衝浪,其實並不難

For years, I’ve assumed that surfing is something that other people do. Younger, fitter, people. People who look good in neoprene and have highly developed upper-body strength. In oceans around the world, I’ve swum around surfers, and past them. I’ve observed the mating rituals of surfer dudes and surfer dudettes — the specialised language and elaborate signalling behaviours. And I have bought into the surfing myth: that it is a tough sport for fearless people where only the strong survive.

多年來，我一直以爲衝浪是別人玩的運動。它適合身體強壯的年輕人、適合穿上潛水服後形象好，而且上肢力量特別大的人。在全球各大洋，我曾在衝浪者周圍遊過泳，也曾從他們旁邊遊過。我也曾仔細觀察過男女配對的衝浪動作——具有專門的形體語言與複雜的信息傳遞行爲方式。於是，我對衝浪形成了錯誤看法：它是無畏者的極限運動，只有身強力壯的人方能勝任。

And then, on the first day of my first surf holiday, I make a key discovery. Five minutes after getting into the water, and on my second-ever wave, I’m standing on my feet and doing a double-handed victory wave as I power towards the shore. My technique consists of belly-flopping on to the board and then somehow scrabbling to my feet. And moments later I’m plunging headlong into the waves. But I have urgent news from the surfing frontline to report and it is this: surfing?.?.?.?it’s really not that hard. The surfing myth might be nothing more than ideological propaganda designed to keep middle-aged people like me from making it uncool. Too late. It’s actually a piece of cake, I tell anyone who’ll listen.

然而，在我的首次衝浪假期的第一天，就有了全新發現。入水才五分鐘（也是自己有生以來的第二次衝浪嘗試），我就成功踏立於水面，並以高舉雙手的衝浪姿勢向着海岸快速衝去。而我受教的技術動作包括了腹部先貼着衝浪板、而後是搖搖晃晃努力站立；再過了一會兒，自己就會一頭栽進水裏。但我在衝浪一線現場有“緊急軍情”向諸位報告，那就是：衝浪……真的不難。衝浪難學也許只是宣傳噱頭，旨在嚇唬住我這樣的中年人，讓我們覺得這是非同尋常的運動。嘿嘿，一切太晚了！實際上它學起來易如反掌，我來告訴大家這個真相吧。

Sure, I exaggerate a little. I’ve come with my friend, Cath, who jaunts up first thing, pleased with her hired wetsuit until someone points out that she’s put it on back-to-front. When she gets into the sea, she’s beaten back by the waves; an hour later, she trudges back to the beach, dejected, while I attempt, not totally successfully, not to crow.

當然，也許我還是稍有些誇大其辭。我與好友凱茜(Cath)一起來歡度衝浪旅行，她一大早就跑來了，穿着租來的潛水服得意洋洋，最後有人指出她把前後穿反了。她一入水就被海浪打翻；一個小時後，筋疲力盡的她神情沮喪地回到海灘，而我則努力抑制自鳴得意的神情（儘管還是不經意間顯露出來）。

“I just don’t think it’s my thing,” she says, only to change her tune entirely half an hour later when she rides her first wave in and is pumping-her-fists-in-the-air jubilant. In truth, both our triumphs have little to do with us and a lot to do with our surfing instructor, Youssef Amzil. He’s there by our sides, choosing the wave and propelling us out on to it on giant, sturdy, spongy beginner’s boards that are not dissimilar to life-rafts.

