Anti-depressive!
We here luxuriate, almost always, in a
grumpy local rissole. The perfect pressing, breading, baking of
grievances, frustrations, love and laughs. But as participation in
surfing explodes around the world what are the youngers
thinking?
How are they feeling?
I had the wonderful opportunity to find out at least one
opinion via the Moroccan Open National Women’s Champion,
22-year-old Ninon Mattei, and believe I am going to turn this into
a series. Not concentrating on up-and-coming pros but on the
grinders who are sacrificing all for this idiotic surfing life we
all love.
How does surfing in Morocco feel?
It feels pretty special actually. The Surfing community is quite
small in Morocco , we all know each other especially in the
north where I live, we all have respect for each other whatever the
level you have and that’s pretty cool. I’ve travelled a lot last
year and it always feels so good to be back home. South of Morocco
is definitely my favorite place in the world during winter
time, we always score crazy good waves.
What is your dream?
A Mentawai boat trip with the crew scoring epic waves. That’s
it. That’s the Dream
What is the best part of professional
surfing?
I would say doing the thing you love the most in the world
everyday and have the opportunity to live off and for your
passion.
What is the best part of surfing?
For me it’s the balance of the unpredictable and freedom,
surfing is always exciting, you never know what you gonna
get, it can be very frustrating sometimes for sure but it also
makes things really interesting. You don’t have any control on the
waves or conditions but once you’re on the wave you have the
freedom to do whatever you want.
Who is your favorite surfer and why?
Hard question. There are so many guys and girls I admire so
much. I’m gonna say Abdel El Harim. He is quite a legend in
my hometown, best Moroccan surfer so far, I’ve always looked
up to him growing up and I still do, he is still ripping hard. What
I admire the most about him is how he always manages to have fun in
every condition and takes out the best of everything.
Beside him, my favorite surfer to watch is Ryan Callinan. I’ve
watched his last edit like 400 times, so smooth.
What is your goal?
In general my goal is to improve in every way I can as a person.
In Surfing i would say that my main goal is always going to be
to get better and scoring good waves. But I have a few goals
besides that like doing a good result in couples QS ,finding a
sponsor and working on my contest mindset. I really have trouble
with that but I’m on it!
Can you reach the top?
It depends what you mean by “Top?” The CT? I wish haha, but I’m
realistic. The QS? Besides the fact that the level is more and
more high I don’t have any sponsors, doing the full QS is
expensive. I’m really aware of that. But my surfing is improving
everyday, I really think that I can do some results but like I was
saying earlier I really need to work on my mindset to make
that happen.
Assuming surfing stays Olympic, will you smash the dang
Australians and Americans?
Unfortunately i can’t represent Morocco in the Olympics! I don’t
have a Moroccan passport but a French one. But if it was the
case i would say that as funny as it could be to see an unknown
girl from Morocco smash Steph Gilmore in a Heat i don’t think it’s
gonna happen, but you never know! I mean, like we say here:
Inchallah!
What is your future?
No idea, I’m not a planner. I really think that the best things
in life are the unexpected ones. What has to happen
gonna happen but i know one thing for sure: surfing is gonna
be in it.
What is our future?
The pandemic made me think about that a lot. Things are gonna
change for sure. I’m really aware of negative issues that
we have and will have face like the social and economic crisis
the Covid is making and the big environmental crisis but i truly
want to believe that we also moving toward a better future because
people seem to be more and more open minded, more aware of
everything that is happening in the world and willing to fight
for it. There is always hope after all!
Anti-depressive, no?
