer does not benefit from the support of the authorities. "The Moroccan federation did not help me and the money the sponsors gave me was not enough to pay for new equipment, strengthen my skills and cover the expenses related to trips abroad to participate in international competitions," laments Maryam.

The young woman has therefore decided to "fly on her own wings". Today, she thrives in her school where she offers individual and group lessons to young women from Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland or New Zealand. "One of my goals for next year is to build a bungalow on the beach. That way I can train girls who, like me, dream of devoting themselves to this sport," she says.