Watch: Leonardo Fioravanti // Homeland
Sitting mid-latitude with limited fetches, the Mediterranean Sea is one of the harder zones to score waves. Ten second swells are unheard of and the best you can hope for is a wind switch under a jumped up windswell. But when it happens some coasts are surprisngly well geared toward the short period throttle.
Think craggy shores with hidden reefs that in another era would've sunk Spanish galleons but now lie dormant till the wind blows from the right direction for the right duration.
Ol' Leo Fioravanti is the poster boy for global surfing; cosmopolitan lad raised in Roma, speaks five languages, passport like an atlas. But when the Mistral* blows just so then Sardinia is as inviting as Indo or Hawaii.
*I'm assuming the northwest Mistral is Sardinia's swell engine but I might be talking out my culo. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Comments
blows me away the Med sea produces waves like that.
Culo. Good one.
Stories like this one, are just awesome !!!
Agree 100%. Different, little adventure, culture & surf. Ciao!
You're not, Stu - the Maestrale is indeed the main swell generator for Sardinia.
It's quite staggering how little it takes to drum up a surfable swell in the Med: we spent two weeks on the Ligurian coast west of Genova and near Les Leques in France, and even a fluffy SSE flow west of the boot produced waist to chest high waves. Surfed almost every day. A strong Mistral event gave us well OH beach break waves, and good point surf.
Cheers IB. My reputation for blagging stands intact
In five years living in France with quite a few sorties into Liguria and Sardinia, I never saw waves as clean as some of Leo's, but there were plenty of fun days in the shoulder to head-high region. People often make the mistake of thinking that Mistral-driven Med swells are always gutless. Not so. They can pack a punch, but the downside is it can be firing in the morning and gone by lunch time. The same applies to the Occitane coast of France, where there are often good beachies, if you happen to be driving through. But I wouldn't plan a surf trip there, more of a Languedoc wine guzzle with a couple of surfs chucked in!
I surfed on the costa del sol about 15 years ago pumping over head . Blew me away as day before and after was what you expect from the med, dead flat tranquility
I like Phil’s surf trips. Can I come on the next one?
Really interesting.
I was in Marseille France for an event in May 2003 .
I arrived early to the beach on the first morning.
Looked towards the ocean and there were amazing chest high waves, offshore winds, warm water and not a surfer in sight......never did find a board to borrow so I just swam out and body surfed them.
Great video, great surfing .