“我覺得衝浪不是我擅長的。”她說，但半小時後就完全“回心轉意”了：她首次成功踏浪，於是高舉拳頭歡呼雀躍。事實上，我倆的成功與自身毫無關係，功勞首先應歸在我倆的衝浪教練優素福?阿姆茲爾(Youssef Amzil)頭上。他一直呆在我倆身邊，幫我們挑選適宜的海浪，並讓我們踩着碩大結實、適合初學者的海綿狀衝浪板（酷似救生箋）乘風破浪。

Youssef is a Berber. And, 20 years ago in this part of Morocco, on the Atlantic coast just north of Agadir, he would probably have grown up and become an olive farmer like his father. But in this, the age of budget airlines, he is a surfing Berber. A Berber dude with sun-bleached hair who picks us up in the minibus every morning to drive us to the breaks — oh yes, how quickly I learn the lingo — and plays what sound like Berber surfing classics. It’s the dog days of winter and here, a couple of hours from Stansted, we have stumbled into an Arabic-inflected Beach Boys movie.

優素福是柏柏爾(Berber)人，20年前，在摩洛哥阿加迪爾(Agadir)北邊的這片大西洋海域長大，他原本是子承父業：成爲一名種植橄欖的農民。但在如今的廉價航空時代，他卻成爲了一名教授衝浪的柏柏爾人。這位因常年日曬而頭髮變白的小夥每天一大早用中巴車接我們去遊玩（沒錯，我很快學會了當地方言），並彈奏着酷似柏柏爾風格的經典衝浪樂曲。炎炎冬日裏，在距英國斯坦斯特德(Stansted)幾個小時航程的摩洛哥，我們彷彿置身於一部阿拉伯風情的“海灘男孩”(Beach Boys)影片中。

Surf Maroc, the company we’ve come with, more or less invented the Moroccan surfing holiday. Ollie Boswell and Ben O’Hara, its founders, friends from Swansea University who bonded over their love of surfing, came to Morocco in the early 2000s, stumbled upon Taghazout and set up their first surf camp with five boards in a rented villa.

我們簽約的旅行社Surf Maroc算是創推了摩洛哥衝浪度假模式。其創始人奧利?博斯韋爾(Ollie Boswell)與本?奧哈拉(Ben O’Hara)都來自英國斯旺西大學(Swansea University)，因酷愛衝浪而成爲密友的他們於本世紀初來到摩洛哥，無意中發現了Taghazout這片迷人海灘，於是在當地租借了一幢別墅，用五塊衝浪板建起了他倆的首個衝浪訓練營。

“I was in Portugal and I saw these people pull up in a bus, get out and surf,” Ollie tells me. “And I rang Ben and said, ‘Surf camps. They’re a thing. This is what we have to do.’ Our theory was that Morocco would be for Europeans what Central America is for Americans, and that’s more or less what’s happened.”

“我當時呆在葡萄牙，看到遊客坐着大巴去衝浪。”奧利對我說，“我於是給本打電話，‘衝浪訓練營大有可爲，咱倆就幹這行吧。’我們覺得：摩洛哥對於歐洲人就如同中美洲對於美國人，成功幾乎是鐵板釘釘的事。”

They’ve gradually grown the business with accommodation across several villas and apartments and, along the way, spawned a mini-industry. I too came to Taghazout in the early 2000s and it was a tiny ramshackle village that had been a hippie outpost in Morocco’s 1960s countercultural heyday — Jimi Hendrix once visited — with smelly rooms to rent, and the only facility a standpipe tap. It’s still pretty ramshackle — but now it’s ramshackle with a surfing theme. Dozens of other operators have aped the surf-holiday formula. But this winter Surf Maroc changed the game again when it opened its first purpose-built boutique hotel, the Amouage.

他倆租用多幢別墅與公寓接待遊客，生意就慢慢做大了；隨着時間推移，逐漸打造出了一個微型產業。我在本世紀初也曾去過Taghazout，當時這裏是個破敗小村落：出租屋房間臭氣熏天，唯一的設施是豎管式水龍頭。在上世紀60年代摩洛哥反文化運動全盛時，Taghazout曾是嬉皮士的前哨陣地，美國著名樂手吉米?亨德里克斯(Jimi Hendrix)也曾造訪過它。如今的Taghazout仍舊破敗不堪——但現在的它有了衝浪這個旅遊主題。幾十家旅行社爭相推出“衝浪度假”模式。但Surf Maroc今冬又別出心裁：開設了首家專門服務於衝浪度假客的精品酒店——Amouage。

