Skateboarders of the Souk

SKATEBOARDERS of the SOUKS WITH A NEW SKATE PARK IN THE PIPELINE, GO OFF THE RAILS IN MARRAKECH, NORTH AFRICA’S MOST EXCITING SKATEBOARDING DESTINATION DEREK WORKMAN

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FEATURES |

MARRAKECH

“I WAS SURPRISED BY HOW GOOD THESE GUYS ARE. THEY HAVE GREAT TECHNIQUE AND SPEED”

There are plenty of flat areas to skate in Marrakech, such as by the souk (previous page), but a proper park would really benefit skaters

WILL WOODS WAS a latecomer to skateboarding, having just edged into his thirties when he first set foot on a board.

He couldn’t have chosen a better place to begin, because he was living in Málaga in southern Spain – the European mecca for skaters, particularly during the chilly northern-European winters. The variety of skate parks and architecture meant that he could develop his skills rapidly. But when he moved to Marrakech in mid-2010, he found things were a bit different.

“It’s one of those curious things that if you have a strong financial sector, you

usually get some great architectural structures, which are brilliant for skaters to practise on, but that doesn’t exist here,” he says. “I was a bit disappointed to find that most of the places skaters could use were flat, without much in the way of objects to develop tricks on.”

While some people would simply cut their losses and take up another hobby, Woods decided to take matters into his own hands. “After a few weeks flat skating, I thought that the only way I’d get anything different was to go out and find it myself, and when I didn’t find anything particularly

exciting I thought that there wasn’t much else left to do but build one myself.”

Woods isn’t a power-crazed entrepreneur with bundles of money; in fact he admits he’s never done anything entrepreneurial in his life. The reason he’s trying to get a skate park built is because he sees the potential in some of his skater friends.

“I was surprised by just how good some of these guys are, given that the only surfaces they can practise on are flat,” he says. “They have great technique and speed, but it’s only when you start practising on vertical surfaces that you can really develop.

Even something as simple as using a manual pad [a flat, raised surface such as a stone bench] for tricks here is impossible.

You have to take a piece of hardboard along, because most of the surfaces are so cracked and pitted they can be quite dangerous.”

The first suitable location Woods found was a disused storm drain, except that it was too far from the Medina where most of the skaters live. Eventually he found the perfect spot – or at least it could be, with just a small amount of attention.

Just beside the city’s main bus station, only 10 minutes’ walk from the Medina,

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is Bab Doukkala, a semi-disused park in a rather disreputable area. Being so close to the bus station, it’s the first sight many visitors get of Marrakech and it’s not a particularly good advert for the city. “When I first found the park, I tried to take some Marrakshi friends there. It’s got a bad reputation for various reasons, but after weighing up all the options I couldn’t think of a better situation.”

Sit on one of the slatted metal benches in the park and you can see why Woods has set his heart on this park. It has a big sunken pond, now devoid of water, and only

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needs the sides curved and a few obstacles built in it for tricks. Suddenly you’d have an area for practising that could take the local skaters to a whole new level. But, more than that, it would also go a great way to improving the area, because with a group of skateboarders, BMX bikers and in-line skaters using it on a regular basis, it would be sure to be well supervised.

The local skaters might well have continued skating on flat areas (the space in front of the the Town Hall, is a favourite) if the circus hadn’t come to town. FISE Maroc, one of the most important skating events

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FEATURES |

MARRAKECH

FEATURES |

MARRAKECH

TOP FIVE SKATING SPOTS If you can’t wait for Will Woods’ skate park, there are still plenty of places you can hang out to make the most of Marrakech’s skater scene. Here are his top five places to go in the city

“IF THEY GIVE THESE GUYS A SKATEBOARD PARK, IT CAN ALSO BE USED

BY BMXERS AND IN-LINE SKATERS” in Morocco, set up a portable skateboard park for three days during March and attracted skaters from all over the region, including some semi-pros. The steep ramps, bars and boxes had the local lads in awe.

Abdul, Yasin and Medi are three Marrakshi aged between 18 and 20, who have been skating since their early teens.

But they had never been close to anything like what they saw that weekend.

“It was incredible,” says Medi. “I’d only ever seen jumps like this in videos and magazines. They were pretty scary and most of us just tried the smaller obstacles, but it was great to get the chance to practise, even on these.”

Apart from the space in front of the Town Hall, the other main area in the city flat and large enough for skateboarding is the Place du 16 Novembre in the upmarket district of Guéliz. A short walk from the Medina, with its fountain, fancy apartments, Mango and Zara, the nearest the skaters get to a jump here is from a ramp made of scraps of wood and an old metal grill. But they keep on trying.

A well-designed skateboard park is a great idea, but Woods has his eye on something more than just a place for him and his friends to have fun. “Part of the problem is that skating is a very individual sport: you have to push yourself to get up

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“The surrounding gardens of the Koutoubia [the city’s largest mosque] have various gaps and low walls for different abilities of skaters. But take note: you’ve got to pay respect and get off your board when you hear the call to prayer and wait a little while before you start practising your flips again.”

A portable skate park set up during an event in March this year gave locals a taste for the sport

in the morning if you want to perfect a trick, but if you don’t have the facilities, there is only so far you can go. When skaters get to the limit of their expertise on flat land and a few low benches, they get bored and give up skating in favour of something that is often a lot less healthy. This is the point I’m trying to get across to the Town Hall; if they give these guys a skateboard park, it can also be used by BMXers and in-line skaters.

Not only will it stop them annoying people on the streets, it will also keep them fit. On top of that, it’s another type of tourism to attract skaters from northern Europe to the city during the winter months, because that’s what it did in Málaga, and these days

it’s a lot cheaper to come to Morocco for a couple of weeks than it is to go to Spain.”

There’s only one skateboard team in the whole African continent – in South Africa – but skateboard parks in Casablanca, Tangier and Agadir are producing some very good skateboarders. Woods hopes that one day soon he can get his friends in Marrakech up to the level where they can create a successful team, get some sponsorship and take part in international competitions.

“It probably seems a great palaver over nothing, trying to get a skateboard park built,” he says, “but when you have almost nothing and the only other economical option is to try and get hold of a football

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for a kick-around, to have somewhere to go to practise your sport is something that most of these guys can’t even conceive of.

Something that is no big deal to us is a very, very big deal to them.”

Woods is in talks with Marrakech’s mayor, Fatima El Mansouri, as well as Morocco’s Minister of Sports and the country’s park designers. He hopes that his skate park in Bab Doukkala will be completed in early 2012 easyJet flies to...

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“Place 16 du Novembre is the number one spot for the majority of Marrakech’s skaters. There are lots of killer gaps and ledges for impressive tricks.”

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“For the creative skater, the gardens around the Hotel de Ville offer plenty of challenges. Just be careful to stay out of the flower beds!”

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“The roundabout in Bab Doukkala, where I’m hoping to build the skate park, has an empty pond, which is perfectly flat and superb for tricks.”

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“And when you’re off your board and really want to soak up the Marrakshi skate scene, most of the skater kids hang around Guéliz – especially Place 16 du Novembre. Easy-going Afric’n Chic (6 Rue Oum Errabia Nouvelle Ville) is the place to go after dark to reminisce about your day’s best tricks while listening to reggae and bossa nova beats.”

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