“Bringing my board to the Sahara desert.”
One of the craziest countries
Mike Boisvert spent a month in Morocco in 2022, right at the start of his channel; it was his third or fourth video. The idea from day one was to mix skateboarding with culture, and Morocco was the perfect place for it because it looks nothing like Europe or North America. “Morocco was one of the craziest countries I've ever been to.” He showed up without a single contact, went to the parks and made friends there, the way he travelled before Instagram did the introductions. “And good skateboarding, crazy scenes, super underground. I like it.” In his words, when you step into Morocco, you step into a completely new culture. “The Arab world mixed with skateboarding is incredible.” He already wants to go back for a part two.
Skating forever, with almost nothing
What to understand first, according to Mike: skateboarding has been in Morocco for a very long time, but it never had support. “So it's like super still on the ground. But now they're starting to have more skate park.” His guess is somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 skaters. The economy is tough and there are barely any skate shops; what gear there is comes in from Spain and costs a lot, so equipment is the constant problem. None of that has slowed the talent down. “People are really good in Morocco despite everything.” Mike knows of two shops: Tamara, still going and “really good”, and Kololo Skateshop. Yassine Sellame is another name on his list.
One story sums it up. In Casablanca, Mike needed shoes and there was no real shop to buy them in, so he ordered a pair on WhatsApp and the guy dropped them off at the skatepark. Mike left his destroyed old pair under a bench. Two minutes later, someone was skating in them. “But they skated, and they were super happy.”
Nassim Lachhab
Nassim Lachhab (@nassimlachhab), from Rabat, is Mike's number one pick. “Nassim, all day.” He is the most famous Moroccan skater and, for Mike, the only true pro who actually grew up in Morocco; most Moroccan skaters with a career live in Spain, and Nassim moved there later. “Nassim is the man.” JACKALOPE has history with him. He came to JACKALOPE Montréal in 2015, before he was as known as he is now, and when it started to rain, he wanted to skate the stair set at the Olympic Park so badly that he got down on the ground and dried it himself. The photos from that day are below.
Amid Oubelaid and the rest of the list
Amid Oubelaid (@oubelaid_hamid), from Agadir, is Mike's local contact and, in his words, “my boy”. “He's a legend in Morocco, one of the best skaters.” He did a lot of contests and also made YouTube videos, and the two of them filmed together for both channels. He doesn't skate as much as he used to, but Mike's verdict stands. “He's a machine.” Yessine Megherbi (@yes.seen), from Rabat, completes Mike's list of three; Mike calls him the best dude ever.
Where to skate
Skatepark Nevada in Casablanca is the big one: the biggest skatepark in Morocco and, Mike thinks, maybe the biggest in Africa, though the one in Ethiopia might be bigger. It's a huge plaza, and Casablanca is the biggest scene in the country. “You go there, there's always skaters. Impossible there's no skater.” Mike was in town for Go Skateboarding Day 2022 and made a video showing the whole park; both are below.
Taghazout Skatepark, near Agadir, is Mike's number one place to skate, with more transition and a DIY spirit. When he was there, it was quiet. “Now it's always full, full, full. Every night for sunset, it's always like 200, 300 people going there.” Taghazout is a surf town, so you can skate and surf on the same day, and the Taghazout DIY is popular too. Mirleft Skatepark is the newest, a plaza-style park built about a year ago by Wonders Around the World, with a mosque and the water behind it. Mike hasn't been yet and wants to go. Rabat, for its part, is “more like local and more street-oriented.”
Marrakesh, a carpet shop and 30 kids
In Marrakesh, a salesman showed Mike his carpet store. “They can sell anything.” Mike, who swears he never buys anything, walked out with a traditional outfit and decided to skate in it. He put it on in the morning, went to the public skatepark without telling anyone, and random kids filmed him. The day before, Tony Hawk had been at the same park, also on his own. “And it's really hard skating a dress.” The park itself is not the greatest, Mike says, because there is no coping.
The better park in town belongs to Concrete Jungle Foundation. It used to be private, and Mike thinks it is open now. About 30 orphans live in the building right behind it; they skate, and they learn life through skateboarding. Mike made a video about the project, and he has visited two of the foundation's projects in Peru too. It was hot, 35 to 40 degrees, and after his two-litre bottle of water disappeared into the crowd, Mike bought a five-litre one just for himself. Thirty kids asked him for a sip. “So I just kept buying water.”
If you go
The food is a big part of it. A good meal costs about $3, and the tagine, in Mike's words, gives you superpowers. In Marrakesh, a guy recognized him from YouTube and gave him a poutine for free. Merzouga is part of the Sahara, “but it's not really Sahara, Sahara. It's a small desert.” For Mike it is still the coolest thing ever, and you can sandboard there. Surfing in Taghazout was another highlight; next time, he wants to go on his own rather than with a tour. The country itself, he says, is such an adventure.
The barrier is equipment, and not enough skateparks. What would help, in Mike's view, is a JACKALOPE Golden Ticket, and he has already written up Moroccan skaters for one. “There's so many skaters. So if there's a Golden Ticket there, that would be sick.”
Mike Boisvert: “Morocco has been skating forever. There are almost no skateshops, but now they have more skateparks. The level is really high.”
Photos and video: Mike Boisvert / The Skate Nomad. JACKALOPE Montréal 2015 photos: JACKALOPE. Part of the JACKALOPE Skate Atlas, one country at a time, with the skaters who live there. See every country on the map.