I’m somewhat conflicted about this before I arrive. I’m not sure I want upmarket when it comes to surfing. Isn’t that somehow against the whole surf-camp spirit? Counter to the fundamental dudishness? I’ve seen enough “boutique” hotels to treat the word with caution. But then I walk through the front door, catch a waft of woodsmoke, and succumb instantly. It’s stunning — a modernist, light-filled space that’s been done with real flair and style, the first hotel I’ve been to that looks better in real life than it does in the photos. Cath has arrived on an earlier flight and I find her in a state of overexcitement down in the bar. The floors are poured concrete overlaid with cosy Berber rugs, and there’s a roaring fire burning in the grate — it’s warm and sunny in the day but chilly at night — interesting modern art on the walls and a fabric-covered egg-shaped chair suspended from the ceiling. There’s even alcohol.

抵達Amouage前，我對其定位仍持矛盾看法，自己玩衝浪時需要高檔服務嗎？這不是與整個衝浪訓練營理念相沖突嗎？它是否與衝浪運動賴以爲本的講究背道而馳？我見過太多“精品酒店”，定位“精品”時慎之又慎。然而，當我走進酒店前門時，映入眼簾的是柴煙嫋嫋，立馬就被折服了。酒店讓我震撼：風格現代、採光充足，既時尚又新潮，這是本人見過的首家實際效果勝過照片形象的酒店。凱茜比我先抵達酒店，我看到坐在酒吧的她異常亢奮。混凝土地面鋪着溫馨愜意的柏柏爾風格地毯，壁爐中火光熊熊（酒店白天陽光明媚、暖意融融，但晚上卻是陣陣寒意），牆上掛着有趣的現代藝術作品，罩着蒙布的蛋形椅子從天花板懸垂而下。酒店還提供酒。

A week or so before departure we’d received an email that had warned us that Taghazout was dry. “Stock up in duty free,” it warned ominously. “But then our licence came through,” says Ollie. And the Amouage now boasts the first bar in Taghazout. “And it’s only taken us 13 years.” Building the hotel was a whole other nightmare, he says, five years of trying to get permissions. “Our default position is to trust people until proven wrong. Here it’s the complete opposite. In business you have to distrust everyone and assume that they are all trying to rip you off. Which they probably are.”

大約動身前一週，我們接到了電子郵件：提醒我們Taghazout氣候乾燥。“備足免稅貨品。”郵件提前預告我們，“但當時我們的營業執照到期了。”奧利說。如今的Amouage精品酒店自詡擁有Taghazout首家酒吧。“開設酒吧前前後後花了13年時間。”他又說，建造酒店則是另一場“夢魘”，光申請手續就花了五年時間。“信任對方是我們的默認立場，但事後證明這是錯的。在Taghazout，事實與想象完全南轅北轍。在商界，你不能相信任何人，設想對方想方設法坑蒙拐騙。對方往往是如此。”

It was worth it, though. Upstairs, our room is perfect: white, spare with a large wooden decking area and views out to the garden, with its hammocks and loungers and infinity pool, and out to the Atlantic shipping lanes beyond. And, for all the concrete floors, it’s really not a boutique hotel — its surf-camp roots show through: all meals are eaten communally, and there’s even a dorm room. It’s a boutique-ish dorm room, split into mini-cubicles, but a dorm room nonetheless. It was a last-minute addition, Ollie says, but it’s a stroke of genius: it means it avoids the dead-eyed atmosphere you get in places where only couples congregate — where the slightly forced nature of romantic mini-breakdom can result in passive-aggressive outbursts with the breakfast condiments. At Amouage, it’s genuinely friendly and convivial and boasts a revolving cast of old-time surfing pros; people there for a quick blast of sun; long-term guests such as Bertrand, a contractor based in Iraq who uses the place as hishome-from-home when he’s back from Helmand; and a large group of friends from Bristol and London on what is their annual surf trip.

