Raglan.

Raglan is the west-coast town in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North Island, 48 km west of Hamilton, set on volcanic black sand at the edge of the Tasman Sea. The headline is a chain of left-hand points: Indicators, the longest at around 600 m, Manu Bay below it, and Whale Bay further down. Manu Bay was filmed in The Endless Summer in 1966 and put Raglan on the map. New Zealand’s first sanctioned surf school opened here in 1999. Ngarunui Beach, north of the points, is the open beachie where most of the learning happens.

The Tasman delivers west-southwest swell year-round, with the working window April through September when the Roaring Forties stack low after low into the coast. Manu Bay holds from 0.6 to 3 m+, and Indicators above it runs half again as big, a heavier wave that only switches on at size. The Tasman west coast lives under prevailing westerlies, so the dominant wind is sideshore to onshore on the points. East to east-southeast is offshore. Dawn is the play before the westerly fills in.

Water sits at 13.5 °C in August, 20.7 °C in February. A 4/3 through winter, 3/2 in spring and autumn, a springsuit when February runs warm. The points are local, the lineup tight at Manu Bay on a clean day, and the wave is too long to drop in and get away with it. Indicators and Manu Bay reward intermediates and up; Whale Bay sits in their shadow with a bit more breathing room. On a soft swell or onshore afternoon, head to Ngarunui for sand-bottom forgiveness.