Day 174 - Learning to Kitesurf in Essaouira During My 40th Birthday Week

Day three of my birthday week celebrations here in Essaouira.

The day started pretty normally with coffees and breakfast before the kids handed me my third birthday card for the week, revealing the next surprise. This time it was kite surfing lessons.

The same surf shop we’ve been hiring boards from and doing surf lessons through also runs kite surfing lessons, so Kia and the kids had organised for me to book into a beginner session. My lesson started at 10:30am, while Kia and the kids planned to grab some surfboards and hang out at the beach while I learnt.

The lesson ran for two hours and, surprisingly, there was no wetsuit or water session involved yet. Everything was done on the beach. It was basically an introduction to the equipment, the safety systems, and learning how to control the kite before ever stepping into the water.

We started by learning how to unpack and set up the kite properly, connect all the lines and the control bar, and pump the kite up. Then came the harness and safety systems. There are multiple safety releases and procedures you need to understand before you’re allowed anywhere near the water, which makes sense once you realise how much power these kites generate.

After that, it was straight into learning how to actually fly the kite. The coach taught me how to position it in different wind zones, how to catch power from the wind, and how to manoeuvre it to generate pull in different directions. Once I got the basics, we started walking up and down the beach with the kite under control, moving in and out from the shoreline while keeping the kite stable overhead.

It was honestly a pretty intense lesson. There’s a lot going on all at once with hand positioning, wind direction, body movement, and trying not to accidentally send the kite flying somewhere you don’t want it to go. But it was also a lot of fun and one of those things where you can immediately see how addictive it could become once you actually get out on the water.

After the lesson I caught back up with Kia and the kids, but by then everyone was pretty much done with the beach and ready for food. The kids had borrowed wetsuits from the shop, so we returned all the gear and headed back to our now favourite little pizza and pasta place near our accommodation.

At this point it feels like the safest food option in town for us. Ever since we started eating there, nobody has had stomach issues, which honestly feels like a huge win after the last few weeks. Whether our stomachs have finally adjusted to Morocco or whether this place is just genuinely safe and reliable, we’re not completely sure, but we’re sticking with what works.

We all ordered pasta for lunch and then grabbed a couple of pizzas to take away for dinner later that night so we wouldn’t have to head back out again.

Back at the apartment, I spent most of the afternoon working on the website, uploading new stories, adding recent blogs, and continuing to slowly build everything out properly. It’s been nice finally having a little more routine again and getting time to work on the site consistently.

The kids spent the afternoon doing schoolwork, playing maths games with Kia, drawing, and building Lego before eventually settling in for a movie night while we ate our takeaway pizza together.

For the first time in a while, we actually all got to bed reasonably early, which everyone definitely needed. The last few weeks of travel, long days, and birthday activities are starting to catch up with us a bit, so a proper sleep felt pretty good.

Now we wait and see what day 175 and birthday surprise number four brings.