然而，這一切努力都是值得的。我走到樓上，看到房間無可挑剔：白色主調，闢出大片木質裝飾區域，樓下花園景緻盡收眼底：吊牀、躺椅以及大泳池，遠處大西洋上的運輸船一覽無遺。儘管是酒店混凝土地面，但它並非真正的精品酒店——衝浪訓練營風格顯露無遺：每頓飯都一起享用，甚至還有一個集體宿舍。但這是精品酒店風格的宿舍：闢成多個小隔間，然而卻是真正的集體宿舍。奧利說，這是最後才隔出來的，但它是靈光乍現的產物：這意味着這兒可避免那種夫妻雲集場所直勾勾盯着對方的窘境出現——浪漫小長假那種稍顯逼仄的氛圍，有時在使用早餐調料時都可能釀成被動性（或主動）衝突。而Amouage酒店的氣氛則真正融洽而歡快，它自詡是昔日職業衝浪運動的重現。遊客來這裏享受短平快的陽光浴，伊拉克承包商伯特蘭(Bertrand)這樣的長住嘉賓從赫爾曼德省(Helmand)返回此地時，把這裏當作第二故鄉；而我那些來自英國佈列斯托及倫敦的大批友人則每年來此歡度衝浪假期。

James, a sound director in the film industry who lives in south-west London, claims that it’s quicker for him to come surfing here than it is to go to Cornwall. It’s a good line, I tell him, but it’s about as truthful as my surfing-is-a-cakewalk claim. “It is! I’m half an hour from Gatwick. It’s a three-hour flight. And then it’s half an hour in a taxi to the hotel. It’s less than five hours, door-to-door. Plus, it’s cheaper, the weather’s better and you don’t have to sit in a jam on the M5.”

生活在倫敦西南部的電影音效師詹姆斯(James)認爲，相比本國的康沃爾(Cornwall)，來這裏衝浪耗時更短。我說他真會說話，但它與我的衝浪易如反掌的說法一樣在理。“對！我住的地方距蓋特威克機場(Gatwick)僅半小時車程，坐3小時飛機，再搭半小時出租就能抵達酒店。從倫敦家裏到入住酒店，總耗時不到5小時。此外，來此旅遊的費用要便宜得多，氣候也比康沃爾要好得多，而且無需開着寶馬M5忍受一路交通擁堵之苦。”

Their group has grown older with Surf Maroc. But then the surfing demographic has grown older and more affluent as the company has, though Taghazout still has a rakish charm. Amouage is on the fringes of the town, which is a plus-point, because while the tiny beach is an Instagrammable jumble of whitewashed houses and fishing boats, the infrastructure hasn’t quite kept up with the pace of change, and when the wind turns, there’s a faint but undeniable whiff of sewers in the air.

他們這麼多年來一直是Surf Maroc旅行社的老主顧。然而，來此衝浪度假的遊客也成了多年的回頭客，而且也與Surf Maroc一樣經濟實力大增，儘管Taghazout仍有着不拘俗套的迷人魅力。Amouage酒店位於小鎮邊上，這算是閃光點，原因是，這片海灘面積很小，儘管遍佈的白色房子和漁船很值得在Instagram炫耀，但小鎮的基礎設施仍差強人意，每當刮海風時，空氣中總飄着污水的臭味。

But change is coming. The coast is mile after mile of sandy beaches but the Moroccan government has earmarked it all as a tourist development zone. I walk back from the break each day after our surf lesson — 5km along an empty shore — and all the way there are cranes and half-built hotels, though much of it looks stalled, a development bubble that’s waiting for better economic times.

