Surfing in Morocco in October

October belongs to Imsouane. La Baie, the long right that peels the length of the bay, jumps to four clean days out of seven, clean meaning rideable and unspoilt by wind, while the sandbars at Tamraght stay at three. The reason is the wind. All summer the north wind spoiled more than half of La Baie's days; in October it spoils fewer than half there, while the exposed points still lose most of theirs to it. That makes La Baie the first wave on the coast to make full use of the autumn swell.

The points are waking behind it. Boilers gives three days; Killer Point, Cathedral Point and Banana Point two; Anchor Point three. Hash Point, sheltered inside Taghazout, is still at one and waits for bigger swells. The average size is up to 2.0 m at the same eleven-second period as September, enough for the points to hold a proper session again.

The sea is what makes October a comfortable month: 21°C, warm enough for a shorty, two or three degrees more than Portugal, Spain or France at the same time. Crowds and prices are medium, a step below the winter peak that starts in November. The air holds at 26°C, rain returns on two days of the month, and the sun gives a little under eight hours.

Imsouane is ninety minutes north of Taghazout and two hours from Agadir airport, at the end of a road that goes nowhere else. Its beachfront was demolished in January 2024; most camps have reopened and building continues, so the village will not look like older photographs. The evening there is the sea and dinner. For a week built around La Baie, sleep there; for company in the evenings, sleep in Taghazout and drive up on the best morning.

October gives an experienced surfer three days out of seven at Boilers, and the rest of the coast is waking behind it. Killer Point, Cathedral Point and Banana Point give two days, Anchor Point three, and Hash Point, which needs a bigger swell to reach it, still one. The average size is up to 2.0 m at eleven seconds, close to the winter figure, and the wind has stopped closing the exposed points quite so often: at Boilers it still takes most days, but fewer than in September.

The week is the start of the season at medium crowds. Surf the morning at Boilers, twelve kilometres north towards Cap Ghir, where a wind channel off the Atlas foothills keeps it offshore on days the village is not. Try Killer Point when the swell is up and the wind is from the east: a heavy, pitching wave at every tide, a long paddle, and a line-up of people who surf it all year. Panoramas, at the south end of Taghazout, covers the days the wind turns, breaking both ways over sand and reef, fast at low tide and easier as it fills. At 21°C the water is shorty temperature, which in a long point session means the cold never decides when you come in.

Or go to Imsouane for Cathedral Point, a kilometre north of the port: shorter, faster and hollower than La Baie, barrelling at low tide over mixed rock and sand, and two days in October while the bay beside it runs four. Sleep in Taghazout if the points are the trip, with camps from 21 € a night; sleep in Imsouane if you want the quiet, from 59 €. October against November is the real choice. November gives Boilers and Cathedral Point three days and brings the crowd back to its winter high; October gives slightly fewer days, medium prices and water two degrees warmer.