Breaking lineup etiquette is the fastest way to have a bad week in the water. Breaking cultural etiquette is the fastest way to have a bad week on land.
Priority, the one rule that matters
The surfer closest to the breaking part of the wave has right of way. Everyone else pulls back — regardless of how long you have been waiting, how far you paddled, or how good the wave looks.
Dropping in on someone who has priority is the cardinal sin. It is dangerous, and at a busy point break it will be noticed immediately.
Paddling out
Never cross the takeoff zone on your way out. Go around, even when it costs you time and a set wave. A surfer riding towards you cannot swerve; you can.
If you are caught inside, paddle towards the whitewater rather than the shoulder so the rider has a clean line.
Hold your board
A loose board is the biggest single cause of injury in the water, to you and to whoever is behind you. Never abandon it and duck under a wave when there are people nearby.
Localism at the points
The famous rights on this coast are surfed daily by people who live here. They are not hostile, but they expect basic respect: sit wide as a visitor, wait your turn, do not paddle inside people, and say hello. Do that and you will get waves and conversation.
On land
Cover shoulders and knees away from the beach. Ask before photographing people. Accepting mint tea is a courtesy, not a purchase commitment. Haggling is expected and friendly, and walking away is a normal part of it rather than an insult.
How localism actually presents itself here
Rarely as aggression. On this coast it is more often a cold shoulder, a lineup that does not make space, and somebody quietly taking every set wave while you wait. That is not hostility; it is the ordinary hierarchy of any point break where a small group surfs every day and visitors rotate through weekly.
The way out of it is boring and effective: sit wider than the locals, take fewer waves than you want, do not paddle inside anybody, and say hello. Three days of that behaviour at the same spot changes how you are treated more reliably than any amount of surfing ability.
Where genuine friction does occur it is almost always about drop-ins and about beginners paddling out at breaks that are beyond them. Both are avoidable.
Etiquette in a lesson group
Rules apply inside your own group too, and they are the ones most often ignored. Do not paddle for a wave your instructor has just directed at somebody else. Keep space between boards on the inside — a beginner who cannot yet steer is a hazard at close range.
When you fall, cover your head as you surface and look before you stand. Most beginner injuries happen in the first two seconds after a wipeout, from your own board rather than anybody else's.
And when you are done, come in. Sitting in the impact zone while exhausted is how people get into trouble, and instructors would rather you rested on the sand than drifted quietly down the beach.
Photography and privacy
Ask before photographing people, and accept a no gracefully. This applies particularly in the souk, in villages and around fishing harbours, where somebody's workplace is being treated as scenery.
Children should not be photographed without a parent present and agreeing. In the water, filming a lineup is normal; filming individuals who have not consented and posting it is not.
Tipping, without overthinking it
Round up in cafés and restaurants — ten percent is generous and appreciated rather than expected. For a week of surf coaching, most guests leave something for the instructor team at the end; there is no fixed rate and anything given in cash directly is welcome.
On a multi-day desert trip, tip the driver and the guide separately at the end, in cash, roughly €5 to €10 per guest each. Bring small notes so this is possible; nobody wants to break a 200 dirham note in a dune camp.
The vocabulary you will hear in the water
Learning six words makes you legible to the people around you, which is most of what etiquette is.
"Going left" or "going right" shouted at takeoff tells everyone which way you are travelling and prevents most collisions. "Yours" hands a wave to somebody with priority and is the single most goodwill-generating word in surfing. "Inside" warns a paddler that they are in your path.
On the sand, salam and shukran go a long way with local surfers who may not speak English. Nobody expects fluency; they notice the attempt.
Sharing a lineup with schools
On this coast the beginner bays fill with schools between ten and one. If you are an independent surfer, surf around them rather than through them — go early, go late, or go to a different bank. Paddling into a lesson group to take waves is legal and it is also poor form.
If you are in a lesson, understand that free surfers have been there since dawn and will be there after you leave. Stay in the zone your instructor points to. It exists partly for your safety and partly so twelve beginners are not scattered across the whole beach.
Respecting the coast itself
Take your rubbish. This is not abstract: the beaches north of Agadir accumulate plastic that arrives on the tide and gets added to by visitors, and a bag carried out is worth more than a post about it.
Reef-safe sun cream matters here because oxybenzone accumulates in shallow bays with limited flushing.
Do not park on dunes or drive vehicles onto beaches. At Timlalin and Tamri the dune systems are fragile, and the coast north of Agadir holds one of the last wild populations of the northern bald ibis, one of the rarest birds in the world. If you see them on the cliffs, stay back and consider it a privilege.
Buy locally. Argan from a cooperative, tea from a village café, boards repaired by a local shaper. It is the least abstract form of respect available.
Why any of this matters
Etiquette in surfing is not manners for their own sake. It is a safety system that works without anybody enforcing it. Priority rules exist because two surfers on the same wave travelling in opposite directions is how people get hurt, and because a lineup that has agreed on who goes when is a lineup where everybody gets waves.
On land the same logic applies. Covering up in a village, asking before photographing, learning to say thank you — none of it is required of you, and all of it changes how a week goes. Visitors who make the small effort are met with the hospitality Morocco is genuinely known for. Visitors who do not are met politely and at a distance.
The coast north of Agadir has absorbed surfers for sixty years and remains welcoming, which is not automatic and is not guaranteed to continue. It continues because most people who come here behave reasonably.
Be one of them. It costs nothing and it is the difference between visiting a place and being welcome in it.
A short version to remember in the water
Closest to the peak has priority. Everybody else pulls back, every time, no exceptions.
Paddle around the break, never through it.
Hold your board. Never throw it.
Do not snake — paddling around somebody to claim inside position is the one thing that genuinely angers a lineup.
Apologise when you get it wrong, and you will get it wrong. A raised hand and a shouted sorry ends almost every incident in surfing.
Give way more than you take as a visitor, and say hello.
On land: cover up away from the beach, ask before photographing, take your rubbish, and buy from local businesses.
That is the whole thing. Seven rules in the water and four on land, and none of them require you to be a better surfer than you are.