Confused by a few of those acronyms?
You’re not alone.
It’s a lot in one sentence.
WSL stands for World Surf League, the professional league for surfing that’s been around for decades. Since 1976 to be exact. It’s also the governing body for professional surfers and officials, and so it organizes contests in order to help showcase the best in surfing.
Rachid pulling an air at Crocros, Taghazout Bay, Morocco
Despite the inclusion of surfing in the Olympics, the WSL Championship Tour (CT) is still the most covetted surfing accolade, but gaining a spot on the tour is not always easy.
As an aside, the International Surf Association (ISA) is responsible for governing Olympic qualifying and particpation. The ISA hosts separate contests, but competing in the Olympics for surfers still hasn’t achieved the same prestige that the WSL still holds.
For the WSL, Qualifying Series is shortened to QS, and are a series of surf contests that allow surfers not yet part of the CT to gain points in the hopes of being included through invitation.
Taghazout Bay and Area most famous point break: Anchor Point, Morocco.
Pre-pandemic, Taghazout’s world famous point break, Anchor Point, had been selected as the location for the WSL QS 2020 to take place. The waves hadn’t been spectacular that year and half the contest had to be held in Anza.
The contest had been cancelled in 2021 and 2022 due to COVID-19 related reasons. In December 2022, the WSL released an announcement that the WSL QS RipCurl Taghazout Pro Search would return to Anchor Point in February 2023.
Exciting news, particularly since a women’s surfing event will be included as well.
Rachid surfing Mysteries, a beach break, at Sunset in November 2022.
The 2022/2023 surf season in Taghazout Bay has seem some pretty amazing, unending swells so far. We’re super stoked for the return of a such a high profile surf event for a couple of reasons: it’s always great to have positive coverage of our country and surf spots.
But most importantly, most contests are on the other side of the world and we either have to stay up late to watch or watch the replays and hope we don’t catch any headlines that spoil the end result. It’s a great opportunity to have a contest to watch in our time zone and in real time.
Spectators watching on Anchor Point’s rocks on a day with big swell.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that more of these epic swells show up during the WSL QS Taghazout Pro being held at Anchor Point, Morocco.
If you’ve already booked a Surf Package with us, we’ll definitely make sure you get the chance to catch some waves and watch some professionals showcase their best. Afterall, there’s lots to be learned from watching more skilled and experienced surfers.