Essaouira is world-class for both, but rarely on the same day. Book the wrong month for the wrong sport and the thing that makes this town famous is the thing that ruins your week.
Essaouira has a nickname — the windy city of Africa — and it is not marketing. The wind here is the reason kitesurfers plan their year around it, and it is also the reason a certain number of surfers arrive in July, look at the ocean, and quietly wonder what they have done.
Both experiences are Essaouira. Which one you get depends almost entirely on the month you booked.
Why it is so windy
Essaouira sits on an exposed stretch of Atlantic coast where a thermal trade wind, the Alizé, builds through the day for most of the year. Mornings are often calm; by early afternoon it is blowing side-onshore into the bay, typically 18 to 25 knots and much more in high summer. In July the average sits around 35 km/h with gusts well past 50.
For a kitesurfer, that is close to ideal: reliable, predictable, side-onshore into a shallow sandy bay that forgives mistakes. For a surfer, the same wind turns clean swell into chop by lunchtime.
Month by month
January and February — Surf season proper. Consistent Atlantic groundswell, cool water around 16 °C, very few kiters. If you want waves and empty beaches, this is it.
March — Still solid for surf, and the wind starts to show up. The first genuinely good kite days of the year appear.
April — The turn. Wind becomes reliable enough to plan a kite trip around, swell is still around. A good month for either, a great month for neither.
May — One of the two best months of the year, and the reason is that you can do both. Clean waves in the morning before the wind fills in, then a proper kite session in the afternoon. Water is warming, crowds are thin.
June, July and August — Kite season at full strength. July is the windiest month and the most popular. Surfing is possible early in the morning and difficult after that. If you are booking a surf trip in these months, book it knowing the mornings are yours and the afternoons belong to the wind.
September — The other best month. Warmest water of the year, swell returning, wind still strong enough to kite most afternoons. If you can only come once, come now.
October — Wind easing, swell building. Excellent surf, still enough wind for good kite days. Quieter than the summer.
November and December — Surf season. Bigger, more consistent swell, cooler water, and the town largely to itself.
The two months to circle are May and September. They are the only ones that reliably give you a surf session and a kite session on the same day.
What this means for what you book
You want to learn to surf. Come between September and April. Our surf lessons in Essaouira start at €20 per person for a group session, and the surf camps run four, six or eight days with a riad room and daily breakfast. Bring a wetsuit expectation, not a suntan expectation — the water sits between 16 and 20 °C.
You want to learn to kite. Come between April and October. The kitesurf lessons run from a 2-hour taster up to the full 10-hour IKO course, and the kitesurf camps fit 8 to 12 hours of coaching into four, six or eight days.
You want both. May or September, and book them as two separate things rather than hoping one week covers it.
The other thing nobody mentions: we might drive you
Essaouira bay is sheltered, sandy and forgiving, which is exactly why beginners start there. It is also small and wind-affected, which means on a lot of days it is not the best wave available.
When that happens we drive. Sidi Kaouki, twenty-five minutes south, picks up cleaner and more consistent Atlantic swell and is usually the better call for anyone past their first session. Further out, Tafedna and Imsouane come into play when the swell direction suits them.
Transport to the spot of the day is included in the lesson price. If a school only ever teaches on one beach regardless of conditions, that is worth asking about before you book.
In one line
Surf here from September to April, kite from April to October, and if you want both, come in May or September.