About us
Why "Barefoot Under The Sun"?
Barefoot under the sun is where I'm happy. Barefoot under the sun is where I have met amazing people, surfed glassy waves and walked the most beautiful landscapes. Basically all the core memories of my life were made barefoot. Besides that it also describes the kind of lifestyle I keep chasing. The kind of life/place where you spent so much time without shoes, you end up in the supermarket and forget that sometimes you're supposed to have them on.
Sand between my toes, sun on my face, connected with the place.
Marie - Founder
Hi there!
My name is Marie, founder of Barefoot Under The Sun.
I was born and raised in a small town in the north of Belgium. However, since my gap year in Australia at 18 years old, I didn’t spend that much time there. Learning how to surf, meeting incredible people, exploring new landscapes… All I knew was that I wanted more of that. So I traveled to places like Portugal, France, Spain, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and of course Morocco.
After finishing my Bachelor’s degree in tourism I quickly realized that a nine to five job in Belgium wasn’t going to satisfy me. Not after visiting so many amazing (and more sunny ;) ) places. I kept finding myself in Morocco with a lot of ideas about how to make a living for myself that I just couldn’t put together into one plan.
I received a lot of questions about solo traveling and about Morocco as a destination. Then I thought, why not host people here? I can make the first big step to solo traveling smaller, introduce like-minded women to each other AND change the western mindset about destinations like Morocco! And so Barefoot Under The Sun was born :)
Mehdi - Founder of Survive surf school
Mehdi, founder and owner of Survive is an experienced and passionate surfer/bodyboarder by heart. He started surfing from a young age at the beaches of Casablanca where he was born and raised. Growing up he chased waves all over Morocco, which brought him to Taghazout-bay.
Taghazout is where Mehdi decided to create Survive surf school so he could share his love and knowledge for the sport. Traveling to many different places to surf some of its greatest waves, gave him technical knowledge of surfing which he has been sharing with his students for many years. He has worked with surfers young and old, beginner and advanced… There is nothing he enjoys more than to introduce people to the world of surfing and share the stoke with everyone!
Besides giving surf classes Mehdi manages the retreats with me. He has been a great help to me and that shouldn’t go unnoticed!