Taghazout Bay surf spots: a local's guide from Devil's Rock to Anchor Point

Short answer: Taghazout Bay packs more than a dozen named surf spots into roughly ten kilometres of coast. The sandy beach breaks in the south — Banana, Devil's Rock, Croco, the K-points — are where beginners and improvers belong; the famous right-hand points in the north — Anchor Point, Killers, Boilers — are the winter prize for intermediates and up. Everything is within a fifteen-minute drive of Tamraght, which is exactly why we based our retreat there.

We surf this stretch every morning, so here it is the way we'd tell a friend: spot by spot, south to north — the wave, the level it suits, the tide that works, how crowded it really gets and how far it is from our door.

First, the two on our doorstep

Tamraght Beach. The village beach, fifteen minutes on foot from both our houses. Sandy-bottom peaks that shift with the banks, waist-to-head-high on a normal day, working on almost any swell with a bit of west or northwest in it. Best around mid tide. This is where first lessons happen, and outside school-holiday weeks you'll share it with more fishermen than surfers.

Spiders. A punchier peak on the rocks at the edge of the same stretch. It needs a bit more swell to wake up, breaks faster and shorter than the beach, and suits improvers and intermediates who want a sharper takeoff without leaving the village. Low to mid tide, and rarely more than a handful of people on it.

The bay, south to north

Banana Beach & Banana Point

Ten minutes south in the van, below the banana groves that named it. The beach is a forgiving sandy peak that handles most tides; the point is a soft, walling right off the rivermouth that lines up beautifully on a clean northwest swell at mid to high tide. Between them they're the best progression waves on the coast — beginners on the inside, improvers trimming down the point. Popular with surf schools mid-morning, so we're usually on it early.

Devil's Rock

The A-frame peaks either side of the rock that gives it its name, a walk or two-minute drive from Tamraght. Sand bottom, gentle sloping walls, lefts and rights, happiest around mid tide on a small-to-medium swell. It's the coast's beginner classic for a reason, which also makes it the busiest learning peak in the bay by lunchtime — dawn is a different, emptier wave.

Croco

A few minutes further north, a mellow stretch of beach break named for the crocodile-shaped rocks behind it. Shifty lefts and rights, best from low to mid tide, and usually quieter than Devil's Rock because it's less obvious from the road. A lovely in-between wave for improvers chasing their first unbroken shoulders.

K12 & K11

Kilometre-marker peaks along the open stretch between Tamraght and Taghazout, five to seven minutes' drive. Sand over patches of rock, a step punchier and faster than the beaches to the south, best on low to mid tide before the backwash builds. This is improver-to-intermediate terrain, and midweek it can be close to empty — the banks change with every swell, which keeps the crowds guessing and the locals grinning.

Panoramas

The long right in front of the panoramic viewpoint at Taghazout's southern edge, about eight minutes away. Part beach, part point: on a solid northwest swell at mid tide it peels far enough to feel like your first taste of point-break surfing without the rocks-and-elbows tax. Great for confident improvers and intermediates. Moderately busy, friendly lineup.

Hash Point

The lazy right off the village itself, ten minutes from Tamraght. Slow, fat and forgiving over rock and sand, best at high tide, beloved by longboarders and anyone whose knees have opinions. The crowd is mellow because the wave is — nobody paddle-battles at Hash Point.

Anchor Point

The famous one, ten minutes' drive north. A genuine world-class right-hand point that peels over rock for hundreds of metres when the winter northwest groundswell arrives, roughly October to March. Mid tide is the sweet spot; on smaller autumn days strong intermediates can find a shoulder, but on a proper swell this is an advanced wave with an advanced crowd — the most crowded lineup in Morocco when it's on, and it earns it.

Mysteries

The shifty right between Anchor Point and the headland spots, twelve minutes away. It picks up plenty of swell, breaks over rock and sand, and works best at mid tide. Because it moves around, it's often the escape valve when Anchors is packed — intermediates and up, noticeably fewer people, slightly less mechanical wave.

La Source

Named for the freshwater spring that bubbles out of the rocks. A softer right over reef, best from mid to high tide on a small-to-medium swell — one of the friendlier rock-bottom waves for first-time reef surfers, and a favourite winter warm-up. Light crowds most days. About twelve minutes in the van.

Killers

The big-wave right off the headland by the lighthouse, named after the killer whales once seen offshore. It holds the largest swells in the bay, breaks a long way out (the paddle is real) and offers long, powerful walls at mid tide. Advanced surfers only; the crowd is smaller than Anchors but far more experienced. Fifteen minutes from Tamraght.

Boilers

The northern outpost, named for the ship's boiler rusting on the reef that the wave breaks around. A fast, heavy right with a committed takeoff, best mid to high tide over sharp rock and urchins — booties are not a style crime here. Strictly advanced, small dedicated crew, about fifteen minutes' drive. Watching from the cliff is entertainment in itself.

Where beginners should actually paddle out

Ignore the postcards: as a beginner you have no business at Anchor Point, and the good news is you don't need it. Your ladder is Tamraght Beach and Devil's Rock for your first pop-ups, Banana Beach when you want longer rides, then Croco and the K-points as you chase green waves. All of them are sand-bottomed, all within ten minutes of our houses, and all covered by the daily coaching, equipment and transfers included in The Surf Reset. If you're choosing which village to sleep in first, we wrote an honest comparison of Tamraght vs Taghazout — short version: the learning waves are on Tamraght's side of the bay.

The winter point-break ladder

From October to March the points switch on, and there's a sensible order to earn them: start at La Source and Hash Point to learn how rock-bottom rights behave, step up to Panoramas and Mysteries for length and speed, then take your shot at Anchor Point on a moderate day before the giant ones. Killers and Boilers are the postgraduate course. Month-by-month swell detail lives in our Taghazout surf season guide — the one-line version is that October is the locals' favourite month, and December to February brings the biggest, most consistent swell.

How we chase it: the daily van

No single spot works every day — tide, swell size, direction and wind pick the day's winner. So each evening our coaches read the forecast on Surfline, and each morning the van loads boards and goes where the waves are: Banana at dawn before the schools arrive, the K-points on a shifty mid-tide, Anchors when winter delivers, even Imsouane — forty-five minutes north — when a big clean swell turns its bay into the longest ride in Morocco. Daily transfers to the breaks are included in every package: you'll never surf the wrong spot because it was the closest one.