但小鎮正在發生滄桑鉅變。這段海岸有着綿延的沙灘，摩洛哥政府已把它全部闢爲旅遊發展區。我每天上完衝浪課後步行回酒店時（5公里的空曠海灘），一路上看到的盡是吊車與正在興建的酒店，儘管很多像是爛尾樓，這些泡沫經濟時代的產物正等待着經濟恢復景氣。

Amouage is undeniably slick but it feels a million miles from the corporate hospitality industry. Ben and Ollie both have young families they’re bringing up in Taghazout, and everything about the operation has been done with love and care, from the vintage Arabic found objects interspersed through the hotel with works made by a series of visiting artists, to the plentiful meals — chicken with harissa and yoghurt, and great bowls of salad — eaten, family-style, staff and guests together. And there’s such an enjoyable rhythm to the holiday: the surf lessons give it structure, and the feel-goodness of being outside in the sun doing something active in the middle of winter has the power of a drug. A drug with side-effects: bruised ribs, battered shoulders, pulled muscles. I can feel every one of my intercostal muscles — all sore.

Amouage酒店無疑很漂亮，但距離商務接待行業標準還有很大差距。本與奧利都是剛在Taghazout成家立業，無論是酒店佈置的阿拉伯老古董（用造訪酒店的藝術家設計的作品穿插點綴）、還是全家享用或員工遊客共用的豐盛美食（哈里薩辣醬雞、酸奶以及大碗沙拉），他倆都用心去經營。整個衝浪假期安排得有趣又愉快：衝浪課是主線，在隆冬時節炎炎烈日下的衝浪實戰讓人慾罷不能。但這種上癮有衆多“副作用”：肋骨瘀青、肩膀磨損以及肌肉拉傷。每次衝浪後，我感覺自己每塊肋間肌肉都在痠痛。

Which is where the yoga comes in. There are lessons twice a day at sunrise and sunset and, despite the late nights, it’s not hard to get up for 7am to go up to the roof and watch the sky turn pink while a pack of feral of dogs howls in the background. Though I enjoy it at sunset even more. Cath grumbles but I like what I think of as the teacher Rebecca’s brutal existentialism. Her yoga isn’t about mixy-matchy Sweaty Betty outfits. “You are born alone,” she says at one point as the sun drifts down over the Atlantic and the dogs start to yowl. “And you will die alone.”

此時瑜伽就能大顯身手了：每天早晚各練一次；儘管練得很晚，但第二天早上7點仍能起牀到酒店頂上練瑜伽——同時欣賞日出美景，而此時一羣野狗在四處吠叫。然而，我尤其喜歡在日落時分練瑜伽。凱茜對此頗有微詞，但我卻很喜歡教練裏貝卡(Rebecca)的所謂野蠻存在主義（existentialism，強調個人、獨立自主和主觀經驗）。她的瑜伽課並非穿完美混搭的Sweaty Betty運動裝。“人都是孤零零來到世界，”看到太陽慢慢消失在海平面下、並開始聽到野狗的吠叫聲，她這樣說道，“也都是孤零零離開人世。”

Well, yes. But before then, there’s sea and surf and Moroccan red wine. Are there many people like us, I ask Ollie. The mid-life surfers? “Tonnes. At least half the people who come are trying it for the first time.” First time, but certainly not the last.

沒錯。但離世之前，自己卻大可欣賞海景、享受衝浪以及盡情享用摩洛哥紅酒。我問奧利：我們這樣人到中年的衝浪者是否有很多？“數不勝數。來這裏旅遊的人至少有一半都是平生第一次玩衝浪。”首次玩衝浪，但肯定不會是最後一次。

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詳情介紹

Carole Cadwalladr was a guest of Surf Maroc, which offers a week’s accommodation at the Amouage in an ocean view room from ￡574, including surf guiding, transfers from Agadir airport, breakfast, yoga sessions and packed lunches

卡洛爾?卡德瓦拉德是Surf Maroc旅行社遊客。Amouage酒店海景房一週最低費用574英鎊，其中包括了教習衝浪、阿加迪爾機場接送、早餐、瑜伽課以及提供盒飯。