Morocco
Taghazout
The surf break is named for the row of anchors that held a tuna net.
Taghazout sits twenty kilometres north of Agadir, and its fishing port is small enough that the boats are back with the morning's catch before most people are up. The lanes behind it hold cafés facing the ocean and craft shops, with Amazigh village life running alongside the surf culture that grew around it. North of the village the coast turns to argan forest, and the point at the end of it is what people fly in for.
Before it was a surf spot, this point was Al Madraba, and in the 1960s it held a large tuna fishery called the Madrague de Bou Irden. The name it goes by now comes from the method: a tug and a line of small boats set a net perpendicular to the coast, held in place by a row of anchors. Argan forest meets 1,948 metres of Atlantic frontage around the point, and about fourteen named breaks continue north of Agadir. Winter brings the larger swell; summer softens the central beaches and returns the village to a gentler fishing-coast rhythm.
Solo
Arrive alone and the coast still gives you a clear shape: the harbour at dawn, the point on foot and the Anti-Atlas trails inland when the swell drops. A qualified instructor is the sensible bridge from shore to an unfamiliar break.
Friends
A mixed-ability group can divide between the point, the central beach and the cafés above the water, then regroup over grilled fish. The coast works because its breaks sit close together without feeling like one repeated wave.
Family
Summer gives families the gentler version of Taghazout: smaller surf, the fishing boats' morning return and a compact village behind the beach. Keep children to the central sandy shore and away from rocky points.
- Anchor Point held a tuna fishery called the Madrague de Bou Irden in the 1960s, and takes its name from the row of anchors that held the net.
- Argan forest meets 1,948 metres of Atlantic frontage around the point.
- About fourteen surf spots line the coast north of Agadir, from Anchor Point and Killer Point for the experienced down to Panorama Beach for beginners.
- Winter swell and gentler summer surf give the same fishing coast two very different rhythms.
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