Hey! I’m Ilyass Gougali, born in 1992 and I grew up near the beach in Rabat.
What always has been the first thing I do during the day, is to go and check the waves. When I was 7 years old, I started bodyboarding. I did bodyboarding for a couple of years and got good at it. Then I started to stand up in the bodyboard as it was a surfboard. Suddenly people started telling me; “Hey Ilyas! You have to start surfing like your two uncles!” Within the family, surfing was already known and I got my first surfboard from my uncle Abdel. From the age of 13, it was all about surfing for me.
I went to surf as much as possible and found friends from the same age to come surf with me. We always kept each other motivated to go to the water and surf better every day! From that moment I decided to sign up for surf competitions. I started joining more and more national competitions but also went abroad for international competitions of surfing. Thanks to my sponsons I became a professional surfer.
I learned a lot during my period of competitive surfing, but also loved to share my passion with surfing by teaching others to surf. I started working as a surf instructor by the age of 17 and have been doing that since!
Now I am starting my own surfaccommodation Ilyana Surfhouse, where I can keep sharing my passion of surfing. Together with my wife Nina we welcome everyone to share some waves with us and visit my hometown Rabat.
Hopefully see you soon!
